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
4 l+ P$ h* M& h" f5 ?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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' l# p. @, g- x, S. Y+ y(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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! {- f. x# s7 c) t* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
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There 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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7 l$ {7 n9 _ O0 ^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
; p) s5 K% D* s+ B/ Precording 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
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
) C3 Z6 m1 u0 _+ Z- D4 A1 R' Bbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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5 t7 G) o" p3 S) @4 m3 s4 u7 _: i" HTape 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
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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
2 M; p. g b2 Q. i, z'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
" |6 B) q: @; m6 s2 D9 lthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
# {" O; z7 l# J: Dseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
" ^: W/ {$ p/ L/ G2 J0 F4 \# W6 U* w$ Z2 Aonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
/ ~" e( j* q3 L s# D; kthings 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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