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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F5 z* m+ s* B/ Y/ qClick on either of the above images for more information.
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# a$ b5 }/ {# t; N& z$ \1 }8 d* 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.
! X A3 B7 p: i% @There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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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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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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! z0 @7 Z4 A2 s" qNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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/ g" j$ \4 t& }2 x8 EApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
: u/ G. i s1 A* ~, [. s V0 W3 Mhave 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
$ }- L F3 s% I( ^, F% nrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
3 L7 u8 E. \" g& F: \$ {; ?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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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
5 N; Z$ i6 Z; e! ^: w0 zbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
! w5 Y4 o% J* ]' P% }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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, v! u* k6 t& w1 I# [( ATape 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
- _# @5 y9 e8 ~- awanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
: T. s9 f6 q+ ^8 ?% C: etape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
" K l" K) ~+ O9 n$ d- h2 O'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
. `! o! `: p, y' ?; N6 hthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
* z3 O `; A+ {2 W7 O7 \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
H# e% R, R7 K9 w0 C4 j3 d/ X, Ithings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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