[jdandy]

I bought a new Nakamichi CR-7A in 1988 for $1500.00. In those days there was no discounting Nakamichi. During it's production run Nakamichi made a change in the way the tape spools operated. I shipped my deck to Electronic Service Labs (Nakamichi Service Center) and had the upgrade installed. The CR-7A performed flawlessly for years and made excellent recordings with its discreet 3-head setup. I preferred it to the Dragon because I was not interested in reverse play or the complexity of the Dragon's auto tracking azimuth system. Nakamichi was head and shoulders above other manufacturers in recording and playback quality for many reasons, like manufacturing their own tape heads, and their amazing Nakamichi asymmetrical resonance-free double capstan silent mechanism.

I kept my Nakamichi CR-7A until 2007. At that time it was in need of service to the drive system and occasionally wanted to stop on its own. I contacted ESL to get an estimate on a full service to the deck and was quoted $650.00. I decided to sell the deck instead. It was a fine cassette machine. If one can be found that has had the spool upgrade installed and is in good working order you will be impressed with its performance.

I made custom solid walnut side panels for my Nakamichi CR-7A. Here it is sitting on top of my McIntosh 4300V receiver.