Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
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the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
+ S3 F0 P$ V3 E5 k* Y0 ^, g3 C$ Xthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
9 ]$ l5 I) n0 o1 [/ P6 e' }2 amachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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5 ?& G: h6 {8 @6 m' m' _(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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) u+ Y9 A% P3 p2 Y* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
- Z7 t) Z0 m9 X, @0 AThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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' C4 }+ S! W0 G/ e$ v2 cNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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9 A2 O$ }: S& F5 l0 qNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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+ ~8 D+ q+ I3 q7 u, Q' ` T* |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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7 F. g+ x1 }) W- yApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
( j; s9 l* N* |. u d5 `0 ahave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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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
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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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electronics 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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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
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
2 Z$ J" |4 G# ?+ g. twanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
~, C) E6 y# Ltape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
1 X" r7 Q7 h f; x' g3 e! A; l'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
( i+ J" W$ o& K& a" N# w8 useveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
! s! p1 `$ [4 Ionto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
. f( y8 e/ P9 w' ?things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
4 V. N' `5 s. |2 p' N/ `VERY silly money.
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