Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
' h6 L2 ^; @) Y- i2 Q8 |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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! ~) U0 P2 ]& P2 e- k9 j* CClick 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.
2 W* {6 m5 J0 |1 T' dThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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9 Q& n$ q. D& o8 ?* i2 G% Q" j7 ?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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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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. A0 I. y( [* K X! cApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
) G4 w$ S; e& t5 ohave 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
6 t9 ~4 ^- E6 M+ c+ orecording 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
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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
3 u; }( O' k' ~% [$ S! r* D* _, C8 btruly 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
" d' \+ x3 Y! W7 D# o1 u9 eelectronics 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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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
4 q2 T% }" z, L3 P. hthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
|3 [2 Y/ ?* e6 N6 ^+ ywanted 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
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'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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
$ d2 n2 E$ o( t! z! ?4 zonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
" X; \+ J3 Z- n+ j( sthings 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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