The video is a demonstration of the unique Nakamichi Dragon-CT turntable, which corrects for out of round records, allowing you to both see it work and hear the difference it makes.
Those developers at Nakamichi were pretty ingenious. They offered top-notch quality in every field they worked in. I just had to recall their DAT-1000/DAC-1000P combo. Too bad they went out of business. There is almost no place for their kind of works anymore these days. A sad reality, that is.
Yeah, go into a any hardware store and you can't even find full component Hi-fi racks anymore. The best thing on offer are Bluetooth speakers and sound bars.
@@LogiForce86 They sell what people want to consume most. You can still find small specialized hi-fi stores, where dealer knows what you are looking for.
It is a mystery why this technology has not been adopted or licenced for use in modern high end turntables. When you consider the cost of modern high performance turntables from the likes of TechDas, SAT, Dohman, SME, VPI, Linn, Caliburn and a slew of others, it seems to me to be a significant omission not to have this or a similar facility in modern turntables costing five and six figure sums. Many brand new and used records have 'off centre' spindle holes that need correction. The round file diy system seem to be the only 'solution' that we have at present? There would be an additional cost of course, but if you are aiming at the absolute high end such a 'centring system' ought to be part of the design. It is ironic though that Japanese engineers (presumably) designed this system back in the day when 'off centre' records were probably extremely rare or perhaps non-existent from the domestic Japanese pressing plants, if our experience is anything to go by?
Its the cost which is prohibitive even for the ultra hi end - remember the whole heavy platter is being moved every rotation and at increasing frequency....they were on another plane these Nakamichis
Thanks for sharing incredible machine and great solution to coommon problem that no one ales as far as I know has addressed,they only concern is long term reliability and finding someone to fix if it goes wrong.
When I first heard of this feature on the Nakamichi turntable I thought it was just a gimmick. However your video proved me wrong. This feature does make a difference in sound despite the heavy digitized compression through You Tube.
it´s a really atractive feature but i can tell you that if it as a problem the repair would be expensive and sure to happen ,it´s the problem of some nakamichi features
I personally can't hear any difference at all but the theory is somewhat sound, if probably a non issue. And even if did believe that this video showcased an audible difference, digital compression doesnt have any impact on wobbling notes of an instrument so it's either there or not wouldn't matter if it's digitized or analog. Still a very cool feature though.
Yes the clarity is almost beyond cd and certainly nicer...i have a linn and a garrard 401 and this is way way beyond them...but repairs on these are for millionaires
the dragon to cassetes isn´t nothing, the zx-9 is nuch better while recording cassettes but the dragon as a problem it´s auto -reverse function is far from keepings head centered or the azimuth alignement works a lot to keep it aligned far from comparing this turntable to others as perfect aligment
Back in the mid 80's, the retail price for this turntable was about $2200. That's roughly $5700 in today's dollars. I find it extremely irritating that today, in 2020, there are turntables selling for this price that positively primitive in comparison to this. (In some cases, they don't even have a speed control, you move a belt from one pulley to another.) There's no reason in my mind that for $6000, a turntable like this could be manufactured again combined with the highly advanced Sony Biotracer system, without selling for some absolutely absurd price. I guess these never had much of a market demand. All of the patents to these unique systems should have all expired by now.
I think a turntable like this could easily be manufactured for far less than $6000 today. As well as being faster and smarter with the use of modern processors, sensors and actuators to move the turntable instead of the piston that this table uses. I think if one was to ignore the fluff and focus on technical achievement, 2000 USD would be doable. Sadly, any gear that goes a certain price point turns into a purity test and anything electronic or digital is rejected outright.
There should be a separate device like an accessory that allows the centering system done on a customized stiff platter mat before placing it on the platter to play the record. If we can have a fancy record cleaning machine next to a turntable, we can have a centering machine next to it too! This way you don't have to change your favorite turntable. Yes, I do agree that turntables cost more than a small house should include this feature! PS, obviously turntables with a vacuum system would present a problem.
You are right. The TX-1000, which was an auto-centering platter and a base with no arm, was the handbuilt, test-of-concept prototype. The Dragon-CT was the production model and actually manufactured to Nakamichi's specifications by Micro-Seiki, which made turntables for many companies back when. It's unknown how many TX-1000 platters were constructed and even more problematic, are still working today. I've only ever seen one for sale and that was decades ago.
@@ggergm580 you are wrong! The TX-1000 was a production model that preceded the much less costly DRAGON CT. It incorporated a faster and slicker mechanism for 'Centre Search'.
@@chrismurphy7324 I have to ask, on what basis do you say centering will have no effect? It's well known that off-center produces the "wow" speed variation and this turntable uses the locked groove as a reference to the original recording equipment, bypassing any off-center positioning in the production process.
well ,it´s good today as it was then, that was never improved ,from 1980 towards today evrything about hi-fi decreased only cd players get better as the c.e.c (chuodenki) beltdriven cd player that was incredible as anything made by chuodenki, but i think it wasn´t by the belt-driven unique in the world cd player but something else as when one listen to a 300€ cd player in early 90´s or a 1200€ cd player, mine only the laser after 25 years of use everyday and for a lot of years everyday and part of the night,cost me in germany 300€, because i live in portugal and they weren´t available there for 10 years, regards
accuphase is very high quality brand that i only know a old integrated amplifier that my father bought in 1972 or 3 i´m not sure but i own it now ,when my father left us i received is high-fidelity system as is colection of records and reels all are jazz but incredible ones, my father and my greatparents were already in the 60´s fan´s of high-fidelity, i received 3 high-end systems one of them mono but still today as a great clean and detailed sound, and also have records that can´t be played with a diamond stylus it as a proper turntable with 2 speakers it sounds from another world, i did enjoy to see the turntable because i know the 70´s catalogs from nakamichi but nobody else that i know when talk about nakamichi they reply that they thought they only had cassette decks ,regards
I do hear a slight deviation in the first part. If you didn't mention it, I may not have paid much attention to it. That cartridge sounds amazing, too. What is it? Thank you for sharing.
today the have the less possible, kind of LEGO turntable, you need to buy everything that should be sold with the TT from the store, this even as quartz lock
@@RUfromthe40s Yeah. But if vinyl records were pressed perfectly centered in the first place there wouldn't be a need for this centering feature anyway.
@@AlainHubert yes but i´ve not had any problem with that because the needle goes where the groove is ,no problem in the sound they have tolerance for this kind of problem, maybe certain types of TT´s have problems with this but since the 70´s never heard a problem because the record is not 100% centered ,the problem is if the user doesn´t know how to tune the needle perfectely to read the grooves no matter if it dances a litle on top of the record,the angle where the tip of the needle is ,needs to be acurate not if the record is not at a 100% centered, there´s more to worrie if using this new wave of badly built turntables that cost real money as the PRO-JECT, and others from the same type
@@AlainHubert yes it´s true but that´s how things go, they never worrie about correcting that, but it´s not a big problem ,doesn´t affect the quality of sound, regards
this has made the simplicity of the turntable a whole lot more complicated - though it is a very real problem and one it seems only addressed by Nakamichi...
This is a badass Table The problem with it is the existence Is other Japanese tables like the Sony PX-9 Kenwood L-07D Or micro Seiki , Which seems at these prices to make the auto centering just a hat trick
I may be wrong, but I think Kyocera also shared that turntable and had that also....very cool gimmick but I wonder, what came first the record that was "made" out of round at the factory, or did the record become out of round after purchasing it?
I saw that listing. It looks to be a superb example for sale but the price is double what I’ve seen a perfect Dragon-CT turntable sell for in the past. But who knows? I wish the seller good luck.
Why can't a high quality device like this be made today? In the 1980s there was some very high quality audio equipment. Yet now much of the audio equipment is junk
Because today everything has to be made in China or Bangladesh and these idiots cant manufacture functioning HQ gear so they keep it simple, not to say primitive...
@@svenschwingel8632 Planned obsolescence is the biggest bunch of bullshit. It is amazing to me how many dead flatscreens there are. Yet just about any CRT TV from the 80s still works fine. I once found an RCA CRT from the 80s that had been sitting outside for over 10 years getting rained and snowed on. It was horribly dirty. I took it home and cleaned it up a bit and plugged it in and what do you know it powered on just fine! To be fair the colors were a bit off but for all I know that could have been the reason the original owners sat it outside. A friend of mine had a similar experience when he bought an old pickup truck that had a CRT TV in the bed that had been there for years and years. It also worked just fine, no problems at all with that one.
@@HerecomestheCalavera so true. Those old Sony CRTs worked like forever. Can't say that about their new flatscreens, though. Some of them won't even reach their MRSP rating. When you open them up, you'll find out that the manufacturer cut all kinds of corners with product quality (concerning longetivity), like using el-cheapo switches, insufficient heatsinks and whatnot. But hey: you gotta somehow drain that hard-earned currency from your customer's wallets, right?
Not known is how far it was off center. What was that at 2:11? Wife purchased that album on CD, played it a lot during the 80s in my truck with a portable CD player and power amp. That was before cars had CD players. Did anyone had a workable turntable in a moving car?
a very bad job or their devices wouldn´t be constantelly out for repair ,if they ask a lot of money they should deliver better materials but they just care of making lot´s of money ,there are good brands who are expensive but they work properlly for a lot of years (a lifetime)those you never find them for sale ,why do you think that happens?regards and health
Perhaps I am missing something but I can't hear any difference and the record still looks to be off center while spinning which means the needle is tracking an off center record. Also, even if the record is slightly off center, doesn't the needle in the groove track and move along thus rendering this system as simply overkill and of no practical value ??
You're seeing the LABEL moving around and thinking the record is off center. The arm is the part that should stay perfectly still and this system can accomplish that. The "needle" stays in the groove and tracks, but if you see the arm swaying side to side as the record turns, the pitch will go up and down because it's not tracking in a perfect circle - the circle gets bigger and smaller as the record rotates, which will mess with the pitch.
Hi- I just picked up one of these. The unit works as a record player but I'm not familiar with the centering aspect. After the centering arm goes out to the groove, is it all automatic after that? Or do you need to keep pushing buttons? Couldn't see in the video. Thanks!
I should add after I push the reset button and then the center search button, the centering arm goes out and starts reading but does nothing else after that. So I suspect something isn't working right. My assumption is it should automatically center at that point? Any info would be great. Thanks.
You just bought a very expensive turntable without even knowing what it is and what it does? You either have bought it for an extremely low price for what it is or you may have so much money that 'throwing some way' it’s OK with you. And some advice: "Search the info you need to know at the Internet first, and if you can’t find what you need after a thorough search, then start asking people. Don’t waist people's time because you are lazy to find something out by yourself. Sorry 😞 for the tone, but I’m constantly meeting people like you who ask for info, help or advice, without trying first by themselves!
@@VRGRPK Sorry for the tone? You sound like a real pleasant one. Of course I did a google search. I’ve owned record stores for the past 20 years and got one of these in a record collection buy...and asked a question over 3 years ago! The centering aspect ended up being broken but not being familiar or finding the info on a google search, I came to RU-vid and asked. It’s not like technical info on this rare turntable was all over the web. I finally had a tech fix it and it found a good new home. Sorry for my tone. I’m just tired of people wasting (it’s spelled Waste not Waist btw) time by replying to comments from years ago without thinking through what someone may be asking about and why. You’re making a lot of assumptions in your reply which just makes you come across as a jerk and someone with too much time on their hands. So I wouldn’t be too worried about someone wasting your time. You didn’t even need to reply. 🤦🏻
The Nakamichi Dragon-CT turntable is no longer manufactured so to get one you would have to buy one used. Currently there does not appear to be any being offered for sale at this moment, as they are somewhat rare, with an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 sold when they were still being manufactured. Original retail price of this turntable was $2000 in the U.S. so expect it to sell for twice as much as that on the used market (in 2016 one was being offered for $4500)
These were made in the mid 1980s, so USB was decades away from being invented. Of course no digitizer. Built in preamps existed but were very uncommon in turntables. This is vintage stuff.
For those who are still confused, compare the sound side to side: 1:53 and 3:53 If you still can't tell the difference, I am sorry but you are clinically deaf.
This could be an excellent demonstration if you put the slightest care and respect for your viewers and used the same part on both playings. Instead the part after 'Center Search' started quite a while before the 1st part, and when it reached the first notes of the 1st part you just lifted the Tonearm!!!🙁 This made most people confused about the outcome...
To be perfectly honest, trying to hear a difference on RU-vid isn't really going to work. You may hear a difference if he supplied 2 files for us to download; a before and after. But with RU-vid's quality, I hear no difference either.
There is a wobble, i agree. Might be hard to hear on youtube, make sure to use headphones. But it takes the wobble out for me. I mean, its not a great improvement, but you can tell.
