Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
7 v6 u9 j* i+ Z) V" Qthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
( |# Z1 c6 p5 X$ Xthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
* f+ m# C" |: l* H/ H+ [; T) kmachines, 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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; }& K/ A9 e% ]# y; Q2 d* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
0 i0 p+ q* ~- K3 Tbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
, Z" v% r l/ eThere 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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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. I6 [0 }" E, L0 v0 pNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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4 y' g6 |7 B3 X8 G& tNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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/ c. p9 c7 q. |& JApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
: q5 x1 [! E- J. {" V/ ]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
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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
$ T7 k& L% J3 g6 i* @- `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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( F: M* K3 Y1 j* w9 Q. Z+ hCheaper 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
8 [& v. _6 u8 {. h( I k! Y9 Ithe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
6 C2 Z$ {7 K6 g. Z& swanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
4 D9 ^# y* l* K4 F; H- r& itape 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
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
( d3 l& k5 I5 I6 C# d+ K0 a% {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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