Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
- w: w$ u ~9 c3 M# s& S# uthe 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
/ r& n# [( k( Z! T' y. Zmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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- J) Y5 _: C2 w(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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( S1 L# _5 n* h3 C) k5 JClick 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.
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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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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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* {' X& c$ {; M: i/ ^/ d9 yNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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' w2 x1 T" y. j* h5 O* |7 BNagra 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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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
; t9 S4 _! j) ]9 T- `, i: R" {% }recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
" W7 h6 { W' b, Q, yDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
5 d8 u3 G" w: _4 D frecorders. 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
) V- o* Q/ F! K& X2 H; K3 obe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
. \, r& h3 p- Q. r- F4 N5 k& I; H8 eelectronics 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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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
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
d; \2 u1 w! u" Q7 athe 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
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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
7 j$ [9 r, n, _8 ]" P+ @9 @$ Athings 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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