Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
. y, H: b" |; o- I" X% Pthe 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
% k& }; X& [' x5 fmachines, 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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! W6 q8 e7 O: w, @* p E+ V' AClick on either of the above images for more information.
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$ a- v1 U1 ]7 ]( v2 S, w7 O* 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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) f! H8 y3 {6 G2 {1 h! ^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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^; G" l' V2 qNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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' [* \1 v% i: r, y5 v) @% P: ] cNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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4 X- c- Y; J6 zApparently 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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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
( s- B' J" T8 z0 v/ x4 R. ^recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
, L% o# `0 e, B, V! G+ B: mDSP) 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
# R8 J9 X% b5 r8 r* ]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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Cheaper 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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4 A. y' n. @: q4 G; DI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
% I6 H5 ?2 r1 F9 Cthe 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
) Q7 i; D! C" E# @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
4 \& @* D5 u y/ {9 B! Vthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
& s1 d" a7 \+ ~0 d( D5 A9 }# Cseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
" ~* U+ u* l! v+ o5 o, C/ F" \, Ponto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
' i/ O, l5 s0 e, Dthings 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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