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
" [6 Y9 b+ m b7 w w* d9 umachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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3 \. [( D! L% B0 N(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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% T/ Y A) v, D" m+ 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
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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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! T5 {" p+ q7 UNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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* V% Q% ^: E2 w7 V9 ]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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7 v) W, _- i5 |% B* ~1 _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
1 j- m V' T* T; p- |" P" xtherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
" D' G" c k% B- A' U7 grecording 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
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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 F5 O( a5 n$ [5 HCheaper 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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" f& v. Q" u( O/ O/ DI 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
. ]& m; l( Y. ?" q! Vwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
) V4 T2 X$ g: {4 M: g/ ^) wtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
4 Z3 H; B# X0 L* O'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
2 }/ g2 Q2 q+ h2 L0 Useveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
* V$ v4 c& N: Y1 honto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
* K" \- r6 ~% M* o2 c4 q2 J, nthings 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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