Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
7 s' s" F+ K0 {. Athe 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
3 Q2 L( v6 @9 S7 R/ Ymachines, 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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O0 L& o6 g. {1 SClick 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
% J- }0 `% S) B7 T/ k lbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
' E+ R9 W/ }8 \6 ]6 Z6 sThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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4 k( J0 ^( W/ `( pNagra 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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( U0 }$ r. `8 Y2 ^4 v" }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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Apparently 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
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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
1 Q S- K3 P0 h0 mrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
( H$ c& D& O$ l9 ?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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9 k; Q2 O$ |2 `# M) e1 i9 `$ qCheaper 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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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
3 A$ j* Q" @: y' z5 N* u% p/ gwanted 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
5 F! {8 Q* ^8 s$ n'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
$ _& p2 }% @6 w4 R) L* {several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
2 p1 {! f! T/ P% m/ g3 J8 @onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
# m, y! v& g* ?, Y& Q/ Lthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
5 [3 I0 @7 G+ G+ ]! A) `# e; GVERY silly money.
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