Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
2 m, n; r$ u _6 e; r8 mthe 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
) M) |1 A7 P4 u# |* d! o: dmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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r1 `+ P# g. a; O1 q: g3 m$ @, F7 K(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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
: _1 ?4 q% g/ G3 SThere 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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+ _- ]7 {4 j( BNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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3 k! l- B# v7 [( n1 `: |1 mNagra 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
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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
A6 M4 Q* P( precording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
1 J! b! t7 d7 o/ j* V' `/ f$ C7 YDSP) 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
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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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+ G8 u ?& ?$ E( `+ DCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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/ P: |( U6 u4 Z7 }: Z; j; p; fTape 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
0 V" [+ \3 H: r- z f0 z( Jthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
6 R9 J/ Y4 C/ P; G$ Z5 \" a0 n' Gwanted 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
5 S- A# r/ s( f! d9 othe 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
7 {- Q" s( T) i5 ]$ ?things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
, U' r5 u# t5 x$ z) }: b2 ?' L8 oVERY silly money.
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