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
. c# E$ ]# I) _7 d8 Vthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
: ]! h. s( L$ x9 ?machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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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
" G, J1 v E& z; M+ cbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
: E3 ~9 h8 F; P5 L3 w" z# BThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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) T( C* _% Q; i# p! a( ~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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& Z- j' N: b/ ^7 H! Z) h5 S4 LNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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5 Y* g8 ^* n0 xNagra 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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9 p: e+ z7 ~0 V$ U7 d0 B9 o# U. o; E5 mApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
. }2 m3 i5 v4 @9 ^have some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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therefore 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
. v q4 J7 H8 l M# h4 aDSP) 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
" `' n L1 P* g; G5 V- \$ G7 ]be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
$ ]2 P( s. Z0 ?8 q* p' l3 Gelectronics and be very expensive.
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9 r: M' a6 H0 M' l; gCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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) ?3 J+ S1 _4 V! K9 x( STape 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
& ?# Q% y5 d, c+ p9 ]. Ythe 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
. m, Q( {: k# R1 X" X. r! l: q'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
7 e" P+ T% C$ H# o) [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
, R5 @9 Z/ N; ?/ g, k( kVERY silly money.
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