Which Nakamichi to choose?

Tandberg 3014A.

The ZX9 was Nakamichi's reference deck when it came out after the Dragon.

I have the 3014a in top notch shape. Its more fuller sounding with discrete circuits than the Nak. The Nak tapes did seem to have more punch in my portables however.

Yes, Tandberg 3014 and 3014A or Nakamichi 1000ZXL would be my choice. I would not pay too much for the ZX-9, and it costs a lot.

Even the lowly CR-1A is not to be sneezed at.

inna"cleeds, you are stupid and bad-mannered. Go to hell too."

Inna you are so right cleeds is a blight, a boil, a bleeding, oozing hemorrhoid on this site with nothing to contribute, suggest or advice he is not even an audiophile I believe he is a mentally deranged person who can survive only based on a daily regimen of specifically prescribed medicines and even then he seems barely able to properly communicate, relate or engage in exchange with other the members of this site and I applaud, congratulate and honor you for so bravely expressing what many hear prefer not to acknowledge, accept, or understand about this useless, pathetic, pitiful waste of a human being.

Thanks, @inna and @clearthink for your warm and kind words. 

I think that today is just ....one of those days.

Someone managed to get me to be negative toward them on another forum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48PJGVf4xqk

teo_audio

I think that today is just ....one of those days.

I actually feel sorry for these people. They can't possibly be happy.

You are most welcome, just please don't ask for more. On another note, Willy really upset me last time. He now ships only UPS Ground, though I asked him to ship USPS Priority. He refused, for whatever reason but not for the reason of cost because I of course was going to pay for it. As a result of it, my deck in the original box and well double-boxed was lucky to survive coast to coast ride. I got a big hole punched thru the outer box and three more big hits. I conveyed to him my thoughts after that, and I didn't tell him to go to hell, but next time I am not sure I will ship the deck to him, maybe to Soundsmith. But perhaps Willy has changed this since I last spoke to him in September, I don't know. Years ago he would ship USPS on request, no problem, though he mostly used to use FedEX Ground. I have never had any problem with USPS Priority, not even close.

inna

On another note, Willy really upset me last time ... next time I am not sure I will ship the deck to him, maybe to Soundsmith.

Wow. You don't like Willy. You don't like ES Labs. If you're not nice to Soundsmith, you risk running out of competent techs for your tape decks. BTW, Soundsmith service is pricey. You might want to know that before you call them and tell them to go to hell, too. They are worth it, though. But I expect to pay good money for expert service.

Inna, you're right about Willy Hermann. He specializes in aligning decks to work better than new. He worked on four of mine and he is amazing. I'm not sure how quickly he turns work around but it was usually only a couple of weeks, but I picked the units up each time. I still have an RX-505 and it works like new (maybe better). I sold my ZX-9 about a year ago, along with 2000 cassettes and box sets, for more than $2000. I regret selling it. One of my first Nakamichi decks was a CR-7A, and I really regret selling it. I still have a few hundred cassettes and I really like listening to them, always without Dolby. It seems to limit the highs.

 Let’s not forget that Nakamichi decks even now hold a good value if serviced by the previous owner. Some of the models mentioned in this thread are rare and very expensive to buy if well maintained by previous owner.  If you want a good Nak deck which records good and sounds good for playback consider the BX-300. It does not have the remotely controlled Azimuth adjustment like CR-7A but it sounds very close to it and its specs are very similar to CR-7A. You can find it more easily in good condition for $200-$300. 

Too much angst and complexity with the big decks. Nothing wrong with the Sony Walkman portable Cassette players as far as I can tell. No power cords, no interconnects, no fuses, no transformers. Tape is a natural medium. It breaths. Dynamic, sweet and airy.

I admit I am fond of the Nakamichi Dragon CD System, though, what with the vacuum surrounding the CD whilst spinning.

Many thanks to all for the good advices. To answer in general to some comments, no I am not a novice to tape but just happened in this ever digital and stream-groing world to have refound deep appreciation for music being stored on a physical medium.
I happened to have made tons of mix tapes. The work that goes in it, the time but to so gratifying result from it has drawn me back to cassette decks.
In the meantime I have purchased one of the two. It has become the Cassettedeck 1 and I must say I am impressed. So is my wife, who comes from a different generation having grown up making CD-R and minidisc compilations, she thought the music source I was playing from was digital. Big kudos for the Nak. And once again, thanks to all for the wonderful advice.

Not to get too far off topic here, but anyone have experience way back then with the Harmon Kardon CD-491 deck?   Not that it was a direct competitor to the Dragon, but it was pretty well-regarded, if memory serves.   I still have mine, I keep bouncing back & forth between keeping it & selling it (only because I haven't listened to a cassette in years).

jim

I have one and it's excellent. It is broke at the moment however. The recordings were super clean. Costing $800 less than a dragon it's a great bargain. I'm getting mine fixed.

"Nothing wrong with the Sony Walkman portable Cassette players as far as I can tell. "

They had a weak spot in that connecting film between two parts (the one that cassette goes in and the one that closes it). I guess "interconnect" would be the closest name for it.

In the U.S.A. warranty was 90 days for labor and parts were six months. You ended up paying $45 for repair while they gave you $1 part free under warranty. Otherwise, nice machines.

Sony Walkmans (Walkmen) are so cheap second hand if one doesn’t work or sound good just throw it away. The ones that sound good are the keepers. Problem solved, gloopy.

I see this tape post with this much attention shows a renewed interest in the medium. Lets have "Guardians of tbe Galaxy" 3 !!! 

Problem solved was still a problem.

The Tandberg TCD910 would be great but they are rare. What about the 3004?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tandberg-3004-Vintage-Cassette-Deck-Near-Mint-Condition-for-parts/123311638...

Aiwa also made some good decks I hear.

From what i have read on tbe internet there were 200 910s made and 100 911s which were (warning) playback only. There were 4000 3014s/3014a's made. There were 40,000 Dragons made during its around 10 year run from 82 to 93.im going by memory here.

On the 3004 there  was a 100 or less made. It came before the other tandbergs. Stay away from the 3034. 

Back in the late 90s I used to go into Gifted Listener Audio in Centreville VA and just stand there and ogle the Tandberg 3014 they had on display. I even dragged my buddy in to ogle it with me once. Whatever they wanted for it was far beyond my means back then but dear lord that thing was a Deadheads wet dream of a deck!

glupson
Problem solved was still a problem

Only in the mind of Mencia, string bean.

Sure getting a Nak Dragon would be great but get ready to pay 2-3 thousand.Just like 4 years ago cassette decks were selling cheap....now there going up,up,up....its nuts.I own a few cassette decks Pioneer,Sony Rx79es,Nak cr3,Axai gxm10,teac v9,Harmon Karmon td 392,another Nak n HK but there in attic .Nothing top of the line but all work .i bought a box of cassettes from a guy like 4 years ago about 100 cassette 30 pre and the rest he recorded well this guy did a great job ,they sound fantastic .Back in the day you borrowed an album and recorded it or recorded it yourself.

I don’t get all the angst and hand wringing regarding expensive cassette decks. I have many Sony and Aiwa portable Cassette players in perfect working order. I even have the Sony Professional Portable Cassette Player. These players can be obtained on eBay. I also have a collection of hundreds of cassettes obtained from multiple sources including Mercury Living Presence, Japanese cassettes, digitally remastered cassettes, everything from Woodstock to AC/DC to Zeppelin to New Order to Heifetz. Grado SR80 headphones. Tape is a natural medium. It breathes. Dynamic, full, musical. Where’s the beef? 🍔

“I’ll wait for some high end company to release a new high end 3-head deck with the latest technology.”

Sounds good, but don’t hold your breath. Save yourself a lot of angst and just buy a Nakamichi. I recommend the Dragon, CR-7A, RX-505 and ZX-9, as those are the ones I have owned. I only have the RX-505 now, and I sincerely regret selling any of them. I only let them go because I didn’t want to end up on “Hoarders.” (LOL)

melbguyone,

I recognize that there are probably decks that rival the performance of the Nakamichi cassette decks. I recall seeing a Tandberg 3014 at a stereo store decades ago and wondering how it sounded. I never sat down to listen and I can only speak to decks I have owned. Also, I have owned Nak amps, preamps, tuner and CD player (OMS 7). I once took home a Nakamichi Dragon CD player and DAC. I decided that I had too much stereo equipment and returned it. My mistake! I am very comfortable recommending Nakamichi cassette decks, and accept that there are many other decks worth considering.

My 2 favorites from yesteryear were the CR-7A and the BX-300.

This is the deck  I have presently;


        https://kenrockwell.com/audio/sony/tc-ka3es.htm

But since I have a Technics 2 track reel, I only play the deck to make sure it's working properly.

Jeez,so much angst!
I nearly passed on this after reading "gilding a turd" how ignorant!

Nakamichi 582 in my main rig .

With the right recordings they do sound as good as my vinyl.
Of course bad recordings suck.
But that is true of vinyl, CD etc too.

Sure the medium has its faults, the bigger decks do require more maintenance than say a CD player but it is far from a dead medium imho.

I dug out a demo tape from my band from 1989 and ran it on the nak, sounded pretty darn good to me! So that’s what near 30 year old tape?

Because cassettes are relatively light when I moved from Blighty to the USA I shipped all my tapes here but gave away the vinyl and cds.
And our LRS sells loads of cassettes as well as vinyl.
I might even have more tapes than cds right now.
In fact I was playing a Bulgarian issue tape today on the Nak.

uberwaltz, if the same recording sounds as good on your Nak as it does on your Nottingham, something is not quite right. There are a few possibilities.
I have the same turntable, better Nak, top tape and probably better cables, and it does not overall sound as good as the turntable, though the tape is more coherent and smooth. Biggest differences are dynamics and soundstage - Nak cannot compete, though it does both quite well, for a cassette. You really need good open reel deck to compete with your Nottingham. I would also suggest trying fuller sounding cables, Nordost is not famous for that.

I had cassettes in the "old" days and if I used dolby the highs were gone and if I didn't there was tape hiss. I wouldn't go back. As far as cd's and vinyl, the only formats I run other than streaming, some are good quality and some not so much. I would hesitate to say any one format was better than another.

There is more than just losing highs with dolby - sound loses fullness. Tape hiss is inevitable but can be minimized, you do need excellent deck and tapes for that. Besides, almost all older recordings have tape hiss to various degree.

Cassettes were never the subject of the loudness wars, like CDs and vinyl. For that reason the dynamics on the humble cassette can be quite surprising. Tape is a natural medium. It breathes.

I have been listening to the Sony Cassette deck all morning, and I discovered that it has a beguiling quality, that wouldn't let me turn it off; especially when I quit comparing it to my other sources.

Maybe that's the key to the cassette; just quit comparing and enjoy.

inna

There is more than just losing highs with dolby - sound loses fullness. Tape hiss is inevitable but can be minimized ...

There’s always been a lot of confusion and misinformation about Dolby NR. Assuming a quality deck and tape that have been properly aligned with each other, Dolby does not cause a loss of high frequencies when compared to the original. Of course, if you have a Dolby encoded tape but choose to listen to it without Dolby decoding, you will hear more highs than if the tape were properly decoded. That’s by design; Dolby is a companding system. Dolby NR actually ensures better HF response - when properly used - than you can achieve on the same deck and tape without it.

To be fair, there were many poorly-made cassette decks during the cassette era, and many were so badly constructed that they couldn’t maintain proper alignment. Dolby was doomed on those machines.

Please consider that "proper alignment" includes correct bias, eq, azimuth, and alignment to Dolby level. Different manufacturers used one of several different standards for Dolby level, further contributing to the misunderstandings of Dolby NR’s effectiveness.

Having everything in alignment on a cassette deck can be compared to having everything set up correctly on a turntable, if something is off the sq will be off.

I think with the resurgence of vinyl and the old time vinyl addicts , setting up of a turntable is better understood and practiced than the same procedure for a tape deck.

Usually the correct set up of a tape deck is best left to those dying breed of specialists, mine was set up maybe 4 years ago and I have not had reason to question it having drifted or warranting another set up yet.

@orpheus10 
Right on, I truly never "compare" the cassette sq as such but it is obvious to my ears when it is especially good or bad compared to itself!

I have some superb tapes, and some really bad ones...lol.

I suppose one of my earlier comments stating it was as good as vinyl was not quite accurate as I truly do not compare the two, what I really meant was that when I played a really good tape, well it just sounded really good.

Once aligned and tuned my deck keeps it for quite some time. I also treat playback head with LAST tape head preservative before playing every cassette, it lasts for two sides. This is not a substitute for cleaning, of course, only a complement. When properly maintained Nakamichi head should be good for at least 10000 hours, I am not sure any head or just better heads.

This will provide a good test of the system sensitivity and your hearing. Get two Walker 1/2" resonance control discs, $50 each.
Place one very near Nottingham motor without it touching the motor holder, place another one on top of the deck where the transport is located. You should hear a slight improvement in clarity. If you don't - there will be a work to do. Nottingham Spacedeck is a very emotional, dynamic and quite quiet turntable, some people prefer it to much more expensive tables. Also, when recording from it, I can clearly hear differences in pressings when listening to the Nak. I can also compare cables and phono stage power cords this way.

@orpheus10 What are the odds I looked at the pic of your deck, nice looking deck btw, and there is one listed! Looks like a good buy for $550 if I was in the market I might snap it up.

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis93faf-sony-tc-ka3es-tape-decks

It is a good buy if you can still replace all the rubber in the deck; that gets old.