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
; I- f0 i6 ]& ]& L1 W( Y Vthe 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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(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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" g: M- ]0 l" `1 Q3 AClick 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
+ h0 P8 X9 _& y. o' q! abeware, 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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! ]( \8 v4 Y9 ~0 t3 g ^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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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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$ Y$ n$ d+ |+ \$ V; yApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
5 J# {% T3 W7 N b* \+ Jhave 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
, K0 ]6 ]! N& b+ rrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
( }6 H7 @4 v1 ~DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
/ B0 P. k8 P, {" e! ~( T0 W/ k( @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
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
5 }- L; z8 l1 i' Yelectronics and be very expensive.
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" _# _* w Y9 K$ jCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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! E/ m8 Y4 z( [) eTape for the Nagra SN
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& f& }9 g4 {" i0 zI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
" E3 m8 W* I+ E5 X3 h6 a3 x5 @, lthe 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
; h3 l* B* A$ J6 _* Z/ S9 gtape 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
* F$ l5 r' B4 B# _+ }% \ d+ sthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
# S7 l" Y; |. U& _! | z( o! ~, o: [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
4 A' y7 l3 h, _& f* o7 j1 X! gVERY silly money.
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