Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
1 @1 J0 b. r7 i. g1 lthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
! |" |- Z9 m$ V4 x) f6 sthe 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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3 ^$ y. U1 A9 {# i, {(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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5 T* s5 m' T7 @4 A4 p" RClick 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.
$ I4 J/ A! [' }There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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" {4 H. ^5 @4 ONagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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U& e5 t- _: 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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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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
% A+ m1 o) b& t" W$ o1 Uhave 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
! o7 t ?4 N4 F& `) h3 `# u1 c( |recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
& ?. `( s' `# BDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
% r5 U1 p E9 c# m. s# `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
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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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4 c+ \3 d; R. r$ `& V7 V) F/ NCheaper 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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6 \- d: V5 F; b" n oI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
' b# i- s5 h! {1 `$ H7 o, Mthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
2 N4 y" `% U4 r* X5 q; W& }" N3 Awanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
2 E4 G" O9 m! y6 q9 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
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
& J! V- [- P" E, l. D7 Eseveral 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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