Help ID nakamichi tape deck

dekay i hadn't seen your post when i wrote my last one: you're incredible too. i can't believe you guys can id this stuff from the early 80s! i can barely remember if i ate breakfest today. i'm trying to find a picture of the 1000. i'll go back to the nak site (which is amazing for reference, btw). and dekay, you're right, there were a bunch on ebay last week and met the minimum so i hope they're still around. someone on audiogon is selling a nak 700ZXE (i'm looking for the ZXL) - can you explain any worthwhile differences? i read the specs at naks.com site but i dont know nothin bout decks so the specs dont mean anything to me.
thanks again. oh, and bigwood, i guess you were right on the money too if the 1000 looks like the 700. you guys amaze me!

Kubla: I never owned the 700 or 1000 models which were out of my price range, but just wanted them because they looked cool. I did own the 600 (which was wedge shaped) and a 550 portable which I used to make demos. Another nice looking deck from that era was the Tandberg 310MkII which can also be positioned upright and which was not quite as good as the 600, but was still very close.

The Nak 700ZXL was one of the finest cassette decks ever produced. I used to own 2 of them (now 1), along with a Dragon (that I still have). I pitted the Dragon against the 700, and lo and behold, the 700 destroyed it (most notably in the deep bass region). I know, I know, according to most pundits, the Dragon was the best deck in the world, blah, blah, blah, but how many of these critics have actually owned, and run one against the other at the same time, with the same program material? By the way, the original list price on the ZXL was $3000, vs. $2400 for the ZXE, which, I believe, lacks one of the adjustments present on the ZXL. If you can get a ZXL for a reasonable price, go for it.

One more note: I chose the 700 over the 1000, which had a sort of 'military' look about it; and since I never cared much for slider controls (on the 1000), the choice was easy.

Good luck in your quest!

Kubla:

You'll enjoy your Nak cassette adventure. I have owned a Dragon since 1984 and I also have a mint 1000 tri-tracer.
These can and will make positively phenominal tapes with the right tape. I've always preferred Nak's own tape, which is getting very hard to find nowadays. Some say the cassette is dead, I say not. I've got tapes from the radio from years back of such as REM playing in a small bar in Boston, way before they became popular, as well as many from the "King Biscuit Flour Hour", which you may or may not remember.
These sound as good now as they did back when, as I used the Nak ZX metal tape. Please do let us know how you do in your search for a good classic NAK, and how you like it when you get it.

Paul

Sounds most like the Nakamichi 700. I had two of these at one time. They sounded GREAT but were not very reliable. I worked at a Nakamichi dealer, and they were extremely good about service, and even admitted that the 700 was a problematic design. This is a company that was once wonderful, and it saddens me that they have fallen from grace