Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
2 i* O6 O% W% e. l8 T5 p: S8 s# vthe 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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$ u( D) _0 q5 N7 c/ a(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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& L3 b: M3 n* X; L) gClick on either of the above images for more information.
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7 @% i5 p( A4 H% i1 i# W7 V* 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.
" I2 q0 |7 F; E! P/ zThere 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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& J9 M% l/ _9 U" j$ Q: a7 ~& nNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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! m& q* z% I" u- b" `7 GNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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. k# n3 F" u1 ]6 J$ vNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
5 Y9 Q# |) ]4 N9 l+ whave 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
k& P' t4 o' P4 J0 {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
8 `4 z7 Y4 M- T0 H0 ~truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
' t/ d% k, r* A. i- ^ B& dbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
2 i8 A+ d' ~0 s. @; W3 welectronics and be very expensive.
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9 U5 z9 q. E/ a4 W9 HCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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; u* q: I: g! O4 O6 l, ~: q- ITape for the Nagra SN
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: O# I6 n; b4 q Y+ J6 e" H2 @5 uI 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
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
. N6 v; |, f# L'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
) ?; u" l9 U; u1 qthe 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
) }3 G- m9 _: K a3 W5 monto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
2 Y2 Z/ T, @1 C" [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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