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
. W, L, a3 P% o. hthe 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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5 P. h' _$ |6 F* f0 W( hClick on either of the above images for more information.
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' O+ l& ?) b1 [8 m5 e V* U; x* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
4 J# [- V) `% H& nbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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4 Y# Z' C; I- i; B. v6 Y* d* pNagra 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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- t) N V& x: R; C- ~+ C# Y& Q. xNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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1 W4 D1 V' q0 x9 }4 ]6 ~& C3 k# D" SNagra 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
6 s0 |3 [$ K6 r6 itherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
% B( z T( b* L9 M3 E- h0 Jrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
7 M9 c; B6 e6 o' t- y: h A- 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
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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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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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$ F+ w: V2 j6 ~3 V* mTape for the Nagra SN
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4 M+ [( v/ C% M6 H: ZI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
: e6 D4 O! `% vthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
4 b& F8 i2 v8 ~wanted 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
( _- `8 D+ X) e1 P! t1 c1 \5 r'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
4 d. {' p0 s; Y4 [! Q& H0 l9 o9 Useveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
; O$ F# O( \9 o# n- G, `! @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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