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. o H" J; v. bthe 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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Click on either of the above images for more information.
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7 N7 p' z$ D! X r' e( R# f* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
$ ^7 `2 \& `# W/ W) Bbeware, 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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; P& w' O( h) \) k1 }0 [9 L( HNagra 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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; m7 I. G& t' n$ ~6 u- F0 BNagra 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
5 W1 u9 Y3 n0 }6 [9 w6 m2 ?2 Ghave 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
4 X& Q" \/ E/ u8 }2 P1 o8 [recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
7 s3 L7 x# Q- p! U: q$ a4 ^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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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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7 f2 m( A/ O5 kTape for the Nagra SN
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3 W& t0 d& l- O5 D9 ?; {% DI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
- \" N( }( B4 {: J- n: Pthe 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
# K C3 `) c9 ^6 X2 K) [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
" g- Q$ d) a! y1 W6 t* qthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
( Q$ g4 c' W1 B! H4 w5 pseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
" y" P$ Z% O/ y1 T. w7 z7 v' honto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
6 O: e: o8 ]9 T$ _. h* x# P5 h8 y, X! bthings 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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