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
/ D( i& c- m* b2 C. `9 Zthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
+ z2 _: ?; N; b5 _machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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# A, S8 i5 c7 n2 p7 o(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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% D! ~' W2 k9 d% u4 g. G* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
8 `; ^! G* Q5 f( j& abeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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4 O F. ? V1 l. | KNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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9 p' F% S5 Q3 }0 H( TNagra 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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) Q0 [7 o% c) ^2 J: {+ c) B/ F2 M! QNagra 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
* R2 y5 N4 p7 khave 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
4 b/ D$ }0 C2 Q7 Etruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
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be 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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9 C. e) s. O) Z$ O$ xCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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9 A0 x- c! a- B& Y! t# v# l: ]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
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
1 N6 }; A$ L" g/ s; Iwanted 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
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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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onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
8 Q2 p1 K; ? x9 [% zthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
' v! i1 R+ Q2 k' y1 `VERY silly money.
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