Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
3 d' S" n& T% ]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
* C% }2 K5 T D$ }; S6 X; [5 d: r Q' ]machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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$ G4 [/ d4 m) D I6 n* n(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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* E; D9 W* u$ c) `Click on either of the above images for more information.
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1 d: N! K1 v/ Q# Z* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
/ ~. K4 t" Z" jbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
6 a( u p8 j+ f+ SThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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5 N" u p+ ?! Z! h5 QNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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& \* ^$ m- K! V4 P+ G. s2 dNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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8 {( \5 H& `* MNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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C5 G* b6 f- N+ s4 cNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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9 W8 X9 q6 M: D# m/ `) ?' qApparently 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
, @, w* O$ B1 o& Y% h* t ltherefore 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
/ O4 z# L R3 P: Y% `" ~recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
+ q; _2 e9 M( v: ltruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
, f, `" v% ]7 ~; J: L( }! h$ O% fbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
3 b L3 O9 W: g d' Zelectronics and be very expensive.
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/ I2 J" D+ X2 j7 D, N/ s/ eCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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7 C, W6 A5 a: T1 z5 UTape 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
% g, R4 A3 w& C1 E+ ~8 r- s# h% qthe 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
3 o$ D7 c3 T- {/ w* d0 B& xtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
8 T" F) C4 q6 E; h. t: S'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
5 T# P& y n+ C( Lthe 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
- w9 u% u2 H1 g$ v# ?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
1 D0 v8 F/ U: R6 Z: r2 w$ fVERY silly money.
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