Tape Trail
My Nakamichi RX-202E
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I'm 33 - and I remember lusting after a Nakamichi cassette deck for many, many years. What 13 year old could afford one? But a year ago I bought a RX-202 on ebay (coincidentally from the same seller who I bought my Accuphase integrated amp) 40 seconds before the auction ended, I couldn't afford it and spent the last 10 minutes thinking "Should I?" and even rang a friend. Well, I'm bloody glad I did. I have ONE pre-recorded cassette still in good condition (Laurie Anderson - Home of the Brave one side, Mister Heartbreak the other), and - it sounds magical. I recently bought the CD copy of Mister Heartbreak and I've A-B'd them. Yes, there is a little more detail and clarity on the CD (I have a good CD player - Consonance Reference 2.2 tubed output) but you know what? I still prefer the cassette rendition, it has an indefinable analogue warmth, a certain "something" that makes it better, somehow more natural. I know the RX-202 wasn't top of the line Nak, but, with a good recording, people come in and say "Oh, this is a good CD, I like it" - and I proudly say "Actually, it's cassette"...the invariable response is "Oh, it sounds really good, it doesn't sound like a cassette". Hmmm! And how could I not like the way the auto reverse on the RX-202 works (as in all 3 RX models) where the drawer itself flips out spins the tape around then puts it back in? Magic! By the way, I was informed that a deck of this age (15 years) may not be able to re-record metal tapes - but I had always thought that Nakamichi heads were very long lasting - these are the Sendust heads. Apparently the first, previous owner didn't use it that often. Any thoughts? PS boo hiss to Nakamichi for becoming just another lifestyle brand - why destroy a great name to try to ape B&O and Bose? Now, who even talks about Nakamichi except really in the past tense. Great to see that I'm not the only one that still loves cassette. By the way, I've stopped using even Dolby B - the dynamic compression just isn't worth it I've decided, I just put up with a bit of hiss between tracks and in low level passages. And I've found that if I use the (very not DONE thing) tone controls (Accuphase amps have very precise tone controls so that you can make very precise choices with each click, 2khz or 7khz in the treble, 200hz or 500hz in the bass, selectable with a button for each, plus tone defeat of course!), if I just turn the treble down one 2khz step I avoid the brightness in the treble that Dolby recorded cassettes can exhibit when played raw - with excellent results. The sound is virtually indistinguishable from CD output with that mellow analogue smoothness...
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- Re: My Nakamichi RX-202E - recordhead 19:30:29 01/21/05
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I was around 19 when I bought my Nak CR-1a tape deck. For a guy flipping steaks at the time it was a small fortune. It was the WORST deck I ever owned. Out of the box it was crap. I took it back to the dealer & he claimned there was no problem. He tested w/ their tapes & blah blah blah he was the audio pro. So I (stupidly) lived with this $300 paper weight. Just as the warranty was about to expire I wrote to Nakamickhi, explained my problem (by this time the dealer had gone belly up) & they extened the warranty & gave me the name of a repair shop. Long story short, the heads were out of aligmment & when fixed sounded great. only to a few months later stop working. Took it back paid the $80 to get it fixed only to have the same problem in less than 12 months. I got 2 Nak BX-100's from a radio station I worked for & they had the same startup problem as the CR-1A. The Nak when working did make great sounding tapes but I'll never dump that knida money on a tape deck again.
- Re: My Nakamichi RX-202E - DBerry 09:19:43 01/21/05
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Cool. I also bought a RX-202 about 1 year ago and have just re-inserted it back into my system. About 18 years ago, I bought a BX-100 and loved it. Stupid me, I sold it at a garage sale about 7 years ago.
Ya just gotta love the "reverse" button!
- got it in A1 cond in box no manual tho (nt) - KrunchiePops 10:16:31 01/20/05
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(nt)
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