Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
6 `3 Y; w- M" j! v2 `5 x# k! Mthe 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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1 E8 D5 j( [. Y5 Y( s9 w, Z(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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
8 [( ^4 h2 O9 u2 V k$ R7 zbeware, 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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% P3 x( v& l F2 d VNagra 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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* |. C- |0 U% I/ E; A5 F( wNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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6 U/ ]4 } h! @- @8 yNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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. ~3 s0 ] G4 [; O; RApparently 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
8 E. ?# x7 R v- J. m# @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
5 v) H7 |8 D j2 s' O, V) f1 \5 J, Btruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
+ A% _5 f8 |; N: j! @; B% z9 ibe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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0 g& |" u$ y3 ~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
2 j; j$ M2 M% A/ D0 j2 |6 othe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
+ r% ?: n( U" l& \1 m; Dwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
! w j% P5 g1 ctape 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
) x* ^: E4 M; d' d4 d0 sseveral 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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