What are your thoughts on the Dragon tape deck?

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!

Let's hear those with 'great knowledge'.I would also like to add that cables are very important;I use Purist Audio Maximus.

Don't take offense Inna, if you have. Go to Naks.com, sign up for Naktalk and spend some time on the list and you can gain a wealth of knowledge, if it is still being participated by many, I haven't been on there in awhile.

I just spoke with a certified Nak repairman, who told me that the mechanisms on the RX, BX, CR, MR, and DR series are inferior relative to other Nak series. He said that the best Nak tape mechanisms last for decades (still yet to have an endpoint). This includes the Dragon, the 58X series, and others that he did not mention (I assume all but those listed above).

I've owned a Dragon since 1987. It's a great cassette deck. No one has mentioned it's key claim to fame: automatic azimuth adjustment. The deck continuously adjusts the azimuth of the playback head during tape movement to match the tape in use. This ensures best high frequency response from the tape, and best noise reduction performance.

Because of auto azimuth adjustment (and dual capstan transport) tapes play back equally well in both directions, so there is no penalty for auto reverse.

The only drawback the deck has to me is that it pre-dates Dolby S noise reduction and only has B and C.