Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
, A5 X& T! y( h( l& ]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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# I' @& g9 W. M# M(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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. d6 o: }! K. Q' A$ [! I" kClick 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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
6 K( x8 d5 a, C# F3 `- V5 qThere 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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: z4 T- u. z! V9 DNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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$ b4 C7 I! }/ |: zNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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$ f9 Z& J9 I v, S) BNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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# M2 j& A3 t7 m3 MApparently 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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
; o. o$ S' C1 _* f# XDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
- R- i; t4 [5 |/ c6 B" ~( h9 Precorders. 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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7 D# n1 C$ V1 t. L- yI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
% b, p3 |+ Q) q" j6 j4 _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
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
& n2 P w6 Z$ R. R# i( V7 dthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
, O4 Y6 Z' x# t ^2 [" u& Jonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
0 q) j8 I4 V. E% V0 ethings 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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