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
- u* J/ E; z2 k4 Y. ]1 ^, Fthe 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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0 d% Y. u6 w. j( A3 m6 D(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
0 x$ \$ F) l0 sbeware, 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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) F4 z8 D+ [3 o$ bNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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: T! Z5 T$ K) d$ w: j6 J9 [6 BNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
: B( F+ F. q6 Y. b1 J' U2 v; Zhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
6 T5 z3 T( g+ ~" h% H4 jtherefore 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
: y) f7 B/ m% J/ }, _* c$ I# ?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
0 B }2 u" H3 x6 V2 C0 ^8 q# F# Lelectronics 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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- e4 n. L% Q$ B/ c7 ~Tape for the Nagra SN
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0 B# Z0 O' h: m. NI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
: {) Q& }2 Y8 K8 dthe 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
/ L2 ^' ^% P5 ^ x8 D3 c5 I2 |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
9 y8 L# k+ J! Q- r+ R' xseveral 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
4 u+ `2 e$ W' r! `4 V, x% tthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
: y+ G( E0 o6 S5 L6 s! \VERY silly money.
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