Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
: w7 P' W; |1 _; ]the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
. {3 V& d$ U7 qthe 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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: W( D8 a% R0 e) cClick on either of the above images for more information.
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$ W4 {9 x4 F+ t$ m, x+ S: Y; d" t$ z* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
; }: C- \8 _1 u% }: M' s4 G) P. M. ~beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
9 B5 Q I9 l6 ]* R# A& [/ dThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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4 ?: P- h# g" b0 N( V5 W! oNagra 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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9 V/ G1 W: v; T9 PApparently 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
9 u3 R/ Y6 I6 E' R5 r: pDSP) 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
; v& f, T$ p0 w- H3 ~5 a/ S: U/ ube 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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) e: @6 N/ E- H& NCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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* d! @4 z- i- g' c8 d: GTape for the Nagra SN
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0 D$ Y! R% M/ p J) M0 LI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
' P& _4 t8 U# ^the 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
/ F# f! J/ `7 ]0 I; ?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
6 ~0 m3 s( t# W; L6 Q: S" Kthe 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
3 v3 E" u& S" ~0 Lonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
" s+ o1 P0 H2 R. Nthings 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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