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
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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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(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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+ W/ c8 n' P8 I9 f8 j( m* I6 \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.
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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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# p9 b' W3 ~6 CNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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1 @$ |. o' Y- H& `1 \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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$ j2 E6 {7 i- k, L5 a5 L! p9 R8 uApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
a" C+ B+ j. Z4 T0 k) Rhave 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
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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
4 j8 U8 i) n0 nrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
1 y/ D8 X& e$ R" d& Tbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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3 a b6 V' M* ]9 k+ H) l5 a: kCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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: O# \7 t6 q& K/ oTape for the Nagra SN
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/ o y n$ I7 r. H9 k3 zI 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
; d% j2 f. U; C$ c) ~wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
- X; W3 N# R5 J8 V/ [: o4 X& T+ Xtape 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
4 K, w& ]' t& o/ L( V( l: Sthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
7 Q. p* b7 b- Sseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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