Cassette - Everything old is new again

[62caddy]

What could say 1980s hi fi goodness better than a Nak with a MAC?

I kept my Yamaha CDK-380 around mainly because I have room for it and for making the occasional recording for cars with cassette decks, although it's been several years since I owned one so equipped.

Still works perfectly and recordings made with Metal (Type IV) are virtually indistinguishable from the original source.

[Maks]

Well, I said I was done buying decks (this time I am, for real), but I found a guy selling a CR-7 w/remote in excellent condition but it had recording issues. Bounced them off a tech and decided to take the plunge. It turns out the recording issue was due to a bad batch of tapes the seller had, they were plagued w/dropouts so he assumed it was the deck. It had recently been serviced by ESL so I'm quite happy with it.

My thoughts on the decks in my rotation:
ZX-9 - By far the champion. This deck was fully restored prior to purchase and excellent condition. If I had to keep one deck, it'd be this one. Classic Nak transport and fully manual adjustable recording controls. I playback the occasional tape on this one, but mainly use it for recording duties.

RX-505 - This was restored a couple years before I got it, cosmetics are good enough. Meters are less than ideal for recording and the only recording control is bias. Good results using the tapes it was calibrated to a few years ago, quickest way to flip sides while recording too. At the price point, an ideal playback deck. Classic Nak transport, blank tape skip to FF to the end of the side and worry free auto-reverse using the UDAR. Looks pretty damn cool as well.

Dragon - As mentioned earlier, excellent cosmetics. Playback sounds amazing on this deck, NAAC has freaked out on one tape (modern pre-recorded in a junk shell), but otherwise it's been perfect. I've retired this until it has been serviced with all new rubbers and a check up from a local Nak tech. Recordings should be great on this as well with almost all the calibration of the ZX-9, minus the recording azimuth. Complicated auto-reverse system that doesn't flip the heads in the reverse direction. Dual quartz locked DD capstans for super low W&F. Very well engineered, but without a recent service verifying everything I'm too nervous to put any more tapes into it. Definitely lives up to its reputation as one of the best.

CR-7 - The only Sankyo transport deck I'm using, idler tire version. I really like the modern look of this deck, meters are great as well. One touch deck calibration is nice, even though I like to tinker with the ZX-9 knobs to dial everything in perfectly. This has manual playback azimuth as opposed to the Dragon's auto which I suppose can be helpful in certain cases. I only recently hooked up a switch to A/B between playback of this and the ZX-9 so I'll post the results of that eventually. It could just be my perception but it just feels like something is missing w/this deck compared to the others, despite the modern features including auto tape type select. Even with the idler the transport doesn't seem to be as quiet and smooth as the classic Naks. No blank tape skip is a questionable omission.

I don't regret my journey, but if I had to do it all over again I'd have stuck with the ZX-9 for recording and RX-505 for playback. Sure the 505 isn't giving me everything the Dragon is giving me, but it's much cheaper and a worry free deck given how the UDAR works vs the Dragon's auto-reverse. The CR-7 was really just an impulse buy given how cheap it was, but I'm looking forward to comparing its recordings to the ZX-9 (just cabled this up).

[jdandy]

Steve.......Congratulations on the CR-7. I bought a new Nakamichi CR-7A in 1989 and had it for more than 20 years. ESL serviced it once for me to put tape spooling gear drive in it. I sold it a number of years ago and regretted it almost immediately. I still own a Nakamichi BX-300 but it is not in the same league as the CR-7A.

[For The Love of Music]

I was at the Seattle Tacoma International Airport yesterday, and within the airport is the store, "Sub-Pop", the record label that signed Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden putting Seattle in the map starting the grunge scene.

Anyway, I checked it out and they had a large selection of Vinyl and Cassette tapes, all Sub-Pop mind you.

[Maks]

I've since gone back to the ZX-9 and RX-505 setup. The CR-7 appears to need some work, there are some tapes where the wow is noticeable, it won't even play some tapes without stopping. So it needs a tune-up. I may just sell it as is, I'm not sure I want to keep it around. Nice deck, sounds great, auto calibration for record is nice and excellent meters. However, with a ZX-9 it seems a bit redundant. I'm really liking the convenience of the 505 with its UDAR for reverse and the blank skip that I mentioned previously. Put a tape in and forget about it for an hour and a half.

I've been buying up any cheap (~$2/ea or less) type II tapes I can along with plenty of the older TDK D type Is and I think I'm set for life in that department. Vinyl is still my main listening source, but it's fun to tool around with tapes on the weekends.

[Maks]

There was an article in the WSJ about tapes and NAC's upcoming new formula: https://www.wsj.com/articles/cassett...ape-1509723435

Subscription required to read it, but the video contains good info either way.

[Weirdcuba]

Omg - I remember lusting after one of these in law school when I had $8 in my bank account on a good day.

[cleeds]

Here's an article about the cassette resurgence that isn't behind a paywall

[rnrmf1971]

Someone on the Steve Hoffman forum gave me the twitter link to the WSJ article, from the last day or two, which isn't blocked.
If you don't read the article, the video part of it is really cool.

https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/927065938725363712

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6lTMwHaGUg

[Maks]

While I have a great stockpile of NOS Type Is and IIs, I'm very interested in this new formula and of course it's going to keep NAC in business and releasing tapes which is a big plus. Now if only there were more techs capable of servicing all those used machines out there or if a new, quality deck was released. All the recent decks are garbage that are on par with 8-track.