Which Nakamichi to choose?

Its the tapehead that will wear out. Thats what keeps me from playing background music all day with it. Use your tape player judiciously. Sadly it has an expiration date with its heads after being relapped on time. So make its time count. I wonder if ESL labs have any extra dragon heads they would want to sell. I think they will be sitting on them

@mickeyblu79 if CD-1 and DR-2 are the only choices you have then I recommend the CD-1 because CD-1 has manual PB head azimuth adjustment (ala CR-7). Personally I'm not a fan of  Nakamichi decks except for the 1000zxl. I've owned Dragon, ZX-7 and CR-7 and still own the 1000zxl but have not heard the CD-1 so not sure how it sounds. Of the lot  I previously owned ZX-7 is my favorite of the 3 I listed, followed by the Dragon and then the CR-7. The other very underrated Nak deck is the BX-300. It's nicknamed "baby" Dragon. It is that good, again in PB only. I don't have first hand experience on it's recording capabilities.

680ZX comes very close to 1000zxl sound in play back only, in recording 1000zxl is in a league of it's own. I still enjoy recording my vinyl to tape, both cassette and Reel to Reel. You'd be surprised how good a lowly compact cassette can sound if you have the right (read serviced and up to spec) deck. The downside is the cost of maintenance and tapes. 

I just dusted of my Nak 700II cleaned the heads and pinch rollers. I put a Soundgarden tape in I had recorded off tbe record in 2005 and .............. it sounded great! Rich and full. Plus it looks cool playing. Nakdoc in Tenn restored it in 2014 and did a great job. The tape was recorded on my Tandberg. I had played the tape hundreds of times in ny car and in tbe heat. Its a Sony metal select cassette. I like those. 

@blueranger Which Tandberg did you have back then? I’m listening to a recording of Harry James Still Harry... (sheffield labs Direct to Disk vinyl) on a Sony Metal ES tape, sounds fabulous.

Nevermind on the Tandberg model, it's 3014A.

My Dragon is not back yet. Its yanking the tape real hard but only does it sporadically.