Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
0 z! d" S: W! ^& H {the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
5 N1 W, i/ y0 Vthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
5 B- {+ u/ K& Imachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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& F+ }6 C G" Z(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
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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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. u$ g" V2 @4 V7 r0 S4 Y( ?/ R; x2 M9 ENagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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& A, f3 q& u* z- U7 l3 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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& l/ Z5 t) x; yNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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N& F* s3 Z/ x: tApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
% U; k* m, S: m" xhave 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
) A2 O, Q3 m/ u# O# M! trecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
2 J5 Z* a7 ]" l9 N- v$ E7 GDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
2 o: {% F% ~: A, b6 \; grecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
. I; P% s7 U. W. S. o3 @ [5 ntruly Hi-Fi recording, but
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
1 s. Q/ K. y+ i# e% R# Jelectronics and be very expensive.
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% t5 x5 r8 w0 q: f+ i: E$ \Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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* T" }+ C/ ^5 F* s& _Tape for the Nagra SN
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, {. r$ B( x4 xI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
* `1 `$ I2 t' V6 M) g/ [# _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
) H/ l' K3 K8 [$ Z6 ltape 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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
& M9 ^9 w; a( h7 l: b, \3 uonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
8 D+ k3 ^ ^9 J/ Bthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
2 {( x/ D. ]& i2 i/ e) ~/ ]VERY silly money.
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