Nakamichi dragon casette deck

Noseyears · « **on:** 17 Apr 2012, 11:04 pm »

FYI,
http://www.hometheater.com/content/nakamichi-dragon-cassette-deck

Anyone here own vintage cassette decks?

Letitroll98 · « **Reply #1 on:** 17 Apr 2012, 11:23 pm »

Pioneer CT-A7

http://www.vintagecassette.com/pioneer/ct-a7

A great medium priced 3 head deck. When I had it serviced a few years ago my tech gushed over it, "Man, they just don't make 'em like this anymore".

won ton on · « **Reply #2 on:** 18 Apr 2012, 12:06 am »

i've got a nakamichi zx-9,doesn't get used much anymore

won ton on · « **Reply #3 on:** 18 Apr 2012, 12:14 am »

it is in as new condition also

TONEPUB · « **Reply #4 on:** 18 Apr 2012, 12:28 am »

We've got a pretty comprehensive Dragon review in issue 32:

http://www.tonepublications.com/MAGPDF/TA_032.pdf

look up Willy Hermann Services on google if you have a Nak and you want it to be like new again, he's the best!

vinyl_guy · « **Reply #5 on:** 18 Apr 2012, 12:46 am »

I have a Nakamichi 700 ZXE Auto Tuning deck from early 1982. Three heads, three motors and it would automatically adjust the bias, azimuth and recording/playback level for each tape to ensure as close to perfect alignment with the recording and playback heads as possible. The tapes I recorded sounded very good. It's one of the reasons my records from the 1980's are in near mint plus condition. I played them one time to record and then played the cassette. Although it is packed away now, I have no intention of selling it. http://www.vintagecassette.com/nakamichi/700zxe

Laura

TONEPUB · « **Reply #6 on:** 18 Apr 2012, 02:29 am »

Have Willy tune that baby up and use it, you'll love it!

thunderbrick · « **Reply #7 on:** 18 Apr 2012, 02:33 am »

Nak 1000 II, operation is kinda erratic.

Had the 582, the 500 (550?) portable deck, a few others over the years. All made tapes that blew away other machines, except maybe the Tandberg 310.

blutto · « **Reply #8 on:** 18 Apr 2012, 04:25 am »

....way back when I was selling stereo equipment, and high end decks were a hot item, the Nak Dragon was the best selling tool we had at our disposal....they were great decks (and very highly touted) for first little while then they would either break or get and stay mis-aligned and folks would give up and buy what we had ( the Naks were sold by a competing store ) which was the Tandberg 3014 ( maybe THE most amazing inclusive deck ever made ...the Tandberg separate record play pro decks were better still ) and the criminally under-rated Luxman K-O5 / K-O3 decks and the Alpine AL-90 deck ( which were a hair back of the Tandberg performance-wise but built like tanks ...think Revox with great performance...)...

...some of less expensive, and simpler, Nak decks were nice, but the Dragon...well, good luck...when it was working it was good....but it wasn't that reliable over the long haul...real pretty museum piece though...

Cheers

blutto

Minn Mark · « **Reply #9 on:** 18 Apr 2012, 07:29 pm »

I own and still use a TEAC Z-6000, and a Marantz 5220 cassette decks.

M

ecramer · « **Reply #10 on:** 18 Apr 2012, 10:50 pm »

Quote from: blutto on 18 Apr 2012, 04:25 am

....way back when I was selling stereo equipment, and high end decks were a hot item, the Nak Dragon was the best selling tool we had at our disposal....they were great decks (and very highly touted) for first little while then they would either break or get and stay mis-aligned and folks would give up and buy what we had ( the Naks were sold by a competing store ) which was the Tandberg 3014 ( maybe THE most amazing inclusive deck ever made ...the Tandberg separate record play pro decks were better still ) and the criminally under-rated Luxman K-O5 / K-O3 decks and the Alpine AL-90 deck ( which were a hair back of the Tandberg performance-wise but built like tanks ...think Revox with great performance...)...

...some of less expensive, and simpler, Nak decks were nice, but the Dragon...well, good luck...when it was working it was good....but it wasn't that reliable over the long haul...real pretty museum piece though...

Cheers

blutto

Theres a Tandberg 3014 for $2999

toocool4 · « **Reply #11 on:** 18 Apr 2012, 11:21 pm »

I have a Nakamichi CR-7, much better sounding than the Dragon. The Dragon is so over rated. I still use my CR-7 everyday with TDK MA-XG tapes.

SET Man · « **Reply #12 on:** 19 Apr 2012, 12:56 am »

Hey!

I have the mother of all Nakamichi tape deck the 1000....

Picked this one up locally on Craig's List here in NYC back in 2008. My plan was and still is to digitize old cassettes from my childhood... still haven't so yet. But I do once in a while play some of old tape in it.

It sound wonderful. Actually I've never heard cassette tape sound this good until I got this Nak 1000. Before this back in the day early from early '90s I was using JVC single deck player.

Anyway, the deck still works, missing the on/off switch sleeve and those heads still in good condition I think....

But I'm sure it can use a tune up. I wonder how much it will cost for this deck?

BTW.... to me the ultimate Nak deck is the 1000 ZXL.

Take care,
Buddy

toocool4 · « **Reply #13 on:** 19 Apr 2012, 07:56 am »

Quote from: SET Man on 19 Apr 2012, 12:56 am

BTW.... to me the ultimate Nak deck is the 1000 ZXL.

Take care,
Buddy

I have to say i agree with you

Quiet Earth · « **Reply #14 on:** 24 Apr 2012, 03:26 am »

I rescued a Nakamichi RX-202 from the rafters of my friend's garage. I took it down to the local tape deck dude and had him give it the once over. It's a lot of fun to play with and it makes great tapes. Acquiring good blank tape is the real challenge.

Rclark · « **Reply #15 on:** 24 Apr 2012, 04:11 am »

I HATED tapes. They wear out quickly (don't pretend they don't), they hiss, you gotta FF and rewind, which takes AGES, they don't sound good. Lose/lose. The cassettes themselves, the tape can come flying out, it stretches, and it also gets unexplicably bound up in wierd ways. just a godawful medium.

- that rant aside, the old tapedecks look neat. How do any of you have tapes that still play?

TONEPUB · « **Reply #16 on:** 24 Apr 2012, 04:46 am »

That 1000 is a beautiful deck. But parts are getting really rare, as well as the expertise to fix one.
Have fun with it, but it may not be able to be brought back to life if it fails.

Dragon, ZX-7 or ZX-9 is a much better bet.

toocool4 · « **Reply #17 on:** 24 Apr 2012, 08:23 am »

Quote from: Rclark on 24 Apr 2012, 04:11 am

I HATED tapes. They wear out quickly (don't pretend they don't), they hiss, you gotta FF and rewind, which takes AGES, they don't sound good. Lose/lose. The cassettes themselves, the tape can come flying out, it stretches, and it also gets unexplicably bound up in wierd ways. just a godawful medium.

- that rant aside, the old tapedecks look neat. How do any of you have tapes that still play?

All I can say is you have not experienced a decent quality tape deck with quality tape recordings.

Quiet Earth
As for getting quality tapes, lucky for me I still have a stockpile of unopened TDK MA-XG 90

. My pile is going down

but still have 27 unopened ones left.

vinyl_guy · « **Reply #18 on:** 24 Apr 2012, 11:37 am »

Quote from: toocool4 on 24 Apr 2012, 08:23 am

All I can say is you have not experienced a decent quality tape deck with quality tape recordings.
Quiet Earth

I agree. The tapes I made using the top of the line TDK or Maxell tapes on the ZXE-700 sounded great and I still have lots of them. I never did buy a pre-recorded tape.

ptmconsulting · « **Reply #19 on:** 24 Apr 2012, 02:37 pm »

I had a Harmon Kardon HK3500 for the longest time, but then upgraded to a Nak DR3 and never looked back.

It's on a shelf gathering dust now but occasionally I do pull out some of my vast hoard of cassettes (all Maxell XLII or XLII-S) for my commute to work on an old Walkman (remember those).