Question about cassette player settings

Jim is partially correct. The EQ or equalization is set for 70 for chrome and metal tapes, and 120 for conventional tape, as I recall. The bias is some Nak proprietary coding, but is probably EX for conventional, SX for chrome and ZX for metal. I'm surprised that your blank tapes don't say something like high or low bias, and give the recommended EQ.

Thanks for the corrrection, Swampwalker- it's been a few years since I've been involved with tapes. Although, I seem to recall at some point that chrome and metal meant the same thing as far as bias was concerned and that high quality non-metal tapes like the TDK SA was the mid-bias setting. Perhaps the standards were changed at some point as even higher bias tapes were introduced?

I have an LX-3 which is the same with the exception of having two heads.The previous poster is absolutely right. I would like to add that if you want the best performance use only metal tapes:TDK,Maxell, even Sony.The 'super' chrome (Maxell XL-IIS and TDK SA-X ) sometimes come close but I can always here the difference.Forget about 'normal 'type tapes; they are so inferior that it is not funny.This deck is capable of the very high quality recordings though not quite there with the best.

If i remember correctly, Audio magazine did a test using a referernce quality cassette deck to see which tape types performed best. I think the machine in question was a Nak 1000. As one might expect, the Nakamichi brand tapes of various formulations ( EX, SX and ZX ) did the best of the lot. They bettered the likes of similar yet better known formulations from TDK, Maxell, Scotch, Sony, Memorex, etc... Then again, Nak probably pre-set the factory bias / EQ on their machines to match their specific tape formulations.

With that in mind, you'll find that specific tape formulations / brands will work better than others in any type of magnetic tape based recorder. This has to do with the factory pre-sets in terms of Equilization and Bias. Some machines automatically re-calibrate themselves for optimum performance with whatever type of tape you install. These were all more expensive three head machines and typically from the late 1970's to mid 1980's or so. If you don't have one of these machines, it would probably be best to experiment with a few different brands of tape to see which works best. For audio reproduction, Metal is best with Chrome coming in a close second. Anything else ( normal or Ferri-Chrome ) coming a distant third and fourth in most cases. Sean
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Like most of the posters, it's been a while since I used a cassette deck. Most Nak decks had a bias setting procedure to optimize recording on blank tapes. I never owned the LX-5 so I don't know if it has this feature. From memory, having set the tape type and put the deck into record mode, you start the test tone and start recording. You then adjust the bias to achieve "0" on both channels. On at least one of my Naks this required using a small screwdriver.

If you haven't already done so, you might try emailing Nakamichi and inquire whether it would be possible to purchase a manual, or whether one is available in a pdf file.

Doug