Which Nakamichi to choose?

If you're thinking about archiving precious records, don't think twice. Get a Nak. The medium is viable, the sound good, the build excellent.

What's the consensus these days on whether or not to use Dolby when recording?  Proper bias is of course very important, but would you archive vinyl using Dolby?

If both are in the same condition, the best choice would be the Cassettedeck 1. The DR-2 is newer, however the Deck 1 has the better transport. The Deck 1 has, what some techs call, the basic Dragon transport. It is cast metal and the DR-2's transport is stamped metal. Also, the Deck 1 has real time monitoring, not a feature on the DR-2. Here's a link for more info.

http://www.naks.com/

Calling a cassette deck (especially a Nakamichi deck) a “turd” is just wrong! Anyone who still listens to cassettes knows what I mean. The medium gets a bad rap as it only moves the tape at 1.75” per second. OK, it’s not reel-to-reel but it can sound really good with high quality commercial cassettes. The cassettes can still be found at thrift stores, sometimes in the original plastic wrappers, for a quarter. People who still own and use Nakamichi decks know what I mean.

@lowrider57 I would personally never record with Dolby Noise Reductions it kills the high frequencies.

Good info in here once you get past the turd stuff. I think some people don't understand that many of us old timers who grew up in the 80's have boxes and boxes of cassettes laying around and no way to listen to them. I have been shopping for a while, but the problem isn't finding a deck, it is finding the right deck.
-Geoff