Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
& X" ~' d$ s3 t2 N1 Q1 \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
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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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4 g* n: {( j3 @! A5 j) c(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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* 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.
" S1 O; j, T2 ?, d9 l) ]There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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% m3 j! ]/ O8 d4 dNagra 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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/ t a+ z U5 E5 SNagra 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# i1 y4 o5 J! s8 B; V6 _- u, oApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
! S7 e& U% c# {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
8 M( R; O' C/ brecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
* C' E4 n& X( N3 a9 ^; Rtruly 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
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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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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
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
8 W9 b+ u& Z7 o% dtape 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
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
! p5 g K0 m9 |several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
* }# P7 ]! j* b- @- Q9 Fonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
, B* T/ V1 C7 _/ v6 }$ Lthings 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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