Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
$ p6 X X' P; {; ?0 w0 ?& D0 z2 a: J# athe 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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7 d8 g9 s% U% D/ c( B(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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8 e" x8 B7 N1 bClick on either of the above images for more information.
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/ B) d; W' n1 A# I* 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.
/ }% E2 C7 Z7 i; V q1 T+ M' PThere 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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. C* Q! i0 n! o- {$ yNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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2 p* L4 M b" v aNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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% @3 r" ^; B# g) C$ s$ MApparently 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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
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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
+ {& S( i5 {7 \( Lbe 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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0 R! G- Z5 X9 X# l* L2 a+ H+ YCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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: r, ?; x+ b; \3 Z; e0 \6 ~7 x8 J- OTape for the Nagra SN
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I 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
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
( v3 i5 W8 S& X, m5 v8 s$ ]+ Ntape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
4 E7 I( q. A- h: I1 j( b+ c2 p9 l7 C'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
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several 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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VERY silly money.
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