Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
) B) \/ f' V( ]$ {5 Sthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
; v5 p9 w- j+ Fthe 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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* `! ?' R) c5 S(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
' @. T( G7 Y# [+ I! Ebeware, 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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) K C1 d$ _3 E, ^# N% xNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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1 n5 \2 g6 ~ U0 u3 CNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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+ R G+ v" ~5 j- mNagra 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
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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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
. j) J# Y' z* N6 o0 L P! fDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
Z$ O: z8 e9 X4 O* a2 [recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
7 P7 ~1 k! ?/ i9 z! ~. Ptruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
- j7 G0 X5 G! v9 Tbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
4 n$ q" Q( V( p8 V* {, Velectronics 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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. h9 u5 H; J# }0 Z2 b6 q! x; b% xTape for the Nagra SN
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5 X) I* o5 M) w, b" XI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
0 D* W4 w: I& Athe 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
4 ~) {4 G: m1 t6 k2 \- m( B( ^: Utape 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
5 z& s3 k, `! v: Kthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
6 p% e8 n% Q6 v( b, N7 i- Yseveral 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
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VERY silly money.
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