Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
5 A3 n2 Y3 o9 @( p+ Athe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
" r% ~2 c* s: @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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(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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6 a& E4 p! P5 \ Q; m- r% `& }1 P5 ^* 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.
: ` @9 a& f6 E/ Q6 LThere 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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Nagra 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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$ [- p8 c; U4 |: ~! l0 ]/ o/ bApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
' K1 T J+ \0 l7 {; Y2 n6 Rhave 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
. Z& @0 X5 l7 Z# |4 d; q2 K) `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
% t: Q, T0 C, X5 M3 X0 rrecorders. 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
! Y3 P; Q( R7 l. r7 h$ Ybe 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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4 o' Y6 g. ~4 w& uCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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+ y5 p' u+ j3 v6 H6 ?Tape 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
$ C* x' X" t7 ]4 p+ jthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
* ?4 Y5 r* c+ b7 N- {1 C# wwanted 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
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
1 Z# l% m3 {6 ]' ?, cthe 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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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
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