Just bought a CR-1E today I just love the reliability on these nakamichis and their High-Endy feeling The pre-user told me, that he bought it first-hand and It was heavily used (about 4 hours a day) for about 10 years and he never replaced the belts and I still don't have to. Awesome Stuff.
And I'm sure you know what a treat it is for us lovers of 80's and 90's music that you played your brilliant tape singles collection. Big Lisa Loeb fan here. Again, that's one heck of a tape deck. Nice touch providing the website with the specs and different models from 90-92.
Here in Australia at least, both cassingles and CD singles were popular (way up until the mid-late 2000s) but they would almost always have 2-4 extra bonus tracks, usually remixes, instrumentals, promos etc.
That's why I usually get tape decks that are inferior to more high end decks and are older but they have that nice door windows where you can actually see the cassette. Cheers :)
Nice score bud. My only experience with Nakamichi cassette decks is the BX-1. I got it used and refurbished for $25 in 2009 and except for not having Dolby-C noise reduction I have no complaints. Fine sound, great control layout and reliable function. Really like the easy to view meters. My BX-1 is in my kitchen system and is powered by a Pioneer SX-434 receiver and drives Boston Acoustics A-40 speakers. Splendid sound for cooking.
Only you could find a deal like this! I swear. I ONLY want to see your reviews of this stuff. You give the best real-world reviews of tech like this, I swear
Says everything about Nakamichi that when they made this deck, it was the 'worst' ( = cheapest) deck in their then-new line-up. The sound from it blew away just about every other two-head cassette-deck on the planet.
After watching this video two weeks ago i started searching for nakamichi decks on my local "ebay", in argentina, and after some research i was lucky enough to find the same model from 90 dollars, normally, they go for aroud 350 and more. And i have to admit, this Deck, completely blew me away, its awesome, if someone wants to buy it,go for it, dont even think about it, its amazing.
@@KingBlonde Dude don't believe what youtubers say here like they found anything for 5 $ 10-40-50 $ on ebay when those items costs like 800-3000 $ In some thrift stores maybe but not in mint or even just in a good condition : From the keyboard anybody can say anything :
Nice video, I have been using a Nakamichi BX-1 in my kitchen system since 2008. It is powered by a Pioneer SX-434 receiver and feeds Boston Acoustics A-40 speakers. Very impressed with the Nakamichi sound and quality construction. A BX-2 (with Dolby-C) would have been sweeter but alas the BX-1 will suffice. Noticed your CBS FM 101 logo in the back. Do you remember WNEW-FM 102.7 in the mid 1970's to early 80's??? That was the "heyday" of FM rock radio in NYC. I lived in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn then.
Nakamichi used to produce the best casette dec in that era. Even though this is a basic model but the clarity while playing casette is Unbeatable!!! Nice machine !
11:43 That's the first time I've heard that song. I immediately fell in love with it that it inspired me to make a 90's mixtape... I still keep coming back at this video haha
I have a refurbished Kenwood I bought a couple of years ago. Sounds pretty good but, I bet this sounds amazing. I’m really surprised I never heard of this brand before. I used to use only Sony cassette decks and they sounded great to my ears but, I used to go though them a lot. I guess they weren’t made very good. I’m going to watch the video on the Dragon next.
I always wanted one of these machines since your video went up years ago and I finally found one at Goodwill (not for $5.99, but $29.99). Anyway, unlike my Nakamichi BX-100, this model has the capstan spinning ALL the time when the power is on, not just when playing a tape.
Sounds weird. Did you mean a +3dB at 15-20kHz on TDK comparing to Sony? If so, then to manage this with an azimuth is a very strange idea. A bias settings exist for that. Azimuth is a geometric thing only. It must be set with using a special mono tape, recorded on a reference deck. If you experienced other issues with TDK, they were fake ones I guess
Dragon nakamichi is suck when they get mess up is a cool deck but when they get mess up is very expensive to fix it but the cassette deck two man sound nice for a low end deck I still got mine n sound nice well made no plastic inside the tape deck straight metal I think this one is better than the other I got the nakamichi RX 303 omg my got mess up fast I bought it in eBay a long time ago but something when wrong with the head it don't come down I check it it look like someone service but then it started tripping I'm going to send it to fix to some dude in NY that know how to fix them expensive but I heard they good fixing good product is worth it cus is a cool deck I got two of them need to fix both cus they cool deck n they clean in the inside Brand New it look like someone work in them before is the head I'm having problem the dude could it tell me it don't record that when it got mess up both of them my luck anyway this nakamichi cassette deck 2 man sound good in my equipment I also like denon tape deck they sound good too I got a few tape deck my collection some I fix it myself I just can't mess with the RX 303 nakamichi they weird so I rather not touch it send it to people that know how to mess with them
Wonderful deck, I owned one from 1992-2004 and picked up another in January 2015. I've given up on digital recording and gone back to tape, the Nakamichi will lay down 16KHz at 0dB even on a Maxell UR type I cassette.
There's a great hybrid ideology going nowadays. Since recording to digital is essentially colourless, and sounds true to the microphones/ preamps used to record the source, people are bouncing their digital tracks to tape/ reels and getting fantastic results.
R A T C H E T yeah I still make mix tapes. Even from albums released this year. It’s just fun or whatever. More involved listening experience. Partly, it is the thrill of such a humble format being punched hard and rising to the challenge.
I really like the light behind the tape. The deck I record on doesn't have that, and I have to use a flashlight to see how much tape is left. This seems like a pretty good unit, but the unfortunate thing about electronics of that era is that they look very cheap, even higher end components. Nice collection of cassingles! They really don't have the charm of 45s though, even though they're the same thing, in tape form. Like you said, they just seem cheap.
I have one of these and I love it. Super solid and sounds great. Easy to take off the door to clean and adjust alignment. Also, depending on what you're doing, if you need to see the tape you're playing, you can play with the door off (like driving a Jeep?). To be honest I don't really like the way ANY Nakamichi looks. That said I've never met one whose sound or build quality I wasn't impressed with. They're sturdy the way Tascam rack-mounted studio decks are sturdy. They're Technics-1200 sturdy.
Seems very similar to the Denon DR-M20 or similar deck. They also advertise a "silent mechanism", and most of the features seem to be identical, just laid out differently.
Yava Shaky+ My deck “Sony TC-RX606ES” used with a type II tape that was auto calibrated comes pretty close to cd quality, especially if encoded with Dolby S.
GuyVelella that's only half right, an equalizer will give you better than CD sound after recording from CD, an eq will boost the signal by 6-12db and a good chrome or metal tape helps out alot too
I live here in the U.S. I have one CD single. It's the Red Hot chilipeppers, "Soul to Squeeze." I don't know what I did with it. I wish i still had it. Never had any cassette singles. At least I don't remember having any.
Many thanks for sharing. I am a native Japanese living in Japan. Even we Japanese very few people know Nakamichi. Would like to buy one but never bought. By the way, the decks for cars still sold in the US, aren't they OEM? Looks different little bit.
I do remember the cassetesingle. I have a couple, and a couple of CD singles too, but have lots of 45's however. That said, I have never felt commercial cassettes to be all that great sounding. That said, if you do a homebrew tape, and did it correctly, they can sound amazingly good, even if from a lesser deck. Again, though, the better the deck, the better the overall sound quality of the tape, if recorded properly.
Hey vwestlife, the quality on those Cassettes that you played sounds great! Is there a way to get any player to sound this great or does the fact that it's a brand like Nakamichi have a lot to do with it? What suggestions do you have for cleaning an old eight track player (I think it works, but it has some dust in it and it skipped a program when I tested it).
Almost any cassette deck can sound fairly good if its heads are clean and properly aligned, but having a high-quality deck with a very good implementation of Dolby B NR really helps in making cassette tapes sound the best. And as for cleaning an 8-track player, see this video: Cleaning a Pioneer Centrex TH-30 Stereo 8-track Tape Player.
Anyone remember those TEAC cassettes with the cool lookin reels inside? those were good but I really liked the Denon brand blanks the best for sound quality. what was your favorite brand of blank cassettes?
what is the website you used for msrp prices, I have a pioneer ct-w616wr I'm just curious, I bought mine new for $170, everything was beginning to go MP3 at the time and I knew that was a great deal
@@Mario_N64 That's completely false. My Pioneer CT-S710 has HX Pro, as did many other decks I've had before. HX isn't an "encoding" at all. It's a technology that will adjust the bias dynamically during recording based on the presence of high frequency signals, to improve the headroom of the recording. It is, in fact, a hardware solution at its core.
I have a cassette deck 2, been working fine till a week ago. When i try to play cassette, an ERR message appears. The belt seems fine with enough tension. Any ideas on what the problem might be?
I actually had alot of those very same cassingles in the 90s! Sold them ages ago...I hung onto using cassettes until the early 2000s, then started to use mindiscs which I still use today. Have you ever reviewed minidisc equipment?
@vwwestlife please help throw light on the. Meter in this model with another technics unit that has double D mark after 0 position, what is the difference,? I recorded in nak cassette deck 2 with. Programme level reaching till 0 marking and upon playback on the technics unit (rs 270) i see no level regisrered at all during playback, however can hear sound output.?
i have the same deck,i also bouth 2nd hand deck 2,it came from a nakamichi stack deck 1 was missing and the amp there was only deck and cd, anyways makes pretty good recordings, plus i like the style
Damn it I've looked in at least 10 thrift stores for the last 2 months, and have never seen a Nakamichi, let alone for $6 ... Are they really sought after now?? why cant I find one ???
Sadly now the undesirable Nak decks fetch good money. There was once a time you could get two head ones for peanuts (I remember I got a BX-2 and Cassette Deck 2 for about £20 collected about 30 mins drive away in ~2006/7.
Is this audio unedited and captured directly from the output of the cassette deck? This tape transport mechanism looks so simple but the inside view is great. Nice big and heavy flywheel.
There are some singles that come in a good quality shell as well as Type II tape. Those are singles I would get, even though I don't listen or don't know the song.
So the tape decks play very good, especially those with three heads where you can hear what you record on the fly. But if you want the best clarity, then a DAT with 96khz sample or something with HDD, is the good option. The hiss is what hinters the tape decks,however, they are what they are! old and beloved
Adjust the azimuth for the brightest, most crisp sound (best treble response) when playing the tape. For the most accurate adjustment, do this when listening in mono mode (left and right channels combined).
