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
: ~- w5 m( ^. I' u/ B; a# B- Y, @- wthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
; A' O+ G( G- n% ]% {machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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0 g: h! M5 f8 G0 `: V3 q& o1 O* q(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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$ ~" ]# g( }! m# b VClick on either of the above images for more information.
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$ N3 o2 ]' j6 {8 U$ [: L6 x' I8 |$ `* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
* `9 W6 U" R# f3 M4 Tbeware, 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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% |; k# J& f& lNagra 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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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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S8 E; a! S: F: q+ ZApparently 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
- F1 v I3 ~, v2 `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
. ~# l( P* @+ v7 J. b, R. Q& m/ ~truly 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
- Q2 [2 a+ p0 H( h$ [; S; d1 jelectronics 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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# S L3 a1 M" \) r- eTape 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
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
% l/ M, m- Y( G) ]wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
0 E/ G: V! d* `4 _5 J B+ m8 Q" ~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
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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
7 ^: H% Y9 I$ J& i/ K; ythings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
6 C1 W% I8 ` qVERY silly money.
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