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
1 y# S# ?5 y% dmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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5 U& J! }* A/ h- i6 t7 i" J' R(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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5 k, o2 N+ E& h* q! _2 r6 M- VClick 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
7 P: v5 H% {& Y6 T5 G% Rbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
8 Z" O! q) |2 @3 ?2 [/ o* k3 F( MThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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( n# f) F- z5 h+ D$ S, eNagra 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. j! q( [( X2 [2 V, c9 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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" U+ ]* {6 Q& d1 c5 @/ J0 W- CNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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2 {/ O) b! j( c, V: J2 AApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
" m- F2 U3 R# ^& s2 D/ Ghave 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
: T: C5 n4 I8 v E! V: m4 O' T% f2 B5 H# qrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
- t5 l& `% ]# ^. H) ADSP) 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
2 ~8 o* ?4 g3 x, R4 Mbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
" b' y; k" C, Velectronics and be very expensive.
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* k0 h' i( s$ d0 r' v: y& c/ \Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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: O4 M- |8 |$ F! V) M TTape for the Nagra SN
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" J6 c0 C( a/ c3 rI 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
/ G9 ~7 `& a+ V3 H& U- Q) Y# s( h2 V* {wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
' f* c0 {" x, a b; T9 W& jtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
6 t/ \ `; Q/ K* e1 D3 t& }'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
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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
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things 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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