Nakamichi 700 - need advice

Yeah, I cancelled the purchase of the Nak back in March. I contacted Willy Herman and ESLabs. Both told me the deck was too old to fix. SoundSmith never replied to my email. Maybe one day I'll break down and get a Dragon in mint condition...

Be forewarned- if buying a 700, the record head is a known failure issue. If its bad, its really hard to find a replacement! I would not purchase one at any price if it cannot be demonstrated that the record head works.


Otherwise you can find all the belts and the like; the board connectors are really terrible as the plastic of which they are made is perishing and resulting in bad connections. Sometimes you can put small screws through them to hold them together.

For all to hear for Nakamichi tape deck repair---- www. Electronics service labs.com or www.eslabs.com 

I cancelled the purchase of the Nak. I contacted Willy Herman, as above, and ESLabs. Both told me the deck was too old to fix. SoundSmith never replied to my email.

Have you had response yet from Soundsmith yet? Result?

I heard back from Willy Herman that he does not repair that vintage deck anymore. I have a call in to SoundSmith. Any other recommendations will be appreciated.

Soundsmith does excellent work on Nakamichi decks. Willy Hermann is also often recommended, although I don't have personal experience with him.