Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
$ {/ G4 P6 @4 S: Ethe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
: C1 ?( G* D( Z, u6 [: kthe 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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8 t2 Y( A3 s& w: U& n6 iClick 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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0 H1 I' u1 |5 Z% ?4 E0 a; MNagra 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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# `3 z; c( G, N5 a0 U5 pNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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2 |* Z1 p- J+ k) u! p9 _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
6 g- j9 k7 T7 }, ~1 K3 _+ nrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
3 v) ]% G& e; h' m5 w+ }0 T; vDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
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recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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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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2 c3 b& c- ~ ACheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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* V# @* O% ^0 Q: hTape 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
9 u+ Y, ~( |" gthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
) t* | i, N) g( Y) E0 h! iwanted 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
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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
$ y% q1 I3 {4 O/ ^onto 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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