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
+ Y& I* P9 A6 g1 v$ G% j: X4 hmachines, 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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
) }; f2 x: ], S9 e5 @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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4 v+ L" @% a" ` GNagra 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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6 a% H1 H' m7 Q4 G7 ~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 {6 N* X+ K6 O8 F$ M) TApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
7 }. f- q7 ]* {! ohave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
0 T, Q$ K* [; s$ @! wtherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
5 f* \, p0 Z& |& crecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
5 f O F4 a9 h6 R; N2 ?9 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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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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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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6 s. g! `+ d$ S/ @, FTape for the Nagra SN
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0 @8 g9 n8 g2 i0 K5 TI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
: k$ z6 O6 ~: q0 \/ C: Nthe 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
( C/ J. Q0 s E) v( c7 ]( Ftape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
3 p( B" ]. |9 o* J( G'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
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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
9 m e) c1 T& v! x- n$ Xthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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