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
5 m% O6 h# d3 Q: i- Y6 ~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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9 ]! |* V1 _5 u7 U4 @! k4 |* 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.
! _8 L3 }( v) _) nThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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7 X5 w, Z1 O' s* L( iNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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( ], t7 m7 L8 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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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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- ]2 R( T! ^9 G, BApparently 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
$ I* C# ~ B+ }: ]recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
' ]$ k! L* ^4 v5 O$ O. M$ Q: {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
2 z) p: w/ q8 [: S7 O5 w- P) Ytruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
7 J" a8 h3 ^% f* Xbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
" f R _; a0 y' G melectronics and be very expensive.
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& }# V% T; I( g tCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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" B# X0 C6 R2 {6 E3 a! DTape for the Nagra SN
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. G( }# c0 N QI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
; ?7 x' u9 s# N1 T4 bthe 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
$ p. h- A8 Z1 mtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
0 _* C& I" \6 l- x+ \'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
5 ]( g; X6 I) ^* Wseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
7 p) p: f; Q& w D" t% B6 Konto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
. Y, J5 F0 y6 B# d; V% u! a$ I2 rthings 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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