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Nakamichi Dragons worth the fix?

I have bought a Nak Dragon from an auction, which the shipper has claimed to be in fine shape. When it came to my door, something had happened to it, either the gorillas from UPS or a untrusworthy seller. My question is, is the deck worth fixing and keeping or would it better leave it as a learning lesson to never trust anyone again at auctions or at places like Audiogon? I saw the problem, the inside plastic skeleton that holds the Nak tape deck drawer together and aligns it properly is cracked...I realize that the technician who has to fix this will spend SOME hours changing this part, which is tangled up with wires and switch connections galore. What is your take on this puzzling problem? PAUL
bemopti123
audiolover
26 posts
 
If I understand your description of the problem, it sounds like the tape door may have opened during transport, and then been jostled, which would cause cracking of whatever arms and such that support it. In general, a Dragon would certainly be worth getting looked at, to get an estimate for repairs. Secondly, was it shipped in original box? If so, it might be worth pursuing a damage claim with UPS. That is tricky, because the first thing they will want to do is ship the deck back to the seller, from what I have experienced. This gets tricky if you have already paid the seller. Thus, it becomes a question of what the seller is willing to do help resolve the situation....... as for buying things at auction, etc, there is always a risk when buying from an individual, and there is always a risk when shipping things. If this is your first purchase over the net, then it is really sad that it would result in such problems. I have bought and sold about 20 things over the last couple of years, and have had one item damaged during shipping. Others have told me 1 out of 10 or so. You just have to assume that is going to happen, if you are going to buy used gear, I guess :( BUT, I have saved so much money compared to buying new, that a few repairs and such are way more than offset :)
joe_b
421 posts
 
I sold my Nak dragon around 3 years ago as I found it seemed to have some difficulties with certain tapes. Some of those tapes (Sony Metal) are no longer available so that may not be a problem. I replaced the Nak with a $300 Denon single well, 3 head deck with Dolby HX. While the Nak had better bass response and was auto reverse, the Denon is very close in overall sound quality. I would suggest not spending more than $300 to fix your deck.
brianmgrarcom
1,317 posts
 
I guess that depends on how much you want to have into it. More than likely service could be a bit costly. You can contact Jeffrey Galin of ES Labs (www.eslabs.com 860-529-3700) or Stephen Sank at 505-296-8795 for service. My guess is the deck could use general service anyway to be aligned etc. The Dragon is still a desired deck. It will easily outperform any deck currently being marketed and as long as they keeping making cassettes there will be a market for the Dragon.
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