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Nakamichi cassette playback in non-Nak deck?

I've been considering investing in a good used Nak 3-head deck for home recording (DR1 or DR2 or similar) - mainly to make high quality tapes for playback at home and in my Sony walkman and Blaupunkt car deck. Yes, I do own an iPod (1gig shuffle) which I love but cassettes are still cool, too!

Anyway, researching online I came across a bit that stated playback of tapes in a non-Nak deck may be a bit disappointing due to the fact that Nak apparently uses a very narrow gap recording head to magnetize the tape which "ordinary" decks cannot fully playback, leading to a more muddy/muted sound with less soundstage vs. playback in a Nak deck. Anyone have any experience with this?

My walkman is the high-end 10th anniversary edition from 1989 (wmf-701c) with dolby C and laser amorphous head. I believe it is a narrow-gap design with 20-20,000 freq. response with metal tape and S/N better than 70dB with Dolby C. I should say that the FM tuner in the walkman sounds arguably as good or better than MP3's on my iPod at 192kbps! It's a quality deck and I think it would be fun to see how a really well-recorded tape will sound on it. Would a Nak work well in this case or should I find a used Sony ES 3-head deck for best results instead? -jz
john_z
jmo
115 posts
 
I have a Nakamichi RX 505 with less then 100 hours use boxed up and it looks brand spanking new. I actually thought about hooking this unit back into my system for a conversation piece. Back in the day the RX 505 was one hell of a deck.
pryso
1,928 posts
 
John_z, I believe you could test for yourself. Since your options for a Nak will mean buying used, bring your Walkman with you when auditioning any deck you're considering to purchase and ask for a tape the seller made from that deck. Listen to it on the deck for sale, then listen to it on the Walkman. That should tell you if there is a compatibility problem.

And speaking of used Naks, from my experience I could not recommend the 480. I think it was a budget deck and not up to the standards of their other products. The one I owned did not perform as well as the Aiwa 770 I replaced it with or the even better Pioneer CT-S800 I bought after that. The Pioneer was a good bargain as it offered virtually the same specs as the Pioneer Elite, except for the glossy faceplate and wood cap ends, for half the price.
john_z OP
178 posts
 
Pryso - that's good advice that I will use if buying local. I am looking beyond just Nakamichi now and am seeing some nice older decks for sale made by Yamaha and Denon, too. Will even consider a 2-head deck if it's quality. Always wanted a 3-head deck, though! I'll keep my eyes peeled for the NAD, too. We'll see what transpires.. -jz
pryso
1,928 posts
 
John_z, back in the '70s and '80s I owned several different cassette decks. For me, the 3-head models were so much easier to record with due to the direct monitoring. With the low pricing for used cassette decks today, I would not consider anything else.
john_z OP
178 posts
 
Hey Swampwalker, I'm going to look at a NAD 6100 deck from their "Monitor Series" line (circa 1989) for sale locally. Probably a step or two down from the 6300 (It's not a 3-head deck), but looks like a very nice deck nonetheless with low hours offered by the original owner. The price is right and this may be a fine choice for my needs. Pryso- I will bring my walkman to see how the tapes recorded on it sound. Thanks all! -jz
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