Which Nakamichi to choose?

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.