Nakamichi Dragon info?

It might be the drive mechanism that needs to be repaired or replaced. I had an old Nakamichi BX-1 that I recently sold on Ebay. I had the drive mechanism replaced a few years ago. The original drive mechanism was a proprietary system that was very good, but ended up not having a long life. I think it was some sort of servo driven motor thing. I don't know if the Dragon has the same drive mechanism or if that's even the problem. There are repair shops that specialize in old Nakamichi tape decks and they would know about this issue. You might check around for that. I used a place in Berkeley, CA, but I'm not sure they're still around. They were used to avid Nak fans coming in and spending more money than the tape deck was worth to replace this drive problem. The Dragon is one of the all time great tape decks and if you still use tapes I would recommend babying it back into shape. If you don't keep it yourself you can probably sell it for a nice profit (but compare the cost of the repairs against the current blue book value).

I have several suggestions.

Contact Stephen Sank 505-332-0336 bk11@thuntek.net -OR-
Contact Jeffrey Galin at www.eslabs.com

If you go to www.naks.com and join NakTalk you will join a group of people that share a common interest in Nak decks. You communicate via e-mail, when you send a message to NakTalk, it is passed to all on the list; there are several knowlegeable people that will help you trouble shoot, including Stephen, although he has been a bit quiet lately, I believe he is very busy.

For Nakamichi repairs or a tune-up, try Marc Nutter at Sonic Sense in Colorado, 303-753-0201. You can also find some excellent information about Nak decks on their website -- http://www.sonicsense.com/nakfaq42.html. If they don't have a Dragon manual to sell you, check ebay periodically or post a want-ad here at Audiogon. Don

THANKS FOR THE INFO! I think it is great that there are so many helpful folks out there. Now, just to lay hands on the little gem........