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
$ `) \, X O* Z+ gthe 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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2 J8 f9 [. a6 C/ k# m(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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4 A- f Z2 ~$ ?" D. a! I$ X- f' ]Click on either of the above images for more information.
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5 E( X/ I+ b# Z% o: v# z* 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.
5 H; S0 j$ O, x& Q5 R9 D# T: RThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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5 Z; V, y3 Y0 t D' E4 ?$ ]0 SNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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8 ^; ^ T0 b8 v! u( g) UNagra 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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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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Apparently 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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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
7 \6 \0 a' T; _% w) g" IDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
% Z. R" V0 T% T) t$ w/ S7 ~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
* e7 U8 I; g0 }+ |3 u. d$ X7 r& ]electronics and be very expensive.
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0 ?3 {$ ]. f, |! h# vCheaper 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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4 [. I- s! w2 f; F# u$ m0 CI 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
0 @" J# Q+ d% C+ m/ Z0 i/ v) Ltape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
" Q! Y! ^) k$ d u7 m'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
, s5 ]' h) M$ c: u/ D: Xseveral 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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