Nakamichi RX-505 and some nice tapes for it


According to the prices for Nakamichi decks and cassette tapes I feel like it's not the best time to buy any of them, I feel like I missed the train, but I wish to have this model in my collection. And I want it so bad ... 

I remember my Maxell, Fuji, Sony, TDK cassettes used in the 90's, but once you gave them to you girlfriend they are gone. 

My Pioneer cassette deck was removed from my rack probably in 2006 and never used since that day. I recorded mixtapes from vinyl since mid 90's. Earlier in high-school I recorded something from CDs when it was an exotic format here, also made cassette to cassette copies. 

I never thought I will even think about this format again, but I think it would be nice to have Nakamichi RX-505 (I really like this particular model only, except for Dragon which is great, but too expensive today). 

I know it's the same transport in RX-505, don't know what's the difference between Nak 505 and 505E ? 

Purchased some sealed NOS Maxell XLII 90 and 100 min for about $5 each last week, it was an impulse, haha  

Some metal position tapes are very expensive on ebay (sometimes $50-100 each). 

Those open reel TEAK tapes goes for crazy prices just because it looks cool ? 

If someone could help me with decent cassette tapes please drop below model numbers and brands. 

P.S. No, I don't use digital, strictly vinyl, but I want cassette tapes and Nakamichi RX-505 for fun. 

 


128x128chakster
I never tried Dolby S. Dolby C is terrible. Dolby B might make some sense in rare cases. 
I never tried Dolby S
Its pretty cool. I once heard a live master recording made direct to a high end Pioneer with Dolby S at a reviewer's house. and it was very 3-D with no noise. Nice.
Ralph, I see. I would need a pro grade outboard Dolby S unit to experiment with it. I don't think I would want to go in this direction.
chakster, again just a thought. Decks with reverse, like RX-505 and Dragon, might be less reliable and more expensive to service. So if you want ’cool’ stuff then yeah, but if you want better and more reliable deck then it is among those that I mentioned. They are not quite equal and there are those with automatic and those with manual calibration. It is more a matter of taste. Personally, I don’t care. 682ZX is better than 680ZX. 682ZX and ZX-7 ?.. I don’t know, I heard two opinions : one is that they are equal and another is that 682ZX does have an edge. ZX-9 should be better than 682ZX in terms of dynamics and resolution but 682ZX is a forever classic Nak.
@inna when I checked those models on hi-fi shark the prices are higher than for RX-505, too much for me, simply because vinyl is still my main media format. I wouldn’t pay more than $1k for Nak deck ideally.