Which Nakamichi to choose?

There is more than just losing highs with dolby - sound loses fullness. Tape hiss is inevitable but can be minimized, you do need excellent deck and tapes for that. Besides, almost all older recordings have tape hiss to various degree.

Cassettes were never the subject of the loudness wars, like CDs and vinyl. For that reason the dynamics on the humble cassette can be quite surprising. Tape is a natural medium. It breathes.

I have been listening to the Sony Cassette deck all morning, and I discovered that it has a beguiling quality, that wouldn't let me turn it off; especially when I quit comparing it to my other sources.

Maybe that's the key to the cassette; just quit comparing and enjoy.

inna

There is more than just losing highs with dolby - sound loses fullness. Tape hiss is inevitable but can be minimized ...

There’s always been a lot of confusion and misinformation about Dolby NR. Assuming a quality deck and tape that have been properly aligned with each other, Dolby does not cause a loss of high frequencies when compared to the original. Of course, if you have a Dolby encoded tape but choose to listen to it without Dolby decoding, you will hear more highs than if the tape were properly decoded. That’s by design; Dolby is a companding system. Dolby NR actually ensures better HF response - when properly used - than you can achieve on the same deck and tape without it.

To be fair, there were many poorly-made cassette decks during the cassette era, and many were so badly constructed that they couldn’t maintain proper alignment. Dolby was doomed on those machines.

Please consider that "proper alignment" includes correct bias, eq, azimuth, and alignment to Dolby level. Different manufacturers used one of several different standards for Dolby level, further contributing to the misunderstandings of Dolby NR’s effectiveness.

Having everything in alignment on a cassette deck can be compared to having everything set up correctly on a turntable, if something is off the sq will be off.

I think with the resurgence of vinyl and the old time vinyl addicts , setting up of a turntable is better understood and practiced than the same procedure for a tape deck.

Usually the correct set up of a tape deck is best left to those dying breed of specialists, mine was set up maybe 4 years ago and I have not had reason to question it having drifted or warranting another set up yet.