Nakamichi Cassette Decks

George

I would say, yes, the Dragon was the flagship model in that it was their top of the line model at the end of the Nakamichi's reign as king of cassette deck manufacturers.

However, you could argue that two earlier machine were even more exotic:

700 ZXL and
1000 ZXL

The 1000 ZXL was also made in an extremely limited edition, gold plated series and is prized by Nak collectors.

The specs on the Dragon may have been a bit better, and the Dragon also offered auto reverse.

My personal favorite would be the 700 ZXL with the outboard Dolby processor.

Re prices, not sure and they will probably vary considerably based on condition.

Most bank for the buck?

Ya can't beat the RX-505, ease of use, auto-reverse, bias tune, the list goes on.

I have five open reel decks and still come back to the 505..service and parts are iffy, Jeff Galin in Hartford, Conn is the go to guy for Nak, he is super honest, and has a great pair of hands!

Try fixing one these days. Naks Revox and Tandberg especially need proper equipment and well trained technicians for repair

Forget the overhyped problematic finicky dragon. Go for the 500/600/700/1000 deck 1 zx

I still have a CR-3A from years ago and sounds real good and have friends with higher end models that sound even better than mine. The thing is when folks say the tape sounds just like source, they are comparing it with the vinyl and the tables of the day. Put these decks up against a good digital front end and that comparison gets a bit difficult. I also have an open reel deck and I wouldn’t say the recording is better with either format but they definitely sound more organic and analog. Better, not necessarily but warmer and more sweet, may be.