Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
5 U+ e) l7 o: h) ^9 Uthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
) D A5 G6 P# `/ W6 ], fthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
0 t& E4 K' r! ?0 {+ Nmachines, 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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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
" ]' o0 Q# n' \! a; q$ P) K0 z' ubeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
+ d$ ^5 U; D- J8 j# N% rThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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9 k# X! G% I9 D/ Y5 G, xNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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. Y: a3 O \- G) n4 w3 {# `. {- M6 XNagra 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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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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( ]$ D' _2 ]. y2 QApparently 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
3 K8 f, Y2 H5 d6 _" ~9 Etherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
3 R( x, W, Z9 r; h* f. yrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
4 W6 E% x8 g" r3 B9 `' }8 qDSP) 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
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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
& X- J$ S9 L P' A; l6 F) 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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8 z- i5 u2 Q5 A5 A( l1 B' |7 q1 DCheaper 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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3 F" J5 M7 T, P& ], w& x) }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
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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
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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
2 q* x+ c. w- ^1 W& tthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
- i' N% {* p1 ?# tVERY silly money.
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