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
% w: J+ ]) J& B. q0 dmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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: H" |) C! p, ~- I, z* W(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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& A+ v+ o; j' N3 d5 N* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
2 W" _( c5 Z/ ~) rbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
1 V( h# }- w3 q3 JThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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! c' L$ V n9 n9 \2 _0 PNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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6 h5 g. {& S Y8 {Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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& f$ n$ n; q3 eNagra 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
! I, P, }, H' i/ a) f/ b0 d0 [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
0 t; E4 Q/ Q; o ^; brecording 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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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
, h6 F9 B0 z0 p7 f7 Nbe 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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5 _& N, w# @" W0 N3 MCheaper 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
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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
( a3 v) ^- U4 T+ A! d* Y4 s'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
/ r* H, {- D/ Y0 ~! z+ q" Pthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
0 }# Q# `! Y. l( L1 rseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
9 ~% h% I @6 U' N# W3 R3 fonto 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
) M& O; H( n" |6 q3 K! ]7 f4 uVERY silly money.
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