Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
7 K" m& v( Z1 b8 U+ |the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
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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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(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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' @/ l5 N7 h# {2 u7 `; K' kClick on either of the above images for more information.
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9 @5 H2 L5 ?5 ?0 N5 B* 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.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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Nagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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% a" f$ B/ \7 S) S2 tNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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3 _ J s$ {1 ~' h/ iNagra 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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$ s( u5 ]$ R& o5 FApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
8 {, W- @) H: }. x7 L$ j" |( Nhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
9 M1 G: d2 D* b, o, ^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
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
: n, `9 Q6 ~* Xbe 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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) ^9 A+ o& ~6 {' o5 z5 M/ f2 t+ yCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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! U$ M% t A% Y; `- c0 Y7 _0 u3 hTape for the Nagra SN
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3 F- w7 A6 I1 M, }4 ^/ w: g/ p- kI 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
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
+ C' A- X( S8 j) h6 L# V9 c'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
6 R3 V/ }+ B1 a) Z% n8 Dthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
3 o/ _% A! P1 L9 {several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
& e2 n8 C* t5 j! A. s- l/ R$ }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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