What are your thoughts on the Dragon tape deck?

Peter,

I have heard other stories on Nak's service, send your deck to Jeffrey at www.eslabs.com or Steven Sank at http://stephensank.com; these guys will get it right the first time and have it better than new.

Hi Peter,
I used to own the 582 WAY back in 1980. I loved that deck and it made great sounding tapes that I still play in my car! It kept breaking down, however, and finally bit the dust several years ago. I couldn't throw it out, however. It gave real pleasure while it was working. So it now lies at rest in my friend's garage, I guess waiting on a nephew or great-grandchild or somebody who wants it and knows how to repair it. My CR-7A and Dragon did not ever break down. I have them serviced by a local hi fi shop that services vintage gear. I guess they could fix the 582 also, but I think it needs new heads and capstans and everything by now, so it wouldn't be worth it.

Besides the above, some of the Revox and Studer decks are also amazing and compete with the Dragons and Tandbergs (and may be cheaper than the Dragons too).

I don't have a Dragon but own a 682ZX.Personally, I think that autoreverse has no place in a serious deck.680ZX,682ZX,700ZXL and 1000ZXL are the Nak's best.Tandbergs-3014A and 3004 are great.Yes, I can tell the difference between the source and the tape.However,put a metal tape in any of these decks and make a recording from a good turntable, and all this digital junk will be unable to compete.Cassette decks are not obsolete at all.

Inna, you base your ordering of Nak's "best" on what? This can be quite subjective, but those that have great knowledge of the Nak line would disagree with your ordering, though they are nice decks. The Dragon's auto-reverse design is excellent and if I could pick any deck, I would choose it; I do believe some other Nak's are slighly better on recording, but for playback, w/the Dragon's features, it's hard to beat!