Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
2 L- f n( ]: ]& U0 X; l+ M7 Bthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
" a3 j$ A. C1 uthe 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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! Z2 ?6 S% U" R% Y' y c7 y3 z(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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; `1 ~/ `1 T! R% [# LClick 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
- s# u7 G; U+ J O4 l) ]5 jbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
0 e) x3 r* O$ V1 {8 ?4 PThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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5 N% ], x; |4 pNagra 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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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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/ v6 p4 k8 e4 \9 E+ h5 B: v$ WNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
: D2 d" N4 W* p; qhave 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
2 u% H$ Q5 m3 qrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
+ ~4 i8 K7 y, ?* Y o' TDSP) 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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: ]' y/ W6 v! _3 W, hCheaper 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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/ @$ U/ d' k5 p: vI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
. v) f5 P7 P( R" pthe 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
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'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
1 M9 P6 `; f5 m, x4 C4 r) pseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
* ^8 n# i7 k+ T3 H7 k2 ]onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
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things 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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