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Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck

97.83.174.99
Posted on September 21, 2014 at 13:13:54
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004

Found a nice Nakamichi CR-2A Cassette Deck in full working order for $8.00,which I thought was a good deal @ our Local Goodwill!Sounds really good! I was surprised @ how well it worked!From what I read on the Internet
all Nakamichi's are know to need repair as they break down quite often! Hope to find an owners Manual some day soon!Anyone else here have this deck? What do you think of it?Thanks!

 

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RE: Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck , posted on September 21, 2014 at 13:24:17
unclestu
Dealer

Posts: 5851
Joined: April 13, 2010
 Nak's issue was with their belts. Their belts were custom made because their logic system was based on a mechanical clutch system.

Push play and the machine starts up and as the clutch senses tension, it does into pause, then stop, then rewind. Without the proper tension the clutch mechanism does not work , at least not as intended. Use a universal belt as from PWB and the machine may work for a week, maybe more, but the tensions are not to Nak specs and inevitably it will crap out.

Later CR series incorporated a direct drive, which eliminated the belts.

That being said, I recall doing a search recently and found a couple of companies claiming to have remanufactured the original belts. Forget contacting Nakamichi. They have long been sold to a Taiwanese company which does not bother with the vintage stuff that made the name great. I would buy a belt set and store in the frig in a sealed bag, just in case, as I do not how much longer these specialty manufacturers will continue their supply.

Incidentally the user azimuth adjustment feature on the top line models (700, 1000 and Dragon) were originally patented by Tandberg.

 

RE: Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck , posted on September 21, 2014 at 15:00:29
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004
 Thanks for the information!

 

RE: Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck , posted on September 21, 2014 at 20:05:43
headphonejack
Audiophile

Posts: 47
Location: Western Pennsylvania
Joined: January 20, 2007
 Here ya go Brian. HiFiEngine has the owners manual and service manual. You just have to register. (It's free.) Enjoy!

 

RE: Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck , posted on September 21, 2014 at 22:35:10
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004
 Thanks very much for the Link! I signed up as a member/User,etc.

 

RE: Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck , posted on September 22, 2014 at 07:36:37
Tadlo
Audiophile

Posts: 1925
Location: midwest
Joined: March 8, 2003
 I used to have one and I now have the similar Cr-1a, which lacks the bias fine adjustment. I also have the DR-3, which is the more recent version of essentially the same deck The Nak 2 head decks are very nice and I have had no trouble with mine over a long period of time. The man problem with some of them is the "orange cap" problem. There are some orange capacitors that typically go bad after a couple decades. The earlier BX series had a rubber idler drive that would go bad after a few years. But I have been using a BX-300 for over 10 years and have had no problems. The CR and DR series have a gear drive that avoids the idler problem. I have had no problem with belts on any of my Naks.

 

RE: Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck , posted on September 22, 2014 at 08:06:51
Tony Lauck
Audiophile

Posts: 13629
Location: Vermont
Joined: November 12, 2007
 With the CR-7a the early units had the rubber idler. That's what mine has. Replacements are inexpensive and it's not a hard job, provided that you are careful and don't end up having to search for an errant retainer clip.


Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar

 

RE: Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck , posted on September 22, 2014 at 08:12:01
FenderLover
 I have a Dragon and a ZX-7. Both were serviced by Scan Audio, back in 2009. Both are still working well.

 

RE: Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck , posted on September 22, 2014 at 08:24:15
Tadlo
Audiophile

Posts: 1925
Location: midwest
Joined: March 8, 2003
 I know. The CR-7 was the first of the CR series to come out, and it was before the change to the gear drive. I replaced the idler in a BX 100 and it's not too hard, but you have to be careful not lose control of the little C-clip.

 

RE: Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck , posted on September 22, 2014 at 14:06:03
Michael Samra
Dealer

Posts: 36118
Location: saginaw michigan
Joined: January 30, 2005
 I have a NAK ZX9 which has the same heads as the dragon which I traded my LX3 for it plus cash.The NAK cassette decks and OMS-7 CD players are some of the musical components on the planet.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken

 

RE: Nakamichi cassette decks , posted on September 22, 2014 at 16:31:29
M3 lover
Audiophile

Posts: 6599
Location: SW Mich
Joined: May 29, 2005
Contributor
  Since: July 4, 2007
 Brian, looks to be an outstanding score.

I owned several cassette decks through the years - a couple of HKs, a Tandberg 310, a Nak 480, an Aiwa 770, and a Pioneer CT-S800. As you can see, none of these were top end models, although the Pioneer has the same specs as their Elite model. Both the Tandberg and Nak were big disappointments and I suspect were built to a low price point just to take advantage of their brand names.

But the Pioneer has been a wonderful deck, both for sonics and features in use, as was the Aiwa. I'll admit mine still does not have too many hours and has only be played maybe 3-4 hours in the past 10 years. But for the little I could sell it for I simply hang on to it.

Should it ever fail I would be very happy to find a bargain such as yours to be able to continue playing my cassette collection, however few times that might be. I assume any of the three head Naks would be desirable.

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing, if you can fake that you've got it made." Groucho

 

I have these..., posted on September 22, 2014 at 20:40:51
kootenay
Audiophile

Posts: 8445
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Joined: October 16, 2007

and even today, I still marvel at how the machine physically rotates the tape to play the other side without hesitations.

 

Thanks everyone for your responses so far! NT., posted on September 22, 2014 at 21:26:34
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004
 NT.

 

RE: Nakamichi CR-2A cassette deck , posted on September 25, 2014 at 10:06:05
Crazy Dave
Audiophile

Posts: 14371
Location: East Coast
Joined: October 4, 2001
 I have some really high-end Nakamichi decks, but a working CR-2A is really as good as you need. It is an excellent deck. Nakamichi set the bar very high for their entry level decks.

Dave

 

"Nakamichi set the bar very high for their entry level decks.", posted on September 25, 2014 at 15:19:27
M3 lover
Audiophile

Posts: 6599
Location: SW Mich
Joined: May 29, 2005
Contributor
  Since: July 4, 2007
 Sorry Dave but I disagree.

Although you may be referring to their 3-head decks, I'm not familiar with the full line.

The 480 I once owned was what I would call "entry level" from Nakamichi and that was a bar most could walk over! From my limited experience HK, Aiwa, and Pioneer offered better products for what the 480 cost or less.

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing, if you can fake that you've got it made." Groucho

 

RE: "Nakamichi set the bar very high for their entry level decks.", posted on September 26, 2014 at 11:46:38
Crazy Dave
Audiophile

Posts: 14371
Location: East Coast
Joined: October 4, 2001
 It cost $495 and was made from 1979 to 1982. I am sure you could argue that X or Y deck was a better value at the time. However that has no relevance to what we are talking about now, which is a great looking functioning cassette deck that Brian paid $8 for. Its probable use will be played old home recordings, commercial recordings and possibly mix tapes. I stand by my assessment: Good enough!

I have two 3-headed Naks, a BX-300 and a ZX-7. Both are fine decks, but that is all I use them for. If I was recording live music, they would slaughter the 480, but for playback, I suspect there is not much difference.

Dave

 

My point was, posted on September 26, 2014 at 17:36:44
M3 lover
Audiophile

Posts: 6599
Location: SW Mich
Joined: May 29, 2005
Contributor
  Since: July 4, 2007
 the 480 was a mediocre product, based upon owning one. That was the model I'd consider their entry level.

As I said I'm not familiar with the whole Nakamichi line but I have no doubt that Brian's deck is a very good one, aside from whatever he paid for it. I also assume his model was not priced among the entry level decks when it was new.

No matter now since he got a (hopefully) great deck for next to nothing. ;^)

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing, if you can fake that you've got it made." Groucho

 

RE: My point was, posted on September 30, 2014 at 11:34:59
Crazy Dave
Audiophile

Posts: 14371
Location: East Coast
Joined: October 4, 2001
 My friend still owns two and he really likes them, but not everyone does like Nakamichi. Joe Rosen slamed them when he used to post here. I have read some valid criticisms of Naks. They tend not to be at their best playing back tapes made on tape decks other than Nakamichi. See the link below. I like his writing style!

Dave

 

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