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
3 Q/ d" {; I/ Nthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
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machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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, J! x, H9 N6 T. z: R(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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/ V# v+ ]$ b1 c7 ?; J2 C2 g* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
& H% |/ b! Q' H& y5 o7 g% @beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
' V5 r9 o7 x# H# j* HThere 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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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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% F: E/ r5 Z) y; |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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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
1 ]) m- ?$ t P1 W( precording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
" @* {# S- [+ X$ p4 N+ aDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
1 u. [& L# n4 t4 Z& yrecorders. 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
1 ?1 k% i( U4 n3 Vbe 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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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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* U8 L1 S2 F4 {! d) {I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
% N2 `+ y( u2 {; O; [2 } ^& `the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
+ j l: t r5 a; i( i/ Twanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
( g& v. i- D8 ]! e; L) ^( S5 gtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
# j( Z2 o9 U5 |6 C0 W'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
& O0 B e8 p9 c# l( j! N; }several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
; B6 P" W5 m; N" r/ ]( donto 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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