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
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the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
% t0 k5 t( _" a( `; [# xmachines, 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
1 W+ s! g# |- ~8 V" S# |beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
9 D" i" H% l: m2 dThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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% k; L7 e. g* vNagra 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/ {8 O/ \9 |+ wNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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& j* C8 n# g+ `/ { ANagra 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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( l' a# n9 z5 D$ K; ?2 U9 o4 MApparently 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
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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
! W2 C, W( J2 `$ v* C* M( HDSP) 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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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
6 z( M6 P6 V) vbe 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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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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" G8 N3 p, {& g$ j% t4 v& P2 ~Tape for the Nagra SN
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% Y+ @+ x& i2 d, y, ^! JI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
- u2 |, ~5 U$ |3 Gthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
/ v( |' T1 c7 b: V3 awanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
6 E4 S' ^( x L, dtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
) C( l4 E# W9 j" E3 Y' K'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
5 P* m+ X! W& k. _onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
+ M; a& [* c7 c( Fthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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