Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
* Q. D- m# G4 ~4 `the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
$ Q9 o4 v8 A% l7 {. ^the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
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machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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$ t o. S4 _$ y! c0 R(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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Click on either of the above images for more information.
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& Z' m) Q6 w% m( I& K" o* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
; V* l! F% [3 g: Xbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
$ a4 i8 g6 p. y1 D2 J% a1 p' m$ ZThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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( k6 M: m1 n2 c3 x, wNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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1 q' m& m9 s2 a: h4 {. B$ l9 PNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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Nagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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( M0 L; b3 r0 A8 |% zApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
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have some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
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recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
# P7 P$ a5 b: ~truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
f1 j& {7 w5 u4 t! jbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
6 V5 [* I0 L3 ^. Delectronics and be very expensive.
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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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: n% y( \8 g: V( ~: `# ~! g( \Tape for the Nagra SN
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1 J# a3 P1 Z. H" ^$ lI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
* X& V* H0 ~* i2 ythe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
( D6 {2 P1 V8 J K! k'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
" n1 ]& r4 N- k6 z6 D+ |several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
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onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
3 j' F9 f/ C6 e$ M/ _# X4 sthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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VERY silly money.
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