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
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the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
& V: D* Q) J+ c& s. d5 Xmachines, 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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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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
+ G+ Y- q! X: T1 z& \There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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, j$ }% ?, u9 c# jNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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# _9 f! x" Q, s# ]; K+ @Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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: k3 k Y& b! r' G! kNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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% b- P$ l3 n) b8 c. ZNagra 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
, z* b. C! C% I) Khave 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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
; p5 a5 l8 n+ u6 r0 d/ ^recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
* D* N+ u, q" Z% J# I. g+ Dtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
6 c0 _8 B+ Y I0 Abe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
6 X' [& B' ?/ J! I8 p& `) Selectronics 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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O. M- ^- d/ }* D! c1 H w5 R1 l FTape for the Nagra SN
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: d# ]& L; R$ O4 n" h$ |I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
" E1 o" [; H! {8 F0 V2 S+ Ethe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
2 t+ P& \7 `& B( A) X/ E5 d1 pwanted 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
: e- F5 I9 ~+ d6 ~) E, Q7 g'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
, Y7 G- h" k. N, d) E, v, Pthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
& T W$ v* u u/ Y2 u- 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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VERY silly money.
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