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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(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.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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h' P' q1 R6 @& kNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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, y" {1 H8 h# W0 j% ONagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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8 o( u3 _% ~# U! L! mNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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7 F5 \( Q! W+ O8 M! C( z2 A! I0 hNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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7 l* s# |) E a& I) T KApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
% j; m4 o6 S( e' y( y! ]' ~have some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
. l5 s* F1 p+ x0 e- Ntherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
. Z8 j5 j5 {5 ?' Frecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
0 Q# b& t8 g& z. E, |3 ODSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
4 F* E: ~( ?" o' j1 i; C4 ]0 Mrecorders. 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
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electronics and be very expensive.
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3 g/ T, ^" \. k. C- Q4 g x- HCheaper 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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6 @6 S& _/ E1 e& P6 h( BI 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
8 V0 S* k0 q5 I4 w1 }$ t'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
3 r) T. ~/ s' i3 x0 @the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
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several 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
4 M S1 I5 y2 b5 D9 c e6 Nthings 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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