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
0 ?) q, C* i2 o: v) E/ h- ythe 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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/ b" \" x& b$ K* @$ z r(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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% C9 Y1 y0 L+ W1 m. P3 H) 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.
( Z0 B$ c( R/ ]+ M- L& hThere 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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- {1 k) Q" O; T2 z: ZNagra 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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) w* _0 a. E T/ @" b7 dApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
$ g- {2 P9 G. t8 M: k& m5 n7 Zhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
) b* [; |; ?' x& k$ k# btherefore 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
( e; N3 g& p; ^9 A z( ?# F/ Grecorders. 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
* Z; x1 e o+ `' S4 Nbe 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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" |" y& C" X# { MCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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5 h; f! x' P- y: lTape for the Nagra SN
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9 ~" W& S8 r6 \& SI 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
7 d D3 c( T. L% Q5 w( Twanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
# @; W' O0 G3 J6 P6 dtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
v! `7 k, b/ B'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
( o) ^6 m$ H' k( t3 pseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
" M3 Z" k* O( ~! @3 wonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
9 o. a- U7 @8 b7 T. Bthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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