Nakamichi Cassette Decks


I would like to hear from anyone who can tell me if the Nakamichi decks are better than say a upper end Denon DRW 800A, And second is there a big dirrence in the way the different models sound in playback mode. I' thinking of buying a Nakamichi MR2
fleeceba

I am floored at the length of this thread!  This says a lot about Naks in general...although I haven't used mine in years, I still remember vividly the differences in the top end Naks and the others, along with other manufacturers' machines.  Although I liked other decks, from various manufacturers such as Teac, Tandberg, etc., and despite having owned several other decks, I ended up with only Naks.  They just sounded better to me.  After selling off everything but my last two, a Dragon and a 700ZXL, I did some A-B testing.

(I had two 700ZXLs but sold one to a friend - talk about seller's remorse...)

Bottom line: to my ears, the Dragon was a superb deck, that reproduced music from top to bottom beautifully. 

HOWEVER, again, to my ears, the 700ZXL had a more 'organic', smoother sound...and could reproduce bass notes that you couldn't even hear.  I believe they tested down to some absurd frequency, like 11 Hz.  You need a good subwoofer to really hear, and feel, what they can do.

One other thing to note: the 700ZXL was designed and built with a cost-no-object philosophy that seemed to end with the death of Etsuro Nakamichi.  The amount of shielding and dampening material used, and the silence of the mechanism itself, were beyond reproach - and I am certain that it added to the quality of the reproduced sound.

When playing tapes from other decks, though, unless the 700ZXL's heads matched up perfectly with the other deck's, the Dragon won this one, hands down.  The heads were designed to follow the tracks, maximizing performance from all tapes.

Wow I have read a lot about the mystic of the 700 ZXL! A beautiful machine also. I have the 700 II and its a great machine. It's nick name I hear is the "toaster". Its a good  playback machine. Non metal record capable however. I just found out tonight that my Dragon has gone through its last checks at the bench and will be shipped out this week. The tech scolded me for letting the punch rollers get so dirty so he is helping me out by disconnecting a switch that allows engagement of the transport with the tape cover off. Now I can place the cotton swap on a moving roller like I do on my Tandberg. Awesome. There is a lot of history and nostalgia with cassettes. I have many fond memories recording through the years. I remember dreaming and looking at the salesman showing the TOTL decks to me in the 80s and could only hope to have such a wonderful piece of equipment one day. Now I can actually own these 2nd hand beauties. Have them restored and they live!. My Dragon has been down a couple of years so it will be nice to have it up and running. I'm an audiophile and do listen critcally more than I should. Stereophile used to put cassette decks down. I know with the right tape and calibrated machine it can be magical. Musical. A snob could bash it and put it down. Its something about the machine actually moving the tape thats so cool. Yes I'm a tape head and I stand proud.

I hear you, blueranger...there's nothing like hearing a top quality cassette tape (or reel to reel).  I opted for the 700ZXL because the Dragon had not yet been introduced, and the 1000ZXL looked like a piece of military gear, with the sliders and whatnot.  Also, I had bad experiences with sliders over the years, so I tended to avoid them.  I was ecstatic with the performance of the 700ZXL, and bought another a few months after getting my first.  A couple of years later I bought the Dragon, and after ensuring proper break-in, started testing them both.  The differences were quite significant, especially given the outstanding specs of the Dragon (not to mention the advanced technology).  Time and again, however, the 700ZXL outperformed the Dragon, especially on the most demanding things available at the time (just released CDs, but primarily difficult to record vinyl, such as Sheffield Labs releases).  On the Sheffield version of "America", the clarity of the transients was amazing...but the underpinning of the lowest frequencies was revelatory.  I eventually sold off one of my 700ZXLs and kept the Dragon, though, since I sometimes listened to tapes from other machines.

At this point, however, I am considering whether it is worth restoring both units, since most of my listening is now done via CDs...

Restore the 700ZXL. It looks way cooler man. Its silver! My only critique of the Dragon is it is dark and you need a light source to see all the buttons. I have never actually compared those two side by side but from my readings there wouldn't be much difference. Hey the LX3 and LX5 are also winners in the looks department.

I agree.  The 700ZXL looks WAY better than the Dragon - and the LX series took their styling cues (the dark charcoal/black with brushed aluminum finish) from the 700ZXL.  Sonically, I am considering selling the Dragon off "as-is" and restoring the 700ZXL.  Some folks like the Dragon better, but I guess that's a matter of taste...

Thoughts?