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
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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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& F, E5 ^. \7 C! w' s7 x(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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# Y' w$ O0 j: |$ n3 h8 D( M* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
6 L9 f" [1 x6 t2 ^# p& h+ v' s' {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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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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5 `+ m$ }2 y& _2 O- ENagra 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
b8 q0 [+ n1 V- m" v& D8 j1 ]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
- K9 W; l0 p' E3 v( {$ u7 E0 Xrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
( D' c/ u0 Z3 @" HDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
( R& E6 T: }8 P# h2 u/ urecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
0 _4 ~1 f4 k& H) ]; xtruly 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
+ ?$ H5 i8 X) i% W' Yelectronics and be very expensive.
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0 a0 o( |2 \& \7 ` C( l4 o1 JCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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' U: L% L+ ~. m: X. w% 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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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
. l& N) A6 M: N: }tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
$ H/ N' x( t: k9 I'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
. P3 `. `* b! s4 hseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
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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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VERY silly money.
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