Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
( _3 W7 E+ z7 \8 w/ ?- [# V# `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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(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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* 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.
3 e: K4 p& Y7 s$ PThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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4 [* `7 H9 A, {; B7 ?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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; o( V2 s# }& F; f6 a9 \( ]6 sNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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6 M1 x& [5 L1 \* S. ]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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9 X$ E! c7 u" OApparently 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
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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
5 m" R3 S" r, ^recording 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
' ^! z2 V6 D# }1 i3 Trecorders. 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
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
[. |" @' A" h" Kelectronics and be very expensive.
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) z, M1 J' k& n- j6 H2 Z0 I4 K, pCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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3 v! P* x' k9 I4 j& ^# gTape for the Nagra SN
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; N$ A; c; n9 G2 w1 nI 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
( k6 ]7 _0 U3 Z' `, n" L/ S5 m'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 i& X5 Q5 i! |& g' yseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
+ o; b8 `& }: w7 K, {% ionto 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
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VERY silly money.
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