Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
~! M- K* _5 s2 D9 }( ^8 [the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
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the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
/ {2 P$ Q7 o7 M) z2 j7 R! V, S0 Zmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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& @* \' d- s2 f7 }9 u(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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. s. d3 h9 V+ e/ N. JClick 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
! Z2 a8 v0 H% G& F/ Ebeware, 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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! \* a, u/ X, A4 x) p0 [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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" S( w: W1 ?. S- G. O9 fNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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' @9 F: P. `0 n" l! LNagra 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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* A% `3 R+ l/ _$ I) M, iApparently 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
! q [* K5 z/ r" Z1 Hrecording 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
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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
4 D \% |+ h7 r# b5 ^: W# }truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
; |- [1 n! u O1 c7 x3 V& \be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
7 b) c, w4 a6 i# ]) q% A9 eelectronics 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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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
7 t& m) L2 e3 o" Y9 }& s# X3 Swanted 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
8 t$ ?2 M6 S: d; Ythe 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
4 J3 D' _$ o4 ~# d' s* n, Uthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
5 l5 G+ Z- X( \# C; HVERY silly money.
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