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
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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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(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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* l' A4 J; C$ g' y7 L* M* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
/ d( i! T5 B" ?7 z$ r G. ? ^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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) f2 o2 o$ Q6 y/ cNagra 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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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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i2 ? i/ R7 D$ k6 n7 }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
$ G7 E3 x2 ?9 K! M0 Ghave 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
3 s# T% m: x4 K; E; E+ B: Precording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
/ _* O5 y3 _0 F$ D( i0 t2 @DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
* V# v7 \; |! H$ {recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
3 B' X) @( I# I3 `0 G2 B5 i1 K; O1 S5 J7 Ztruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
4 L2 o6 K2 P4 m8 [1 Dbe 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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0 [: b2 h4 {( YCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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( K* a" q* w' d2 U( WTape 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
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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
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
; L* _ @6 W- {/ f" i- e'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
2 E% l& W9 u5 ?) k3 s$ R% Q) ethe 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
; d+ |$ @8 k6 sonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
; v0 ]+ X# y2 p# ?9 T$ Qthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
4 s. ?, S# Z& GVERY silly money.
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