Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
2 r9 P0 L+ X u0 y8 @! c$ L& {: othe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
5 M! D" n" s2 P/ A* q% @- ithe 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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. v* y1 X. N: O) N/ q: ?$ N(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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! V3 M) }$ B' ?, `$ {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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p |* W; `8 g! {- ?% L* F o! `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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+ w4 Y' R2 v$ ^) \% hNagra 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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/ B# q/ j/ P; o. \- fApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
( j5 }' M* q2 F0 c. f2 r! |" B' khave 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
: V- S. E" v6 u3 t' X% z: {recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
; J8 h7 k- |6 I% Y! d- o' UDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
4 ^: R% t! P, a( a; h* x' l6 P/ ^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
- k# E0 p' g* `; qbe 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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Cheaper 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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8 q- r% M7 Y5 dI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
5 N: d. C, }7 V& @4 ithe 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
: @' ? c/ }+ J" tthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
}5 p5 x$ ~: @" ~2 `6 p* Tseveral 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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