@mdalton On ebay NAKAMICHI DRAGON Audiophile Cassette Deck Pristine, Overhauled US $8,500.00or Best Offer and there are ones for more $
And on Audiogone Nakamichi Dragon ***mint! $4,900.00 Hot Dang! Who knew?
Reclaiming your youth is expensive.
Audiophile Equipment
I learned the value of audiophile equipment early in my pursuit of the high end. I had accumulated enough gear for a system and was looking for the best possible tape deck… with Dolby C. From the popular magazines… Stereo Review, Stereo Times… the Harman Kardon T392 seemed to represent the pinnacle. So I bought one. It was OK… but such a huge step down from vinyl that I was genuinely bummed, especially since it cost something like $650… a lot of money at the time.
A few months later I was browsing a high-end audio shop and, somewhat morosely, told my story to a salesman. He just started laughing. “Those things are junk… you need a real tape deck.” He led me over to the window, where there was a seven-year-old used Nakamichi 1000… huge, with wood paneling all around it… looking more like a reel-to-reel than a cassette deck. He wanted $1,200 for it. That was an astronomical amount of money… and it was old. Then he said, “Take it home… try it.”
My first real jaw-drop moment.
It had the full depth and bass of vinyl… it was simply astonishing. It made the so-called “flagship” Harman Kardon sound like a cheap plastic transistor radio and without Dolby C. All that glossy magazine talk about bandwidth and specs… page after page of marketing… well, that’s all it was. This old, purpose-built audiophile machine performed leagues above the consumer-level product.
I was hooked.
It wasn’t my last audiophile purchase… but it was my last consumer-level purchase for decades.
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I also had the Nakamichi TA-3A receiver, a very fine product. I sold it a couple years ago, still working great. Regarding the fall of Nakamichi, much later I bought a five disc carousel changer, not the MusicBank model, and it may not be up to their past standards. It still sits in my base somewhere.
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@ghdprentice Your post really hit home--back in the late 80's i bought a Nakamichi CR4A (still have) to record vinyl for the car-it was the closest thing i'd found to preserving the vinyl sound and was THE component that started my audiophile ball rolling--receiver to separates, then speakers, then a Sony R2R and so on and so forth. I preferred it to CD and i kept it to listen to albums i recorded and lost in a flood in Houston back in the 90's but when streaming came into my system it's been little used. I still have the 500 + cassettes i recorded----because of your post and for fun i just took out a tape and it played great--only a slight loss in the highs (metal TDK) --brought back memories-Nakamichi was great brand--thanks |
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