Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
8 }4 ]+ n- [) }6 q6 g. w* X8 Ethe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
; i/ C" E5 }* C+ _( O. mthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
4 \& c( \. D @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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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
+ u1 \& E0 p9 Hbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
1 t/ w# U* D/ n6 a% ~' NThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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9 Q/ F4 D C- U% x9 \8 e$ cNagra 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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Apparently 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
6 A; u& x: a) J) Urecording 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
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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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% p. u) q! I: g& l% F& a; ]Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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, L) F3 f6 D, k0 R0 ITape 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
j B4 y! C6 o% Owanted 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
4 |: K0 [9 K$ O; Y) |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
" ]0 C8 |5 B/ f0 b( d* x& Yonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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