I purchased a 581 when new and really loved the sound however, I replaced it in 2001 with a CR-7A that I bought off of Ebay. I chose the CR-7 because it was reported to make slightly better recordings that the Dragon with the added benefit of autocalibration. I must say that it is a great machine that easily surpasses the old 581. The CR-7 has a playback azimuth adjustment on the front panel and on the included remote control so, you can tweak from your listening chair.
The Dragon does have auto-reverse and all of the other great features mentioned but, remote control was an option.
BTW, I had my CR-7 tuned by Stephen Sank, in NM, who also installed the factory gear drive modification to the transport. A great resource for information on all the Nackamichi models is: http://www.naks.com/
The Dragon does have auto-reverse and all of the other great features mentioned but, remote control was an option.
BTW, I had my CR-7 tuned by Stephen Sank, in NM, who also installed the factory gear drive modification to the transport. A great resource for information on all the Nackamichi models is: http://www.naks.com/