Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
8 y7 A; S* _% _1 gthe 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
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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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/ U" Q9 v* n) B* h/ ]* kClick on either of the above images for more information.
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^* X& y5 B; f0 y+ y* f' J* 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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( e5 P0 f& f, eNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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2 p5 U7 N. l& F$ c* \7 l6 C; m* k2 p1 [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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
3 I; C. G6 W/ [# ?% a" K: G& @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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
6 I, T% b: b5 W! H0 M# u2 Srecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
9 _2 L* s: d( Ctruly 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 z3 {: ~" Z) X# \/ z" W helectronics 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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8 ^+ U$ ?0 Y2 P2 P! ^Tape for the Nagra SN
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6 d9 X6 |# J7 D* G. @9 qI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
: U0 D( U. c* f+ k+ ?7 Rthe 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
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
+ Y3 ~) y$ x4 L; Z. t. M& ]! h/ nthe 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
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
3 l) |6 Y* W+ }VERY silly money.
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