What are your thoughts on the Dragon tape deck?

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.

To me, it totally depends on how many cassettes you own, intend to make and listen to. I cannot speak of the Dragon from my own experience but I am familiar with the 700s, 550s and 670zx each of which I have owned or extensively used. Because I have 20+ years worth of high quality recordings and/or live or irreplaceable tapes, I consider my cassette decks indispensible. That being said, if you do not have a substantial investment in cassettes, I do not believe it is the wave of the future and even with the finest recordings through the finest equipment, there is a slight difference between source and tape.

Sank says he is an "Authorised Servicer" because he is NOT an Authorized servicer, I checked with Nak, he apparently mis-spells Authorized to mislead people, because he knows it is mis-spelled, I told him. Perhaps he also hopes it will help him to avoid legal action by Nak against him, I can only imagine. I would not advise dealing with him, I began digging after he said he accomplished some repairs to my amp, and it came back in worse shape then when I sent it to him.....

Caveat Emptor

Lou

I used to sell Nak decks back in the mid 80's, but was not all that impressed with the Dragon. I felt that it had a darker sound when compared to the newer decks like the CR7a, which was my favorite. Also, the cassettes I recorded on the Dragon never sounded that good in my car stereo deck. I agree that the ZX and ZXL decks had better mechanisms, but could not compete sonically with the CR7A- more extended on the top and bottom. For auto reverse I'd go with the RX505, watching the cassette flip makes me think how smart these Nak guys were. All this is moot as age has decomposed all my cassettes and cds players have replaced cassette decks in cars.