Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
- q2 p" s" q& Rthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
9 \* y3 f _" q9 Lthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
; W5 t# l& f! W4 v. [5 w- \machines, 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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?+ c9 y1 d- \9 lClick 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
# l0 @+ k& b* g& Y$ v7 Q( Q6 c: ]; {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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0 s7 M& F ]' O3 ]) pNagra 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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$ s' ?* x' u5 |) MNagra 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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* J! _ p, [; j" E3 E. YApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
) d0 t# V$ o* D; A: j2 P& d3 phave 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
* @# Q1 l+ N. J9 H2 T9 Urecording 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
; M4 Q5 P# L6 I5 o3 _recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
, `9 A" S/ q F% \- ]truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
6 D2 ?- f# r; K9 y5 k& C# gelectronics 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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0 C) E( M' `7 c. y3 UTape for the Nagra SN
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: e4 w8 A) t" h8 {) }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
; d9 M! { Q% T( @4 M! g; N" Hwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
' y' ?/ z6 e& a2 z: ktape 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
. a, l* U# _$ m0 ~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
$ g( `9 T- S9 Q5 F8 Zonto 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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