I've owned my dragon since the first year it came out (somwhere in the mid-80's). Its one those rare items that you just really cant seem to part with (at least not me!) It just looks too damn good! One of those designs that never seems to look out of date. Kinda like the 911 Porsche. Later... |
Got to Naks.com and look at pictures! |
Well, she's on the run from two college loans and still got into a third ( RISD ) and works miracles with plastic and metal. I think we are up to any kind of half-baked money making scheme...uh, I mean business venture, we can find. Tell you what. I'll even throw in a perfect cassette recorded by yours truly of the first Live Dead album from a Nak. turntable direct to this deck, with no vinyl flips to interrupt the perfect synergy of the music. Come-on, you gonna bite or not?
Note: most of the above statement is true. Some parts may have been altered to protect the innocent. |
Your discription sounds like the 700XLE. Nak made it in that timeframe and followed it up with a 700XLE Mark II with exactly the same comestics. Very big and long vertical box that was wider than 18". Not rack friendly, but was meant to displayed and admired! Great sounding machines for the time. I owned several Naks including the 1000. Never had reliability problems, but I had them serviced yearly. Actally, these tapes decks saved my vinyl collection as I would tape every new record for my wife and she would play the cassettes. have fun, but I would worry about the heads being worn, pitted or groved from too much playing. Maybe hard or costly to replace. |
gee i dunno snook. gregm has made me realize that w/o a cassette collection perhaps the whole idea was half-baked. is your daughter up to this kinda mod? will it invalidate the warranty? there's a lot to consider here. |
Hey Kubla, I have a Dragon and some pictures of the deck you want. Give me a week and my daughter's art talents and I'll have it looking just like what you want. It will cost you $1000 for the deck and another $5000 for the make-up and I will even pay shipping costs. Still a Nak. to the core! Interested????? |
Go here for info.....
http://www.naks.com/home.html |
Kubla, "I don't even HAVE tapes..." you're inimitable, LOL!
Cheers! |
Beemer - i do remember the king biscut flour hour. i went to school in boston thru '90. what the hell was the king biscut flour hour? most of my memory is gone from abuse but it rings a loud bell. was that on the station ...um...91 or something? help me out here.
as far as the dragon, my father's was not the 100 but the 700 i've learned (from pictures) - the ZXL. i think you can get them now for around 8-1000 used. not bad for the sheer mass of the thing.
thanks everyone, i'll let you know if i'm stupid enough to spend the rest of my money like this or not. - i dont think i can stop myself, however. - i mean, i dont even HAVE tapes, whatamithinking? |
Sounds most like the Nakamichi 700. I had two of these at one time. They sounded GREAT but were not very reliable. I worked at a Nakamichi dealer, and they were extremely good about service, and even admitted that the 700 was a problematic design. This is a company that was once wonderful, and it saddens me that they have fallen from grace |
Kubla:
You'll enjoy your Nak cassette adventure. I have owned a Dragon since 1984 and I also have a mint 1000 tri-tracer.
These can and will make positively phenominal tapes with the right tape. I've always preferred Nak's own tape, which is getting very hard to find nowadays. Some say the cassette is dead, I say not. I've got tapes from the radio from years back of such as REM playing in a small bar in Boston, way before they became popular, as well as many from the "King Biscuit Flour Hour", which you may or may not remember.
These sound as good now as they did back when, as I used the Nak ZX metal tape. Please do let us know how you do in your search for a good classic NAK, and how you like it when you get it.
Paul |
The Nak 700ZXL was one of the finest cassette decks ever produced. I used to own 2 of them (now 1), along with a Dragon (that I still have). I pitted the Dragon against the 700, and lo and behold, the 700 destroyed it (most notably in the deep bass region). I know, I know, according to most pundits, the Dragon was the best deck in the world, blah, blah, blah, but how many of these critics have actually owned, and run one against the other at the same time, with the same program material? By the way, the original list price on the ZXL was $3000, vs. $2400 for the ZXE, which, I believe, lacks one of the adjustments present on the ZXL. If you can get a ZXL for a reasonable price, go for it.
One more note: I chose the 700 over the 1000, which had a sort of 'military' look about it; and since I never cared much for slider controls (on the 1000), the choice was easy.
Good luck in your quest! |
Kubla: I never owned the 700 or 1000 models which were out of my price range, but just wanted them because they looked cool. I did own the 600 (which was wedge shaped) and a 550 portable which I used to make demos. Another nice looking deck from that era was the Tandberg 310MkII which can also be positioned upright and which was not quite as good as the 600, but was still very close. |
dekay i hadn't seen your post when i wrote my last one: you're incredible too. i can't believe you guys can id this stuff from the early 80s! i can barely remember if i ate breakfest today. i'm trying to find a picture of the 1000. i'll go back to the nak site (which is amazing for reference, btw). and dekay, you're right, there were a bunch on ebay last week and met the minimum so i hope they're still around. someone on audiogon is selling a nak 700ZXE (i'm looking for the ZXL) - can you explain any worthwhile differences? i read the specs at naks.com site but i dont know nothin bout decks so the specs dont mean anything to me.
thanks again. oh, and bigwood, i guess you were right on the money too if the 1000 looks like the 700. you guys amaze me! |
PS: Do a search on Ebay for a couple of weeks and you will probably come across a photo of it. I considered both of these models until I decided to just burn all of our old cassettes (on CD that is:-). |
Thanks guys! Beaudoind, you're amazing! i took a look at that site and i'm almost sure it's the 700ZXL! (although the lx-3/lx-5 were close). i can't believe i posted this question less than an hour before getting my answer. i love audiogon. now to find one.
anybody wanna sell?
thanks again! |
It sounds/looks like the 1000 or the 700 model (both looked like that). |
Kublakhan, your description (silver face with a black bottom) corresponds to the LX series. There were two models ie the LX-3 and LX-5. Both models have been produced at the beginning of the 80s. An excellent ressource to check is naks.com. You can find a picture of almost any nak machine with complete specs.
Daniel |
Kinda sounds like the old ZX1000 I think! |
