Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
7 ~% E- ]/ h8 ~; \( S- ^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
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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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(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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# ^$ p1 e8 ^; Q: s! _1 x3 `* 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.
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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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1 u9 R6 X. L0 j, y: D! uNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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$ k% j; `' q$ p# nApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
( X' p' o( t" D2 v7 `& O: Ahave 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
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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
% U8 B7 ?8 [+ m$ ?+ etruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
- Y( `2 K$ n8 h) kbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
3 n; C' P& l; A! J' A- t0 xelectronics 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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" V# W0 s& C7 l1 qTape 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
) I6 I9 `4 l) ], wthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
6 J' m% ^1 g4 n8 X5 f+ F8 Q: Qwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
4 T9 G" o4 l. r8 I- f# wtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
) w2 r; z1 D0 Y' a'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
5 s9 Q+ U1 [& ~! bthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
" G; w5 u/ I+ v* yseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
/ C" i: i5 u2 i% Gonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
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things 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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