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
: n) E( B8 e* d9 \$ Y8 N4 Y8 }the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
6 p& m, ]+ S) V. Bmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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8 G' D7 u* v: N: ^' \; ~(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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! B7 [3 C( E5 a7 nClick 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
6 y6 ^. E+ Z5 G$ L9 j6 D! q, t. kbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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0 ?2 h% c# |" Y* fNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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; K6 j' Y/ m% C& pNagra 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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3 h1 y- P/ i8 q, O' ^+ b3 CNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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9 n9 R6 v- d5 S$ z4 d% X, |+ FApparently 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
; _- a4 O' o9 p( Arecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
; s% E5 L- O+ W; o Y$ _4 ZDSP) 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
$ l/ X6 `) o$ K% d3 X3 @4 h5 Htruly 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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; q3 L# H, r5 ^$ H! v* O8 kCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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4 K* L, B- K) R$ g; }Tape for the Nagra SN
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8 n, m6 Q I8 A* |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
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
+ G' z8 e% f: d: O5 ^2 p* B; Y* Ltape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
& ?0 a/ A6 b3 T! A i( w'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
- j7 |% f e) mthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
, H0 m9 U8 Z! ?; i. ?2 D& bseveral 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
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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