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
( v$ E, _% R) D4 m7 v' X3 }the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
5 a6 K/ C4 N( G3 imachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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9 Q( W C1 n7 q/ k" C(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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/ |) }# E/ H q q2 l# n; p7 |9 e3 ~Click on either of the above images for more information.
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" ]6 M1 g- z$ t1 ~- H* r. R a* 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.
: N3 S; {/ d1 t9 d& EThere 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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: l" p* p& M5 INagra 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
% |( o( o0 w5 A; Z) z6 W& _; Rhave 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
1 |/ b, }+ k- Y6 grecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
4 U; m4 z9 Y" D5 gDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
( k" V8 ^" L2 Xrecorders. 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
% V" }6 j3 _, S, `be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
7 b& h& A# I+ ?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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( ]* J( K- D2 f# H- QTape 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
) w" \6 u% R5 D# a9 Ktape 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
7 u1 T# x7 ]) Yseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
7 H$ s, a( q9 ponto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
0 M/ _* F& n0 ], bthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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