A nice easy repair. The deck sounds good too. I just wish that there were more people who can still repair things like this, so difficult to find anyone.
Been there did that same repair over 2 decades ago on a friends bx100. Even as a novice I figured out that back plate removal to get at the idler--being service friendly was nice. At that time kits were to be had from somewhere that included a capstan belt and idler wheel. Quick google search today shows just a "tire" for repalcement from a few different sources. Thank God for rubber renew!!!! Dang, your recording/playback using this machine is one of the best I've heard on your channel-wow!!!!!
Another Fix is to take the rubber tire off the idler, put a small dental rubber band on the plastic idler wheel, then install the tire back on over it. This makes the tire stick out of the wheel more and gives it much more grip.
Regarding things I obviously knew about, like oiling bearings, and the rubber renew thing here - well, I only knew generally. To see it done is another story. The little details if you get what I am saying. I learned a lot from you in a short time. Thanks and keep it goin'! The deck sounds boss through the camera!
A classic iddler issue for a nice deck. Nakamichi was the Japanese tape deck specialist, and you understand why when you see how it's built. Even qualified in "entry level", this two head simple machine was nicely built but also sold the price many others sold their three heads. Thirty years later and a little rubber renue, this one is like new, the others are mostly done... One of the best ever machine built by Nakamichi is the famous Dragon, and I agree when it comes to your appreciation: it is an over complicated beast for studios or rich (and happy) owners. Azymuth and heads position were sort of motorized, also requesting a long and demanding procedure. You also have tons and tons of presets with each specific tape type, so if any fool goes under the hood, you are guaranteed hours of technical test with a bunch of Nakamichi reference calibration tapes. To day, Dragon decks are still the ultimate reference in cassette deck machines, and used ones are sold at solid levels, even if simpler machines like CR7 may be a better target. But who needs a 2000$ + deck to record decent analog tapes at home?
I'm at work, but I am Bookmarking this one to watch later. I own a BX100 that I found at a Goodwill. It currently works, but I still want to know more about the inner workings of this deck!
Saw BX100 and yelled idler! Had a bag of them back in the day just for the 100. Probably my favourite all round tape deck. Nice smooth loading and futuristic front panel. OK, theres the dragon but you had to be a banker to afford one
Smashing repair, and didn't take up too much of your day :-D I like the fact that the deck has two motors, one for crude grunt and one for the capstan only, good design. Ive always liked metal decks over plastic crap, my mate has a tensai/akai system i serviced recently, all metal deck :-D
Got one of these at a car boot. $5. Sounds great! But has a intermittent channel drop out. Cold solder joint or the like. But damned if I can find it! Well done on this repair.
Idlers for Nakamichi decks are still made, and are readily available. I paid around $8 for a new idler for my LX-3 Deck. They are also quite easy to replace.
@@Johnathan_Waters Getting anything shipped to Canada is expensive. 37.50 in rip off broker charges. I ordered a belt for my tascam dat and it was over 30.00 us by the time shipping was added due a 5.00 belt. Parts to fix my garage door 16.75, but by the time shipped here 72.00 or something stupid like that. I did a rant video about it. Was able to buy the parts cheaper. Could have had it installed for that price!
It will be interesting to know how well the Rubber Renue is working after a few days? I have found that it generally works, and that may include a little 'roughing up' befoe applying, BUT sometimes the process isn't always 100% successful. Nice work 12Volts, as ever great camera work! - no silly zooming in and out that we sometimes see from others.
Have you ever compared one to a technics rsm275? I think not because if you had you wouldn't have said this. I have a 275 and it gives 3 head decks a run for their money and has dbx to boot.
@@998cooper Different model. The 270 is a joke. For starters the 270 is a SX (Sendust head) and no manual bias adjustment The 275 is an AX (Amorphous Alloy) head. Superior performance, and hard as a rock. The 275 also had a fine bias adjustment so tapes could be dialed in. Again apples and oranges. I didn't ask you if you compared a NAK to a 270, I asked if you compared one to a 275. I replaced my old 270 with the 275 way back in the 80's because the 275 sounded superior. For starters the 270 is a dolby B only, and the 275 has B and C. Totally different circuitry, 3 motor transport vs 2. Completely different deck. I see there is a non working 275 on Ebay now with bids to 270 for a broken tape deck.
@@12voltvids No Dave I havn't compared a 275 to a Nak so I'm happy to be corrected. Why don't you do a comparison video with say the 275 & a couple of Naks without DBX of course.
@@EddieJazzFan Aiwa is superior.When it comes to REC-guality, period Many other deck`s also as good as duggon`s. Draggo is top ten deck,nothing special.
@@artsimannisto5659 that's not really true. Some Aiwas were fantastic for recording and punched well above their weight, but in terms of a consistently superior line-up, Nakamichi is un-touchable. The reason amongst many, is the superiority of the heads they built in-house.
@@64bakes so,all that..why oh why,AIWA records sounds superior in all deck`s?? Of course,u can keep worshipping those naka-tinboxe`s. They are hard to keep up,and well over priced. Aiwa is superior money/guality level. If i buy other brand,it is Pioneer.Greets from Suomi/Finland!!
Understatement of the year, "Generally they weren't a bad machine.." I mean, even this simple cassette deck was better than almost any other brand's top of the line cassette deck.
The only tape deck I had which was better, was the Sony Stereo Betamax where I could record a multiple hour radio show of new music, mark the time for each song, and replay the Sony Betamax tape to my Nakamichi deck for the songs I wanted to keep. It was as good as FM radio got.
In my view (and my intimate knowledge of this cassette deck from over 20 years ago) with respect of recording and playback from a source, more could have been done with the bias pots to make that recorded sound be more alive and representative of the original source. Your recording sounds dull and lacking of the dynamics this cassette deck can provide.
Nice unit and boy I wish i had that rubber renue back in the day when my tape deck had slipping wheels I took it apart never got it back together right didn't want to work after that so trashed it!
if you have an idler that's beyond what rubber-renue can deal with, they sometimes respond to being turned inside-out. I rescued a sanyo/fisher microcassette deck this way (the xm-1) failing that, a lucky-dip box of neoprene O-rings from amazon will often yield a suitable replacement.
I have some old recording tapes I wanna listen to/ttransfer to digital, any recommendations on a cheapy tape player just to use once? I have some old recording tapes from like 2000 and little newer.
The DRAGON was something for sure, as was the ZX9 or CR7. I can see why Willy Hermann Services charges at least 800$ for a service/rebuild. People seem to regard the DRAGON and other TOTL Nakamichis like others take a liking to vintage european sports cars 🤷🏼♂️ If I had to choose a TOTL vintage tape deck, I'd probably go for a Pioneer CT-95, a Sony TC-K6ES or 7ES. I'll gladly pass the auto-azimuth for Dolby S. BTW: you don't know tedious unless you worked on a Tandberg 🤣
The dragon was nothing special. Overrated and actually a low performence deck compared to others. The auto azimuth was a gimik that rarely worked as it was supposed to. I worked on one, over and over and over. The boss was so pissed off because nakamichi paid shit for warranty work. Flat rate regardless if it was a fuse or major fault. Was actually happy to see them go tits up because when they went belly up, the warranty was done and we could charge shop rates.
@@12voltvids given that for the price of one DRAGON, you could actually get two High End DAT machines like the 4-head 77ES, it was an underperformer for sure.
Dragon, ZX7/9 are legends, but still 80's decks. The best decks are made in the 90's. The decks you mention, CT95, KA7ES (and Dave's 1010 problably) are way better than those Naks. HX Pro, high bias at 210kHz, better anti resonance etc. improve the sound quality a lot. Technologies Naks lack.
@@KR1275 my 1010 is the best sounding cassette deck i have heard and I have heard many. Hxpro was probably the single biggest improvement to all analog recording technology. Akai's cross field was another that drastically improves high frequency response at slower tape speeds All of the decks (JVC tds1010, technics rsm275 ect) that used a direct drive capstan had exceptionally stable tape speed and low w/f. On the noise reduction Dolby s and dbx did wonders for the noise floor. Even with these hxpro was the single most sound improving system for making recordings. It also greatly improved Dolby b and c operation. The problem with Dolby was during the recording due to the high frequency roll off it always caused the Dolby system to misbehave and attenuate the highs even more. When using Dolby with HX pro the level coming back off the tape is much more accurate and allows the Dolby system to operate correctly on playback. On a deck such as my JVC I can switch the HX pro on or off and make identical recordings using both Dolby b or Dolby C and play them back and without HX pro they'll be playback of recordings made on that deck sound like Dolby recordings made on a conventional deck but once the HX pro is turned on the sound quality of Dolby tapes drastically improves and this is just to the high frequencies the Dolby is equalizing to actually being recorded on the tape. You are correct though tape decks made in the early to mid-90s were the best quality because they were giving CD a run for their money it was attempt by the manufacturers to keep cassettes viable but ultimately they lost out to digital recording and then the quality of the decks drop like a Rock over a cliff and we ended up with just cheap tape decks designed for playing back existing recordings I'm not even doing a particularly good job at that. All those double cassette decks with auto recording level and all the plastic mechanisms and gears kiss that decks are on their deathbed at this time.
Yeah they sound like junk. There is many tape decks on the market that sounded as good if not better than nakamishi. One such tape neck with me by JVC was called the TD v1010. Absolutely phenomenal sounding cassette deck. Of course it wasn't cheap when it was new it was around $1,400 so it was a high-end deck.
@@12voltvids so , you got sent a far more expensive unit , and it was better … no dip lol . Umm the bx100 sounds great lol , it was only 300 when it came out in 84 . Jvc makes me think about my grandmothers stupid am fm transmitter tower
@@salwilk558 tdv1010 3 head, dual capstan direct drive quartz lock motor dilby b and c switchable hx pro. It weighs about 20lbs too. Solid copper chassis with seperate record and play circuits with their own power supply. They pulled out all the stops battling with Sony and Technics.
One more great fix! I have a BX2 which looks very similar, mine has a digital tape counter. Mine has same problems with the idler, I have changed it twice. The deck sits idle most of the time, and when I try to play a tape the same thing happens over again. I have tried to get rubber renue, but this seems difficult in Europe (due to hazmat ingredients I suppose)
Like Naka's approach - rather a solid well build 2 head single capstan, than a poor build one with lots of features. Nice sharp logic designlayout too. True classics.
Hi, I've disassembled the Akai gx 75 gear. The program gear is lubricated. It's old and I had to clean it up. But unfortunately I can't find a new lubricant that could be a replacement. Could you give us some advice? What kind of lubricant should I use? Or what kind of lubricant you use, If possible, then give a link to the sample.
I have a CR 2 with an issue with the LED display. Part of it is dimmer than the rest. Do you have any suggestions as to where I should start for diagnoses?
13:10 Sound surprisingly good; a little rolled off and the tape's obviously not in the best of condition, but you can hear the reverb, everything sounds well differentiated, the midrange comes across as really nice and I couldn't detect any flutter.
@@BavarianM In the audiophile world "best in class" can be taken with a grain of salt for many products. As it happens Nakamichi have had a good reputation for decades; however so have other products whose claim to fame has come from good marketing and sheer BS.
The BX range two-headers like the BX-100 here, and later equivalents, used OEM sendust heads. Nakamichi also provided an optional gear modification (no longer available), to replace the idler wheel and hubs, greatly improving reliability at the expense of increased FF/RW transport noise and, apparently, [on paper] flutter specs - not that I ever noticed after my own BX-125(E) was done. Later became standard on later produced CR- and all new DR- models, I believe. It's quick and easy for any competent tech (not me) to check.
Passionate Soul is the name of the track, and you can find it at musicbakery.com Its a royalty free track composed by Jack Waldenmaier Music Productions in 1995 before he founded musicbakery. He has the best production music I have found and I have an extensive library that cost me about 2000.00 when I bought it.
Re: Nakamichi Dragon and others The more sophisticated they get, the more lilkely to develop a fault, and as 12Volts suggests .. not repair-friendly! I've never craved a Dragon. BTW, if anyone is interested - the AIWA AD-F770 is a pain in the *rse too to fix! (Revox B215, Nak DR10, Sony TC-K730ES, TC-61, TC-K45, TC-K35, TEAC V8030S, and others ...)
Greetings from Scotland. ..the aiwa f770 is indeed a pain in the ass to fix nobody wants to know.....I buy and sell hifi and have come across 4 of them only one was operational. ...fabulous decks tho...never come across the f990 tho (think I'd keep that one lol)
@@martinnevey7258 Hi Martin. I repair too, but I don't sell on. Even if I just charged £5 per hour, I'd have to sell basic decks (99.9%) operational for £hundreds. No one will buy I guess? There are so many issues to correct, as all parts are ageing in parallel, and in slow motion! I wouldn't sell a deck that hasn't been fully re-built, as I know something else will go wrong eventually. ;o) Currently, I'm working on a 1975 Sony TC-136SD - almost finished the job. Personally, I wouldn't buy a AD-F770/990 today. I've had my 770 since about 1998/1999/2000? regards cassettedeckman.blogspot.com
@@JamesE707 Ye I hear you on old equipment. ..I don't repair only trade (hobby turned into an income) but I tried to get an ad f770 rebelted and nobody wanted to know ....I'm wouldn't pay what some people do for old kit but I'm glad they do this end...I've had some great cheap finds over the years.. Gerrard 301 grease bearing for 100..tannoy mz for 50...and a f770 working for a fiver...and so many more I'd bore you...it is a great way to hear stuff and rate it tho...I meet kept my nad 302 as I tested it against so many other amps and it beat them all off..till I got a pioneer a400 in mint nick for 35....one thing I don't believe has moved on that much is speakers...I had a pair of Rodgers studio 1s which trounced my wife's b&w 602 s3s. ..love talking hifi ..thx for the reply m
Be delicate with the idler arm, what holds the idler wheel. It is a mission to replace it. You can buy new idler tires, but I think I’ll get some of that chemical for next time.
@@12voltvids I have two that are led and very bright and rechargeable so when one goes down i have the other one ready. I like them a lot, they also come in handy when working on my truck. Cheers
@@SDsailor7 The thrunite use removable rechargable batteries. I have one that uses 18650 and have plenty of spares so when the battery goes gown I just swap the battery.
I have a pal panasonic crt tv and whenever I run my ntsc super nintedo it displays in black and white how can I solve this problem? Sorry that it doesn't relate to the video
That one does look bad! On the other hand, counter belts do hardly any work. Sometimes a badly stretched one can stay in service for a long time without causing a problem.
Cassettes could sound really good, unfortunately even metal ones won't last even a year in perfect storage conditions... That's why I STILL prefer CDs.
That's nonsense. I have ferric, chrome and metal tapes I recorded back in the 1980s that still sound great today. VWestlife even did a video where he played 50+ year old tapes on a modern deck that were well stored, and they sounded great.
That is not a good solution to use rubber restore liquid, it will work for a little time period, it is better to change the idler tire, and it is easy to change. The only difficult part is not to lose the tiny locking plastic wash.
I did that and used a piece of clear plastic that a screwdriver set came in. You know the molded plastic a lot of cheap tools come in at a certain store starting with an H anyway I cut a very very small piece and cut it as small as I could. Then used an ice pick to punch a small hole in it and Boom instant retainer washer. Works for the capstan as well!
