While they certainly SOUNDED wonderful when compared to vinyl back in the day--a "hollow" sound was the most notable difference when compared A-B to vinyl--my personal experience when selling Nakamichi was that 100% of them came back broken within a few weeks. They were sent off to be fixed and typically were OK after that--the 700 was particularly quirky--but the others were OK. Dragon (II?), I think, was considered the best one at 3 heads, but the various versions of the 700 and 1000 had 3 heads as well as I remember. (Getting old!)
If you get one, be sure it has been serviced and listen to it A-B with another source--vinyl suggested--and you might be surprised how good it sounds when it works. Regarding good tapes, I have lost track of that medium, but it is not an inherently bad one. I would guess people here know which ones are considered "best" today. Now DIGITAL...don't get me started on compression algorithms. UGH!!
If you get one, be sure it has been serviced and listen to it A-B with another source--vinyl suggested--and you might be surprised how good it sounds when it works. Regarding good tapes, I have lost track of that medium, but it is not an inherently bad one. I would guess people here know which ones are considered "best" today. Now DIGITAL...don't get me started on compression algorithms. UGH!!