Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
8 U# V! @5 }! u9 x9 j* kthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
h4 ~* g' r# r, F, j9 b$ Zthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
4 j* s0 b \' t5 `/ N0 @machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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% [& D" Q |. d; l4 h2 }3 y; Q(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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Q5 q. }' j' b$ gClick 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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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
( m) |& |# C; jThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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{$ u# w% G: i8 L" g2 H9 a: _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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( C. c9 e1 g5 T# _& q/ z( iNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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6 z/ {$ a0 d. g& U* P% F7 |Nagra 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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
6 _$ K! d- |3 \, D, i4 f9 E2 }have some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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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
7 j3 t! _9 f t, N! L! b# n" E1 j1 HDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
: U# D$ m; w3 a, {& C" N/ R2 N! Drecorders. 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
& H+ y- Y1 Y5 U7 }/ v# H; a1 `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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8 r |- S: P* Z( b `1 q, zCheaper 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
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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
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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
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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
. O* b! O2 F6 a9 o/ Y S0 pthings 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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