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
! A' u' R- Y2 wmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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# X, W5 `8 I5 ]8 D* U: u ](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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2 L! [' ]$ x. O# b: d( t3 r* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
+ X9 s7 ^# o6 u% abeware, 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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( q g5 m- s" K6 d- O" `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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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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7 U1 w& u: G" n3 T1 Z+ t! I/ ENagra 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
+ n* I1 k1 D# Ihave 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
* V7 [2 a T) X2 H: |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
- Q" |6 ?3 H b: v/ Dbe 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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! V6 {* j$ M) U( yCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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Tape 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
: @# P. i0 P6 q Cwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
$ C9 b( f3 k0 Y. ~; wtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
& Y/ E4 z' v8 E'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
+ c, b+ h2 @ Dthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
* n4 M! e( a. S, C4 e; n: wseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
. Y: m Q- }" p, K: W# C% d+ A3 M9 o Vonto 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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