Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
2 R% L" O+ ^0 U+ qthe 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
$ R0 y& o' X: ?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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
& q$ w: t) O6 E2 h# B) D2 qbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
, B8 M1 d7 S* k( Z& hThere 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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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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& e7 f: v' m8 s: r7 N5 U3 |! J AApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
6 P; B; l& E1 g1 B. p- fhave 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
4 M3 B/ s5 y$ Z. oDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
0 I& e0 w# Z" v6 ~) H* J% X% I. Crecorders. 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
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be 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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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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% x8 o. k* q5 y5 sI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
* f" k( K2 @6 }( |8 L, Z& \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
. @; o( o( s+ O# m+ W' |- L! P'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
$ u* a+ w5 Y n# r1 {6 Cthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
0 v0 d8 b+ |; m% B/ d$ G ?* u' nseveral 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
% j% m: g- y1 S0 s3 ^5 N: J) k* wthings 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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