Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
- J: [' C( ?; y. `* w# i# ^0 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
4 Z b8 f. j0 c, Pmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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7 Y, Q. V2 w; A3 x(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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4 s( t2 E) {0 A- xClick 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
( ~* Y7 @- Q' a$ ^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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5 l) @2 m) ]" D6 o! M' N( zNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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0 J* h5 s4 e' f4 q: x& w& X4 T3 _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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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
; @8 a1 a. p/ l- Wrecording 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
; k- l3 `% `( \/ a% H( y8 ]; ntruly 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
8 _8 {! J. I: c; j. [4 g1 S5 {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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& y; D3 K: m. o+ [: ?I 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
$ n( l+ j! }) @3 f) o+ b; jtape 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
/ N' d) f8 C& M- V) yseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
2 F, Z! p a' P% ~" Sonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
' X4 T5 s( \# Z3 h3 P9 ^things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
! [% }- h/ Y5 u0 ]! vVERY silly money.
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