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
6 A" S" N F+ B2 A/ i. _8 \the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
* N, b9 Q; B2 f3 G! @/ ]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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# H) L Z! A: U2 |5 f5 DClick on either of the above images for more information.
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% Q( |& b! U! \0 ]+ y: T; o9 L) @* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
7 L2 @) `4 B% \- gbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
) ~4 B& {3 g. H' TThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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4 r0 f2 Q2 x f& MNagra 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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( ?( H" T+ o, G# a, }9 RNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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" L" u: O' B1 }) X CNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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4 k/ o. f) T) \2 K+ a/ M: _3 ~5 pApparently 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
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recording 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
2 w( v9 J8 Y9 b2 grecorders. 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
6 v1 ~, G, W1 ? e1 b4 Velectronics 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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9 u5 C. {9 T' g' Z7 p& N& m. mTape 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
, P( a/ G& z+ ^9 H) \% b5 p# {'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
4 @# A d+ E$ v! \0 @$ r* oonto 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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