Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
4 J: z6 e" ^8 y6 v/ Q8 o, lthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
3 k# k1 D7 l: {) sthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
0 }& ?/ T$ n$ N% Lmachines, 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
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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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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6 N! q3 E5 e2 sNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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l; y7 ]% }9 m0 S* {, N. uNagra 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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7 s3 [& T. A' }& g1 D6 U6 jApparently 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
# B" h* z# T# j0 w1 m# I2 a, ?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
7 b6 @ f3 I$ Y! U" Vbe 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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5 Z# h: F& k& i' t5 LCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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, j7 z& P0 ?" G% E( E- V; ]' g! 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
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
$ a s- L; q+ X. ]tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
+ o+ c; J3 Z8 R2 b'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
8 B* [& W4 v5 t" _9 Qthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
; D* P, E3 t+ }, M4 Y- Y8 q1 hseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
$ j* x8 ?. ]: B# P( `; p ponto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
. y3 ~% U; w" { O8 U8 N+ ythings 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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