Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
1 W1 T* L& n9 S- n" vthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
( E2 e. ]+ q- Q! ^' bthe 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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8 w! d/ _9 S/ `(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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8 l& R; f; D+ T! QClick on either of the above images for more information.
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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
8 T8 H$ h) K6 w0 o! O0 abeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
" g. @- M0 `) s% c. S3 S1 _There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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# o1 c b% j6 m, {2 R! ?" f. D$ KNagra 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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b# e# c; ~9 b- u/ gNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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( K1 T- L L7 b8 y, C( t7 HNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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" Z0 s2 a3 M; c0 lApparently 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
, L: x7 O; n2 I9 h3 F, x6 K) Otherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
$ W2 u6 C* Q- w6 [% srecording 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
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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
3 i' r. `' m+ @/ v# v/ j. vbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
5 v, s. M0 U5 x5 Jelectronics and be very expensive.
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$ J" m$ ~/ c) N4 L" u' ^Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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Tape for the Nagra SN
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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
& ^- J2 n) W0 v) jthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
( j+ j2 ?3 U# o% ] Ewanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
: a' L% H! X6 m X4 ctape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
3 L0 U( C n$ d0 rthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
$ _8 n- g9 g# g; Z( O+ b# [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
- k, Z. D* H+ x- h cthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
" h! F5 t/ G& v! o7 yVERY silly money.
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