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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: n7 Z# y" h1 j1 OClick 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
_& k9 {$ V) y5 X! d5 Z0 t/ @) lbeware, 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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, v9 G4 A9 e; f1 Q; b# C' rNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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) F7 b! ]8 A) f5 ?0 \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
& R" d0 ?9 _0 ]; xrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
' s9 q/ n. n; |; a% B; S( t/ C1 aDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
8 I7 f+ N! a- K0 x# m& Brecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
$ _4 L1 m" c% x3 _) dtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
) l4 s K4 I3 N1 }% e7 gbe 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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/ a ?9 {+ F% O: ^+ z/ S5 _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
& l; U9 Z6 C( |$ k- E% Jwanted 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
1 I& ~( c" I; t& m/ K& u2 z'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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
8 X+ [6 f$ S5 e3 Y3 M2 ~) E* yonto 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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