Which Nakamichi to choose?

lowrider57

Proper bias is of course very important, but would you archive vinyl using Dolby?

I wouldn't choose to archive anything on cassette. It's just not an archival medium.

leoniruii

Had a 680 ZX for a short while which was also a quality device.

The 680 is an outstanding machine. I still have mine - it was expertly serviced last year by Soundsmith. I use it with a Nakamichi NR200 outboard Dolby B/C unit. When levels are properly aligned, the recording quality is amazing. I keep it on hand to play a few historic recordings that I have and the occasional old mixtape. But, as a practical matter, even the best cassette deck is obsolete. And a good reel-to-reel deck will walk all over it.

terry9

Not an archival medium? Depends. Cheap stuff, 120 minutes, agreed. Metal Type 4, 60 minutes duration, absolutely disagree.

The facts speak for themselves. You can’t get flat frequency response to 20K on cassette at 0 dB - when cassette manufacturers cited FR specs, it was typically at -20dB.

I have tapes made 20 years ago that sound fine.

Me too!

Tapes don’t degrade; vinyl does, at least on most real-world systems.

Tape most certainly does degrade. For example, where do you think that gunk comes from that must be cleaned from your tape heads, capstan and tape guides? A well-cared for LP will last for generations. Of course, they have to be stored properly, and played properly - but the same is true of tape. I have some LPs that date to the early 60s, and they play like new.

In any event, if you want to be serious about analog tape, reel-to-reel is the way to go.

inna

... His 'overhaul' is not at all ES Labs overhaul who literally completely disassemble and reassemble decks and claim to make them like new or better. But they charge thousands, so I told them to go to hell.

Really? You tell people to go to hell if you don't like their price? I'd say ES Labs is fortunate to not have you as a customer.

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

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.

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

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.