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
: u0 @. o7 s/ G* \6 hthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
0 _. F+ A( u6 T* s: a- Q, j: J% omachines, 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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# G6 b/ Z4 [1 t7 SClick 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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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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- i4 w" T, S. jNagra 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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: p4 [& D; } x1 V! iNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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- C4 H. p. C5 x) R' [8 \- ]" g, y3 \; CApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
. P: G, e/ O! zhave 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
1 l2 P/ m" K% V, W8 w0 {* orecording 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
* z V9 {, |4 P% j& ztruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
* H8 C- t; V, Y0 _7 \; v; o+ Vbe 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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3 D5 a; r6 E# @, z. H: [Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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0 `- U7 t- k5 z7 C$ U, `# C0 vTape 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
" d9 b2 T9 w+ Z4 s; wthe 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
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
& n! ?$ t# }- `: c) iseveral 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
6 z3 C1 C; ?5 D& D6 |$ a# u- Qthings 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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