Good morning/day! I have three full-size decks that consist of an A&D (Akai) GX-9100, a Nakamichi BX-300, and the Teac Z6000. My thoughts are after using all three is that they all have their own sound signature, and the HX pro on the Z 9100 is very hard to beat making recordings. The Nakamichi BX-300 is also stellar after I replaced the belt, I don't think this one was used very much, and I even ordered the wireless remote control for it, and I'm thinking about putting this one up for sale. The Teac is a really great machine, and I like the DBX as well as the functionality and aesthetics of this one. I also have two Sony WM-6 DC walkmans in mint condition, one of them is just coming back from Service and Voss collectibles From eBay did the service on it. His remark was he's never seen a better one, and he didn't have to hardly do anything to it except change the belts and do a little bit of cleaning. So that made me feel good, and I have a earlier serial number 6 DC with the pointy head that I may send out to him also. Any way that leads me to this; I'm looking for a deck possibly with adjustable playback azimuth that will play all of my recordings from different decks, and play them very well. For those of you that have owned the Nakamichi Dragon, as well as some of the other decks with adjustable playback azimuth… Are they worth it is there that big of a difference when you play tapes recorded from another machine on this deck, or is too much made of that across the Internet? I appreciate your answers thanks and happy early New Year's.
Most pre-recorded cassettes are recorded with the correct azimuth, so for most cassettes you don’t need azimuth correction. Saying all that when you do get a cassette with the wrong azimuth, the system is amazing and makes a huge difference. I have a few cassettes that are way off and having control over the azimuth from my armchair is just amazing. The CR-7 has a greater range than the Dragon, so for the odd cassette that is way off the Dragon will not do it. I use to have Nakamichi Cassette Deck 1, which has the same manual control of the head like the CR-7. The Cassette Deck 1, is coloured in it’s sounds reproduction. So for me the only Nakamichi’s to have if you want something that will be neutral and as close to the original recording as possible are the CR range i.e. CR-3, CR-4, CR-5 and CR7.
@TooCooL4 I appreciate the post thanks. originally I thought that the cassette deck one, and the DR-1 was the way to go price wise, then I started hearing about the bass bump. I don't have any experience with any of the higher end Nakamichi's but that seems to be the consensus at least as far as I've read. I think all of my machines are pretty well aligned, and I don't feel like I'm giving up very much on recording, but it would be nice to have a machine that would play them all well, and have a little bit of adjustability. The CR-7 is fairly rare and expensive. Is there much of a difference in sound quality between the CR-5 and the CR-7?
The Cassette Deck 1 can be modified to make it sound more normal. Not a lot if you can get the CR-5 to record as well as the CR-7. Don’t forget the CR-5 does not have as good a Biasing adjustment as the CR-7. If you are big on recording, then the CR-4 would be a better option than the CR-5.
Understood, thanks again. I saw the modification online for the cassette deck 1 and I believe it was six capacitors that needed to be changed out. does the CR-4 have the adjustable playback azimuth?
No, Cassette Deck 1 & DR-1 both have the manual azimuth control. Just the CR-7 has the wireless control of it.
Yes, I meant of the CR models, I should've clarified. I really like the CR-7 amd I also like horizontal meters versus vertical ones. It's just so expensive if you can even find a decent one.
Yes very true, and I actually have quite a bit of gear that I would like to sell, I have more than I could ever use. thank you for all the replies.
