Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
- ]' l" E8 `5 _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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# J8 ^& j9 T* L5 X5 ?( a2 v(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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) I$ q/ i" o: r4 r0 K4 B! ]: 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
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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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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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2 F8 _( A' A: o; m; v% X6 t& DNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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2 J' W; |, K" B" H% J) SApparently 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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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
- ~+ F3 {. c# i% H# t# j' \* crecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
8 M* r0 R/ [( o3 I2 KDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
% j5 ], k% p) q+ V1 {2 {9 g/ J( I# erecorders. 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
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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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, N0 J$ g& ^/ i% T; J$ bI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
3 Z' ^9 S/ n! B6 C4 Ethe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
, t! B3 Z+ d, s; vwanted 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
; K/ T5 p H/ q'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
0 h# ~: o+ D8 r2 ?' K( |1 |9 Kthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
8 v' C* f4 p( M$ Y! a: n1 useveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
; M7 W* t- z A. n+ ]4 k, Wonto 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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