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In Reply to: RE: Mostly, I just loved Nakamichi cassette decks. posted by Travis on September 12, 2020 at 09:59:03
The Dragon is somewhat different than any other Nakamichi because it automatically optimizes playback head azimuth for each tape you play. This means you get the best possible playback resolution with every tape you play. If you're serious about cassette tape, you should try to find a Dragon and then have it restored to perfect health. It will make an improvement that you can easily hear.
Good luck,
John Elison
Follow Ups:
Hi John ,
I also had a nice Nakamichi 700 ZXE back in the day . When making tape recordings the heads Azimuth is adjusted automatically at first prior to tape recording . It's sounds great and true it rivals the reel tapes . The 700ZXE was as big as the top of the line 1000ZXL . Problem was when you playback recordings made from other cassette tape decks or commercially available prerecorded tapes it does not sound good . But one thing I noted w/ this Cassette decks even the top of the line Nakamichi was they were not able to handle the wide dynamic range of my moving coil cartridge ( Koetsu Black ) . Either the recording level is set to low or when I set the recording a little higher it would saturate the tape . Maybe I did not try hard enough . I regretted selling it .
Stay safe ,
Mondial
I prefer the Dragon to both of the Nakamichi decks you mention. The reason is that the Dragon is the only Nakamichi that automatically adjusts playback head azimuth to any tape being played. Those two decks you mention adjust record head azimuth to match their fixed playback head. This is not the same thing.
The left channel of the Dragon's playback head is divided in half so that each half cam be monitored individually while head azimuth is adjusted until the phase of the signal on each half is perfectly matched. The record head is fixed. The reason for this arrangement is so the playback head will maintain perfect azimuth when the tape plays in reverse. The additional benefit is that it will play perfectly with tapes recorded on other Cassette recorders with slightly different head azimuth. In my opinion, the Dragon was the best cassette tape record Nakamichi every made.
The Dragon also had Dolby C noise reduction, which allowed it cope with the expanded dynamic range of cartridges like your Koetsu. If you had owned the Dragon, you would have loved it. There really was no other cassette that even came close to providing the recording and playback quality of the Nakamichi Dragon.
Best regards,
John Elison
Thanks for the reply John ,
I could have availed of the Nakamichi NR 100 Dolby C add on made specially for the 700 and 1000 series of that time . But I lost interest in cassette deck , but if I knew during that time the Dolby C is capable of wide dynamic range maybe I would'nt have sold my 700ZXE .
Best regard and stay safe ,
Mondial
Yes, Dolby C had noise reduction in-between Dolby B and DBX. Dolby C had just the right amount of compression and expansion whereby it sounded good and yet provided enough noise reduction to increase dynamic range just the right amount without any audible pumping like DBX. The other advantage of Dolby C over Dolby B is that it didn't obliterate the high-frequencies like Dolby B. I thought the Dragon with Dolby C noise reduction sounded so good that I got rid of my Revox A77 reel-to-reel and bought a second Dragon. I'm not saying the Dragon made cassette tape sound just as good as reel-to-reel, but it came so close that I no longer felt the need for reel-to-reel. Of course, when Digital Audio Tape (DAT) came out, it sounded even better to me than reel-to-reel or my Nakamichi Dragon so I switched to DAT in 1991 and I've been into digital recording ever since.
Best regards,
John Elison
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