Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
* p2 K4 K# r$ V n' ~the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
. M2 _. b' M/ {; ?# o* bthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
l; j; \, E8 c8 ]: V# Hmachines, 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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' @) H# U4 n) _* {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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beware, 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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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/ r" F$ `; c) K3 h6 M. j; a) TNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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$ G' Y' A$ p d2 v9 J5 m4 [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
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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
3 D1 C8 [ R9 ^% n) n2 Y! R) hDSP) 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
3 ^2 j M. T. I3 a1 ^4 z3 Ebe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
7 @ ~: X6 |) _/ i& `6 B" telectronics 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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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0 Q: b! h+ z! k8 QI 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
2 z1 X( o; ]7 f! U( ], k. X'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
% p& a6 P( X; J$ |) l9 Othe 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
8 h: G$ [' \9 K) e! Y/ Z- |* a' Konto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
( K$ [. p) ?2 J$ N* E1 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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