Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
B# O8 T/ N7 N, f0 B7 gthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
2 R7 J. v* F/ ^ p8 Uthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
" t8 D0 O i7 I, k% qmachines, 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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) \8 a0 l9 z& ?; Z$ L' IClick on either of the above images for more information.
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( `. o/ ^9 T9 j# m. @+ M* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
6 \5 U/ f( U' `- s* Ubeware, 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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, q6 s# q( _5 Y6 m8 `; I* 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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1 [& C1 m3 l. P8 [ m' B; d0 r: cNagra 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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; `$ k& T' l' |" W* s4 O( f' s2 CApparently 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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
0 l: E( ^3 C2 Y& GDSP) 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
5 y# W- J6 V) V! bbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
( H' S2 [3 ]6 H* aelectronics 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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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; L. o( d, e0 z9 @, }I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
1 a( F/ W# C( l1 P6 X, W% V3 Mthe 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
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'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
% {" g; g) [5 s( Xseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
3 K; s G2 o' ?1 u: [; S: }onto 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
. K1 c1 L! c7 v0 x' p& nVERY silly money.
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