Nakamichi Dragon Cassette Deck
- Thread starter autobot84
- Start date
- Status
jaetee
Member (SA)
Yes, I have one... And I can tell you from first hand experience that a Dragon working to proper specs is a beautiful thing to see and hear. Depending who you ask, it is often said to be the best tape deck in the world - especially for playback as the Nakamichi Auto Azimuth Control (NAAC) adjusts the playback head to give best possible sound from each side of each tape you play. The deck records very, very good as well.
I listen to mine regularly. Gives me a big ole'
every time!
I listen to mine regularly. Gives me a big ole'
every time!
Had one waaay back in the day. So many controls and adjustments it makes an airplane cockpit look childish. I NEVER had to use or adjust any of those tiny tweaker controls so to me, it was just like a regular cassette deck WITHOUT those controls. I will say, however, that you will probably never get full use out of the deck without an instruction manual. Mine was brand new and I think it costed like $2k or something really high like that. Sold it on eBay when eBay was in it's infancy. Depends what you want but I wanted something more plug 'n play than the Dragon.
BoomboxLover48
Boomus Fidelis
I had one and got rid of it before I went insane. Donated it to a friend of mine and she spend lots of money to make it work. The name makes sense! 
I have two other Nak decks that have no issues at all plus two recievers also.
Don't touch those high end pioneers also. People think they can make it work with a belt replacement. Poor guys! They are asking for big trouble.
I have two other Nak decks that have no issues at all plus two recievers also.
Don't touch those high end pioneers also. People think they can make it work with a belt replacement. Poor guys! They are asking for big trouble.
:unsure:
jaetee
Member (SA)
Each row of those controls is for Left & Right channel bias & eq settings for the three different tape types supported by the Dragon (Normal, Chrome, Metal) which is why there are twelve of those knobs.... Other Naks have those too (such as the ZX-7 & ZX-9 and maybe a few others) and there are also some that have open adjustment pots that allow you to change those settings with a jewelers screwdriver. AFAIK, all consumer tape decks have those controls but, except for very few, they have them inside the deck and are not easily user-adjustable. (I don't know if boomers have eq/level adjustments)Superduper said:
If you ALWAYS use the same brand/formulation/year of tapes to make your recordings, then you would really only have to adjust those settings once and could then leave them alone. But if you make lots of tapes using lots of different formulations, those controls help the deck live up to its significant potential in terms of recordings.
Beosystem10
Member (SA)
Some high end ones have the means by which to adjust bias and eq for individual tapes, for example the B&O and my Technics have these on surface-mounted VRs so that a small screwdriver can be used to optimise these settings. Some other boxes have these determined by the values of the passives in the area of the line preamps and as such, adjusting involves desoldering and replacing, sometimes even rewriting a particular region of the board. I did that when I was modifying the Sharp GF-555 so that's now set up for SAs on T2 position and ADs on T1 position for the deck that records. Deck 1 was left o/e as it only plays and was already set pretty much where it needs to be.
Maybe some Aiwa kit has easier to adjust settings in the style of their separates decks? The ADF410 that I use must be about the least expensive machine to have been made available o/e with these adjustments on the panel. The only Nakamichi deck that I have is the one in my Hacker Sovereign RPC1 boombox, it's a quality thing but has none of the complexity of the Dragon, Hacker famously sourced the parts that weren't built in house from the biggest names of the time so that deck, the FM head from Gorler, the speakers from Celestion, Elac, Goodmans or Tannoy went into their products in both portables and system separates. They could have used Thorn, Sankyo or Matsushita and in reality, noone would have been any the wiser.
milosancho
Member (SA)
Have never heard the dragon at work. Best cassette player I've ever owned and best I've ever heard was the B&O Beocord 9000 cassette player. It is a sophisticated piece of machinery and it sounds just amazing.
I've had some other Nak models and even a Pioneer 1250, to my ears the Beacord 9000 sounded best.
I've had some other Nak models and even a Pioneer 1250, to my ears the Beacord 9000 sounded best.
I aspire to a Dragon, but I have NAK BX-2 that I never use... and to be honest, I have had BBX that sound much better?!
ford93
Member (SA)
I was at JaeTee house not to long ago and heard a cassette that had a recording that sounded familiar. When I asked John about it, he reminded me it was a recording I had made for him. I had recorded a TDK MA-XG Fermo cassette for him from my Tascam B-122 tape deck. The sound that was coming out was really good, I was amazed at how this Dragon sounded.
The recording was from a house mix MP3 CD, of course I made sure the EQ was set at levels that would not have distorted the sound being that this was digital being recorded into analog. The outcome was pretty good and playing back that cassette on the Dragon you can really appreciate the sweet sounds it produced.
The recording was from a house mix MP3 CD, of course I made sure the EQ was set at levels that would not have distorted the sound being that this was digital being recorded into analog. The outcome was pretty good and playing back that cassette on the Dragon you can really appreciate the sweet sounds it produced.
- Status