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
' S' x7 @  p" r( X. Xmachines, 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
, x7 R- o! l0 D+ lbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
; M/ K2 Y& i" F# k( wThere 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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  z. e& [8 l0 iNagra 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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8 n# \  }; ]0 Q' q$ H7 y  bNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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& M% M  f0 z4 \+ w5 G! j" gApparently 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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
. W4 o- [% G0 @$ ~. Y- H  w- O( yDSP) 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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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
9 K" }) L0 a9 ]0 b/ Obe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
5 o. O# Y5 a( h7 ^9 J. felectronics and be very expensive.
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) n) I( v: I  v7 C2 e. r  ACheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo 
IV-S in the first place!
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6 p% c7 d/ P8 {6 kTape 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
8 u" S! E# w( kthe 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
' a: ~6 n( V. B+ m# Rtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
' ]7 o2 V3 u8 I, o. L* }5 o'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
" x# A  v( G4 a6 _5 H! I* lseveral 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, y0 B1 Y3 xthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
+ q$ ]" \8 k8 _VERY silly money.
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