Dolby NR encoding - did it ever work

I don't know, Norman, my Nak was aligned and calibrated by Willy Hermann five years ago, and I did send him Maxell Vertex tape along with the deck. But I cannot be certain what he did with Dolby if anything. The deck still sounds exactly the same as when it returned from him. The sound is definitely not mid-fi, the deck just reached its limits. As I said, the drop in dynamics with Dolby is not dramatic but quite noticeable. In any case, I don't really need Dolby, some extra noise doesn't bother me. And of course I record directly from phono to deck, I never use tape-out on the amp.

inna,

How is it that you are recording directly from phono to deck?  I know Eckart mentioned that he does this too.  You must be using some type of phono preamp out?  Yes?

Last night I calibrated the Dolby on a Nakamichi 500 Dual tracer.  It has the built in 400hz test tone for this.  After calibration, it was almost impossible to tell the difference between the source and the deck.  And this was a two head deck.  (it does benefit from the magnificent  focus gap head however).  This feature is also included in my Nakamichi 1000 MKI.

Which Nakamichi are you using?  I am certain that if the Dolby was calibrated to your tape, the result would be excellent.

Norman

Norman,
It is Nak 682ZX. I just disconnect the phono stage from the integrated amp and go directly to the deck. I of course calibrate each cassette when recording, this makes a lot of a difference.