Shop: (affiliate links) Nakamichi NXGA80.6 Amp - ebay.to/2F5HWDh Nakamichi Car Amps - ebay.to/3lOPcE9 Flir One Pro - amzn.to/2ETdOuR Handheld Dyno: amzn.to/2u2EgKV My Favorite Screwdriver Kit: amzn.to/2x0VzcE New Williston Audio Merch! teespring.com/stores/bigdwiz DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase from one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
China Audio Hi Fi that sells Williston Amps etc.......... used to be really good, then TH-camrs start reviewing their products and now they have increased their prices. Other tubers get their products for free to review, and then suddenly the price goes up, right after the review. This happened with their version of the Harbeth speakers clones. The price went $200-$300 per pair! Sad to see the average Joe having to pay more during a pan demonic! Some Ytubers have know idea that they ruin things for others because of greed. They know who they are!
My dad worked at that store in 95-96! He always said Shaq was a regular customer who wanted the newest and best everything and was always such a nice guy. I still run my Nak bookshelf speakers from 92, sound good still.
@@srarcade I was stationed in Tampa 94-98 and went to Sound Advice often. I was mainly into home theater. Did work at Circuit City part time and had famous people in there all the time. No one as famous as Shaq though!
@@johnclark3067 mmats. Have you haeard their products? I have a mmats 1400.1 dhc. It sounds beautiful. The sounds are so warm. Unlike my skar rp2000.1. It is not warm. The skar is just brutal. Nothing will ever compete with mmats imo.. well im sure something can but i know not of it
Loved seeing that old Kicker subwoofer at the end of the video. I bought one like that at pawn shop back in the 90s when I was like 14. I would run it with home stereo and drive my parents nuts with bass.
I have one of their better 3 head decks from when they were at their peak in the 90s. its not a Dragon but its still damn nice. Lots of controls for bias and trim....For my car stereo I use an old school soundstream Rubicon 4 for my bi-amped front stage and Rockford Fosgate Power 250 monoblock for single 12" AVI Neo (number 83). Sounds like heaven.
I never dreamed back in the 80's and 90's I would be able to own a Nakamichi cassette deck. Over the past few years, I've bought 4 - although none of their TOL models, they still go for LOTS of money. They really knew how to push that format to the limit.
Shame it was so anemic. Would've been a perfect amp to throw on your front-end for a 3-way active setup. They should've rated it 6 × 50 @ 4 ohms. I'd get Shawn King to work his magic modding and upgrading it. Great video BigD!! 👌
Yes I’m in the SQ GREY POUPON crowd. I have a slight case of OCD ADHD that demands me to wanna hear everything at it’s finest. I used to be a SPL bass head when I was younger. Now at 39 years old I’m running two 10s with a active 3 way front stage and a 8ch DSP. Custom fiberglass sail and A pillar builds for my tweeters and 3.5” mids . Have 8” woofers in the door’s with plenty of sound treatment. I love to “LISTEN” to my music!
From just looking at the guts, this amp would be an excellent candidate for modifying. The opamps have a good amount of real estate around them (perfect for swapping out for discreet style -Burson-, for example) and cap swap and possibly transistor swap. For the money... this would be a fun amp to modify. Class A/B for life.
Love your videos, yo! I found this one when I searched for tests on MY Nakamichi amp, the NGXA80.4 and figured it had to be pretty much the same amp with just 2 less channels as the one you tested here. I was right. I found this amp for $150 on eBay brand new. I chose it because of the specs VS the price plus the fact that I'm 62 years old and remember Nakamichi from way back in the 70's and 80's and their high-end stuff. This one is claimed to be a "2,000 watt amp" but the specs are pretty much the same as the 6-channel you tested in this video. I've been very happy with this NGXA80.4 so far. I have it powering 4-way Pioneer 6.5's up front with Cerwin-Vega tweeters in parallel (hooked up right, with bass blockers and resistors as well as the CV crossovers) and the same combo in the rear but with 5-way Pioneer 6x9's. I can say one thing; everything does sound nice and clean, and it plays my music louder than anyone who gets in my car can handle! But after watching this video, you made me want to go out and find a different amp! Really! It made me realize how much Nakamichi over-rate their amps specs! Now I'm going to look for a different brand of amp with more realistic specs! Although I don't go for massive hair-moving SPL levels, I simply like car audio to be crystal clear and sound nice at a lower volume instead of having to crank everything up. This amp does what I want it to. My head unit is a mechless Alpine, which is run through a Rockville 7-band equalizer (I sold the Clarion of the same design and got the Rockville because it was the ONLY 7-band I could find ANYWHERE that had ONLY the 7 frequency knobs to the right of the input selector switch). My signals go through high quality twisted RCA's I got from KnuKonceptz and I run 12g Audiopipe speaker wires to my front speakers and 10g Audiopipe to my rear speakers. I also run an 800-watt powered 10" Rockville sub. This is my first 10" sub I've ever owned in my 45 years of messing with car audio! I chose it only because it had better low frequency response than their 12's did. SSSSOOOO... now that I've watched this video, I'm not so happy with my amp! Even though I never imagined it to truly put out 2,000 watts, I certainly didn't think the output was THIS low! Time to look for a better amp! But again, this was the nicest 4-channel amp I could find for under $200 from a name I knew and trusted since the 70's. My biggest surprise was when I got the amp, made by a Japanese company, and clearly all over the box was big bold red letters saying "Made In China"!!! Say WHAT? I company in Japan can't make their own products in their own country? I'm still shaking my head at this one! Anyway, I wanted to give you my opinion on the 4-channel version of this amp you tested in this video. I sure wish you could post pictures in TH-cam comments, I'd show you my setup. Thanks for the video! Oh, but NO thanks for making me want to replace my Nakamichi amp so soon! LOL! ;)
I had all Nakamichi in my car in the mid to late 80’s. It’s still in the car too sitting in my garage. 😂 TD-800 cassette deck. Pull out with Azimuth control. Two crossovers 2 amps. 75X2 and 35x4. These drive the mids and highs. I had an Alphasonik 125x2 amp also for the subs. 2 Fosgate 10’s and Gold Sound 12 dvc It sounded okay. I had Polk audio plates and Fosgate mids and Vifa tweeters. Clean sound but lacked power. I don’t have the amps anymore though. I put those in some friends cars who needed amps. My brother has a home Dragon deck. Not sure if it’s working though.
Yeah! I remember Nakamichi for home audio! I could never afford them back in the day. Made in Japan! I remember some of the car audio line but it never seem to be popular.
The resistors that are hot are supposed to be - they’re current limiting resistors for zener diodes that convert the rail voltage down to +/-15V for the opamps in the preamp and crossover stages. The nearby caps are receiving heat from the resistors radiation and are unlikely to be heating themselves.
I think for the money its a great option for someone wanting to run 3 way fronts in a daily. Im going to have to look into them and find out if they make a subwoofer amplifier that matches this amp and how does it perform. Thank you Big D for the video, awesome as always. We appreciate your hard work.
Not everyone can afford to spend 6-7k on car audio. I think its a great option for the younger generation that are just starting out and want 3 way fronts.
Always remember.... " where there is resistance , there is voltage, and where there is voltage, there is heat ... This equals to " high resistance= high heat. Learned this in electronics class over 20 yrs ago
So sad. The old Nakamichi stuff shined. I'm listening to my sr4a receiver as I type this, and the sound is fantastic! You should throw an old sr4a or ta4a on the dyno. Love the channel.
I think a lot of the high end audio names have been sold out to low budget mainstream consumer oriented operations that make cheap knock-offs while trying to ride the good name of the old companies.
Unbelievable TH-cam! Just yesterday evening I realized what my DIY project is: a 6 mono amplifiers unit (that will be plugged into an adjustable crossover). Damned, how a hell they got know about this and offered this vid to me today?
Did u pull the trigger? I'm doing a hifi setup with a android chinese head unit with built in dsp and sdpif optical out... a dac and class a/b would be a perfect amp. $199. I wonder how long it would throw wattage at the sub before catching fire.
I have this amp powering Bass Face 2 way components at the front. JBL Club 6 X 9 's on the Rear Deck and Two 12 inch Bass Tubes by Bass Face in the boot I was impressed with the sound. Contrary to the test it is loud and Bass fills the Car. The sound quality is impressive too you can't go wrong for the money 💰.
Thank you, again. Awesome video! Found this on Audio Precision's site. "THD+N is an abbreviation for Total Harmonic Distortion plus Noise. Total Harmonic Distortion is the sum of all the harmonic distortion products in a measurement, as opposed to selective harmonic distortion, which measures discrete harmonic products separately. THD+N adds noise to this figure." If the Amp Dyno only measures THD that may explain the lower output? I don't know. You probably need to ask Tony.
I’d use that thermal to make a few changes in that amp. First change I would make is putting in some high quality caps and move those hot resistors a little ways away from the caps or put some heat sinks on them and try blending the heat into the side of the amp. It would be fun to see if changing the mosfets and diodes could help get the rated power or if it just needs a better transformer set up. Old amps can be great fun to rebuild especially when you can improve them, it makes me think that there are new amps out there that could benefit from the same treatment.
Back in the day they had the BEST head units matched up with old school Pioneer TS 6906. and 6907's. 6x9's. Man rocked some old Camaros and novas back in my day 👍🏁🏁👍
Dated a girl in high school, around 1990, who’s aunt drove a dope ass Black over black 560sec, lowered, staggered BBS RS’s. Full Nakamichi system, a couple amps in the trunk, cassette head unit, a/d/s 7’s in plates on the rear deck for a mellow but accurate low end. The aunt would let us take it out every now and then, felt like the baddest thing rolling on gasoline, which it kind of was.
No worry bout the temp overlay. Itd be bout the same just a bit hotter. All around good stuff. Thanks for trying it @ 1 ohm I was curious as I'm sure many were. Keep em coming yo!
I miss the OLD stuff. That sat on the shelf next to MB quart and Macintosh. These 3 were the tops brands at most high shops when I got into car audio back in 90’s
@@Polywog77 Good point. There are some videous that shows 4x50w HU gives 15-19w/channel and 4x100w HU gives even 23w/chanel. I did not think that might be behind these over rated specs. I've known so long that amps might give less or more than they are rated. Back in 90's it just was so much harder to find information of measurement.
In the 80's, i was making first steps into HiFi, i bought the marvelous Nak BX-300. I loved the PA-7 amp (STASIS licenced from Threshold / Nelson Pass), it was a monster! I started DJ'ing and one of the fellow DJ (who owned a car audio shop) went to the bar with a impressive Nak kit in his car: TD-700 head unit, and a bunch of PA-400M amps IIRC, Gauss sub, etc! (we're talking about 1987!). From what i see in this video, it'll be hard to get back to their reputation with "inflated" specs... Too bad.
Back in the day, the Nakamichi Dragon was the finest home cassette player you could buy. It was lusted after by many audiophile. Then they produced a few head units with the same technology for cassette playback that cost at least $1K. So sad to see they have been dragged down to the gutter.
The TD1200 car deck was THE cassette deck to have in your car. If you knew someone with a Nak tape deck and a decent turntable and used decent cassettes, it would sound better (way better) than the first cd players. It would give you a larger dynamic range and wasn't as harsh as the first cd players were.
I use to do the warranty repairs for Canada in early 2000's. Some car stuff was good and some great. I have the CD-700 head unit which is still fargin marvelous sounding. Have a few of the CD-100 heads( 6 cd for size of single din) not to shabby either. Been to factory when it was in California. The home stuff is amazing. If you can get the systems they used in music stores to demo cd's, all that was Nakamichi.
I installed their car stuff in the 80's. Amps were good for mids and highs. Head unit didn't hold up to well. I remember the whole cassette carriage would slide out the front to help maintain head alignment.
Yeah I remember Lexus and Nakamichi had a partnership from 1989 to 2001. Those systems sounded great in those cars. Especially in the Lexus LS 400.👍🏾👍🏾🔊🎶🎵
I always wanted a Nakamichi head unit back in the 90's. Had some clarion units, then got a real nice one from Eclipse. They really made some nice ones.
Soundstream just came out with 2 brand new lines of amps, Reserve for dealers only. And the beast TXP line there are the real deal!! There on a comeback!!
Nakamichi: who are you? Big D: the guy wanting to keep the industry honest. Nakamichi: crickets....at less than claimed spl. 😀😇😎 Would their $1800 amp be just as accurate? Hmmmm??
I have the same camera, just don't use it around the house or you'll be fighting drafts and such forever. Nakamichi I believe is not the same company as it use to be. I used the Dragon and Dragon 2 back when they came out. CD quality from a cassette tape. Works of art.
Wow, My first car amp I ever bought in I think 1985 was a Nakamichi, It was 70 watts a channel, super clean but didnt put out much, it sounded more like 35 a channel. haha Still was a really good amp at the time. I still have it today.
I was a Navy brat and my Dad would give me all his old gear when he upgraded. Okinawa, Japan baby!!!! My neighbor Art his dad father had the deck that would flip.
N Power = Nominal Power? Or in this case not rated power? I’ve been disappointed in the last few 6 channel amps I’ve tested, but this one seems decent for the money it’s just unfortunate they chose not to rate it truthfully.
Once I saw those cheap speaker terminals, I figured the output wouldn't be good....thanks for the test ..I would love to see you test one of those newer cerwin vega amps as well
This reminds me of Soundstream. Top brand in the industry from the 90's that has become a joke since being sold to other companies. I am glad to see smaller companies pop up that have pretty decent products that are well made and affordable. We have more options than these giant corporations pushing crappy, overrated products.
Nak use to be really quality equipment back in the day... what happened to them is the same thing that happened to others like PPI... great quality back in the 80’s and 90’s! But today, just cheap stuff. Too bad we can’t go back in time. Try NVX 2700 on the amp dyno!!!
RJ-11 is nice because its easier to replace when you damage the cable on accident, or if you have the crimp tool you can cut custom cables so you don't end up with yet another coil of wire jammed into a kick panel picking up EM interference.
Nakamichi was used in a lot of Lexus cars from 1989 to like the early 2000s? They were a upgrade from the stock Pioneer system that came with the cars.
I have a nakamichi 3 head cassette player. CD quality when using TDK MA or SA tapes, I was pleased with the sound. Last I saw a nakamichi was at Sears close out, dinky speakers and headphones.
I remember a guy had a Nakamichi tape head unit that slid out like a CD player in the 90s. I so thought that was the shit back then. He had twelve 12s in a Eclipse. Sounded damn good.
Definitely a nak-off! :-P Nakamichi was definitely a high end brand. Best cassette deck hands down was the Dragon. And head unit (also cassette) was the TD-1200. Used that combo until the late 80s. Never liked my Disc Jockey because it skipped on loud beats. DAT fixed that and could also record discs with no loss of quality. Those were the days. EDIT: Lossy compression on audio tracks does not affect lower frequencies nearly as bad. Check out Jorge Torres' channel, some decent bass tracks that will make your port loaded subs cry uncle! :-)
My first system in a 76 kingcab Datsun had a Nckamichi head unit and 2 12" soundstream subs and amp's. California soundworks in the 90's. Midnight mini's and cursing Lancaster Blvd...
Nakamichi was known to outsource their budget stuff to the Maxxsonic style brands, subsequently making them crap. But for stuff they cared about, they went hard. Real hard.
I am glad that I came across the test of this amplifier, after watching it I lost my appetite for its power. Kudos to the person doing this test, good job
Shop: (affiliate links)
Nakamichi NXGA80.6 Amp - ebay.to/2F5HWDh
Nakamichi Car Amps - ebay.to/3lOPcE9
Flir One Pro - amzn.to/2ETdOuR
Handheld Dyno: amzn.to/2u2EgKV
My Favorite Screwdriver Kit: amzn.to/2x0VzcE
New Williston Audio Merch! teespring.com/stores/bigdwiz
DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase from one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
Don't think that amplifier is going to get you much amazon money.
Big D please test this kenwood KAC 1023 or this mono blocks 9105 or 9106.
Will really appreciate it!
As map
China Audio Hi Fi that sells Williston Amps etc.......... used to be really good, then TH-camrs start reviewing their products and now they have increased their prices. Other tubers get their products for free to review, and then suddenly the price goes up, right after the review. This happened with their version of the Harbeth speakers clones. The price went $200-$300 per pair! Sad to see the average Joe having to pay more during a pan demonic! Some Ytubers have know idea that they ruin things for others because of greed. They know who they are!
You remember Majestic budget Amp back in the 90s? I used to power MTX bluethunder subs with them.
Nakamichi, Blaupunkt, and most of the other great names have been sold to the Chinese.
Yep
Most things are. Gotta keep those margins up
@@maman89 sad but true, audio should be better represent to society.
Blaupunkt become a real trash
Jbl,rockford
Nakamichi was top notch back in the day. So was Zapco & McIntosh. I inherited my fathers oldskool McIntosh home audio & it’s absolutely awesome
I was at Sound Advice in the mid 90s in Orlando when Shaq came in to get a full Nakamichi system in his Nissan pathfinder.
I'm amazed that he could fit in a mid-sized suv! I remember the Ford van he filled with Mmatts (Spelling?) back then.
My dad worked at that store in 95-96! He always said Shaq was a regular customer who wanted the newest and best everything and was always such a nice guy. I still run my Nak bookshelf speakers from 92, sound good still.
@@srarcade I was stationed in Tampa 94-98 and went to Sound Advice often. I was mainly into home theater. Did work at Circuit City part time and had famous people in there all the time. No one as famous as Shaq though!
John Clark Actually that Van had Critical Mass equipment. I was at a club in Orlando when he pulled up.
@@johnclark3067 mmats. Have you haeard their products? I have a mmats 1400.1 dhc. It sounds beautiful. The sounds are so warm. Unlike my skar rp2000.1. It is not warm. The skar is just brutal. Nothing will ever compete with mmats imo.. well im sure something can but i know not of it
Loved seeing that old Kicker subwoofer at the end of the video. I bought one like that at pawn shop back in the 90s when I was like 14. I would run it with home stereo and drive my parents nuts with bass.
How the mighty have fallen.
For reals. I saw Nakamichi headphones at KMart for $10 bucks. This world is so messed up now.
Atmospheric Pressure I just ended up buying old school used Boston sub amp and a Alphasonik 4 channel. Clean power!!!
I have one of their better 3 head decks from when they were at their peak in the 90s. its not a Dragon but its still damn nice. Lots of controls for bias and trim....For my car stereo I use an old school soundstream Rubicon 4 for my bi-amped front stage and Rockford Fosgate Power 250 monoblock for single 12" AVI Neo (number 83). Sounds like heaven.
That's the chinese version called NakaChiChi😂
You win ! ! !
Mao Power
NakaCheapy
@AUDIO MAN the wuhan plague, made by Joe Biden's boss.
@AUDIO MAN The computer you're typing on and your mother were made in china...You are too lazy and have no aptitude to build anything
I got excited for a minute (until the dyno)
Damn!
knockoffamichi
You win the internet 🤣
Don Amiche!
The name was so Synanomus with quality back in the late 80s and 90s when I got into audio!! N-Power=Nominal power my guess..
I was all excited and then wtf?
N-power = "Nakamichi Power" DOH
@Dave Micolichek they are like boss watts
* spell check does work sometimes
@@MC_AU whut?
I never dreamed back in the 80's and 90's I would be able to own a Nakamichi cassette deck. Over the past few years, I've bought 4 - although none of their TOL models, they still go for LOTS of money. They really knew how to push that format to the limit.
Anyone else catch the typo printed on the amp at 4:26? "BASS BOOET"
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
oh my gawd thats to much !
@@craigengelman4534 to much?
The hole amp is a typo
@@henryovalles7311 the irony in your comment.. I see it 😂
Shame it was so anemic. Would've been a perfect amp to throw on your front-end for a 3-way active setup. They should've rated it 6 × 50 @ 4 ohms. I'd get Shawn King to work his magic modding and upgrading it. Great video BigD!! 👌
Wowwwwww!!! A tube amplifier for car audio!! Must have!
Butler Audio used to make them. A SQ competition car in the 1990's ran them. I think it was a Buick Grand National.
I had a Nakamichi tape deck in my car, I would blast old techno mix tapes and it would rock my JL sub. Good old times my friends.
JL subs are junk
@@lkjyuiop1987 🙄
Yes I’m in the SQ GREY POUPON crowd. I have a slight case of OCD ADHD that demands me to wanna hear everything at it’s finest. I used to be a SPL bass head when I was younger. Now at 39 years old I’m running two 10s with a active 3 way front stage and a 8ch DSP. Custom fiberglass sail and A pillar builds for my tweeters and 3.5” mids . Have 8” woofers in the door’s with plenty of sound treatment. I love to “LISTEN” to my music!
For the money its still good and clean thanks for testing this one
😬👍
From just looking at the guts, this amp would be an excellent candidate for modifying. The opamps have a good amount of real estate around them (perfect for swapping out for discreet style -Burson-, for example) and cap swap and possibly transistor swap. For the money... this would be a fun amp to modify. Class A/B for life.
I think the "N" in N-power stands for "iN your dreams"
used to love the nakamichi i had in my honda back in the day. "my nakamichi knockin" yall know
@Dave Micolichek It's literally the founder's name
@Dave Micolichek Ahh didnt see the first sentence screen was scrolled...lol
this has always been one of the most overlooked brands . I was bumpin this stuff back in the late 80' early 90's
They weren't overlooked. This product is NOTHING to do with the Nakamichi of the "old days".
@@johncoops6897 Exactly. Nakamichi Amps that were built by Zed Audio, are some of the most sought after old school amplifiers today!
Love your videos, yo! I found this one when I searched for tests on MY Nakamichi amp, the NGXA80.4 and figured it had to be pretty much the same amp with just 2 less channels as the one you tested here. I was right. I found this amp for $150 on eBay brand new. I chose it because of the specs VS the price plus the fact that I'm 62 years old and remember Nakamichi from way back in the 70's and 80's and their high-end stuff. This one is claimed to be a "2,000 watt amp" but the specs are pretty much the same as the 6-channel you tested in this video. I've been very happy with this NGXA80.4 so far. I have it powering 4-way Pioneer 6.5's up front with Cerwin-Vega tweeters in parallel (hooked up right, with bass blockers and resistors as well as the CV crossovers) and the same combo in the rear but with 5-way Pioneer 6x9's. I can say one thing; everything does sound nice and clean, and it plays my music louder than anyone who gets in my car can handle! But after watching this video, you made me want to go out and find a different amp! Really! It made me realize how much Nakamichi over-rate their amps specs! Now I'm going to look for a different brand of amp with more realistic specs! Although I don't go for massive hair-moving SPL levels, I simply like car audio to be crystal clear and sound nice at a lower volume instead of having to crank everything up. This amp does what I want it to. My head unit is a mechless Alpine, which is run through a Rockville 7-band equalizer (I sold the Clarion of the same design and got the Rockville because it was the ONLY 7-band I could find ANYWHERE that had ONLY the 7 frequency knobs to the right of the input selector switch). My signals go through high quality twisted RCA's I got from KnuKonceptz and I run 12g Audiopipe speaker wires to my front speakers and 10g Audiopipe to my rear speakers. I also run an 800-watt powered 10" Rockville sub. This is my first 10" sub I've ever owned in my 45 years of messing with car audio! I chose it only because it had better low frequency response than their 12's did. SSSSOOOO... now that I've watched this video, I'm not so happy with my amp! Even though I never imagined it to truly put out 2,000 watts, I certainly didn't think the output was THIS low! Time to look for a better amp! But again, this was the nicest 4-channel amp I could find for under $200 from a name I knew and trusted since the 70's. My biggest surprise was when I got the amp, made by a Japanese company, and clearly all over the box was big bold red letters saying "Made In China"!!! Say WHAT? I company in Japan can't make their own products in their own country? I'm still shaking my head at this one! Anyway, I wanted to give you my opinion on the 4-channel version of this amp you tested in this video. I sure wish you could post pictures in TH-cam comments, I'd show you my setup. Thanks for the video! Oh, but NO thanks for making me want to replace my Nakamichi amp so soon! LOL! ;)
Nakamichi was one of the best in the mid to late 80s. Expensive car audio but was incredible.
I had all Nakamichi in my car in the mid to late 80’s. It’s still in the car too sitting in my garage. 😂
TD-800 cassette deck. Pull out with Azimuth control.
Two crossovers
2 amps. 75X2 and 35x4. These drive the mids and highs.
I had an Alphasonik 125x2 amp also for the subs. 2 Fosgate 10’s and Gold Sound 12 dvc
It sounded okay. I had Polk audio plates and Fosgate mids and Vifa tweeters. Clean sound but lacked power.
I don’t have the amps anymore though. I put those in some friends cars who needed amps.
My brother has a home Dragon deck. Not sure if it’s working though.
Yeah! I remember Nakamichi for home audio! I could never afford them back in the day. Made in Japan! I remember some of the car audio line but it never seem to be popular.
Great engineering brother...
The resistors that are hot are supposed to be - they’re current limiting resistors for zener diodes that convert the rail voltage down to +/-15V for the opamps in the preamp and crossover stages. The nearby caps are receiving heat from the resistors radiation and are unlikely to be heating themselves.
I remember the home audio... I like the tubes in the amp.
I think for the money its a great option for someone wanting to run 3 way fronts in a daily. Im going to have to look into them and find out if they make a subwoofer amplifier that matches this amp and how does it perform.
Thank you Big D for the video, awesome as always. We appreciate your hard work.
Seems to be a solid deal, albeit overrated quite a bit
you must be a patreon
If you're going 3 way active, you wouldn't skimp on this. Plenty better options out there.
@@mattpierce4143 your right, i have Lp amps on my 3 ways but my 17 year old nephew would run something like this because its cheap.
Not everyone can afford to spend 6-7k on car audio. I think its a great option for the younger generation that are just starting out and want 3 way fronts.
I just love your videos. I always look for when you have a new one.
Always remember.... " where there is resistance , there is voltage, and where there is voltage, there is heat ... This equals to " high resistance= high heat. Learned this in electronics class over 20 yrs ago
True from a current source like a tube amp output but higher resistance equals lower power dissipation from a voltage source.
Nakamichi has dishonored the industry.
25Hz to Life, You've got it backwards. The industry has dishonored Nakamichi. As it has done to so many other, once classic, brand names.
So sad. The old Nakamichi stuff shined. I'm listening to my sr4a receiver as I type this, and the sound is fantastic!
You should throw an old sr4a or ta4a on the dyno. Love the channel.
Nak PA-275 was my first amp ever. Got it used for $100 and drove 2 pioneer 10s.
👍
I still own a working PA-400M
I think a lot of the high end audio names have been sold out to low budget mainstream consumer oriented operations that make cheap knock-offs while trying to ride the good name of the old companies.
I have been waiting for this one!
Awe yeah
that lil kicky at the end was doin some work!!!! nice throw for the old school sub....
Still happy to see Nakamichi back in the game
Their signal processors were $129 a few years ago. The current prices are scalpers.
Always love clicking the youtube button and seeing a new vid from big d wiz!
I still have one of their SoundSpace 12 Systems that I bought in the early 2000's. Still love it as much as the day I bought it :)
Unbelievable TH-cam! Just yesterday evening I realized what my DIY project is: a 6 mono amplifiers unit (that will be plugged into an adjustable crossover). Damned, how a hell they got know about this and offered this vid to me today?
Did u pull the trigger? I'm doing a hifi setup with a android chinese head unit with built in dsp and sdpif optical out... a dac and class a/b would be a perfect amp. $199. I wonder how long it would throw wattage at the sub before catching fire.
Demise of a great product... great video Big D!
Thanks brother 👌
Thanks for your great videos. Really educational and helpful! Great job.
I have this amp powering Bass Face 2 way components at the front. JBL Club 6 X 9 's on the Rear Deck and Two 12 inch Bass Tubes by Bass Face in the boot I was impressed with the sound. Contrary to the test it is loud and Bass fills the Car. The sound quality is impressive too you can't go wrong for the money 💰.
Toyota asked them to make this amp to replace all the blown pioneer amps in the ls430s. The ls430s with the Navigation/nakamichi amps rarely fail.
Ask Redman is his “Nakamichi still knocking”
Thank you, again. Awesome video!
Found this on Audio Precision's site.
"THD+N is an abbreviation for Total Harmonic Distortion plus Noise. Total Harmonic Distortion is the sum of all the harmonic distortion products in a measurement, as opposed to selective harmonic distortion, which measures discrete harmonic products separately. THD+N adds noise to this figure."
If the Amp Dyno only measures THD that may explain the lower output?
I don't know. You probably need to ask Tony.
Nice job. Good to see some Nak on here.
I’d use that thermal to make a few changes in that amp. First change I would make is putting in some high quality caps and move those hot resistors a little ways away from the caps or put some heat sinks on them and try blending the heat into the side of the amp. It would be fun to see if changing the mosfets and diodes could help get the rated power or if it just needs a better transformer set up. Old amps can be great fun to rebuild especially when you can improve them, it makes me think that there are new amps out there that could benefit from the same treatment.
They've been selling the cross overs at a local shop for three years now glad to see the amps are available now
Nakamichi was also used in the 1990-2000 Lexus LS400 and other Lexus cars of the era.
Back in the day they had the BEST head units matched up with old school Pioneer TS 6906. and 6907's. 6x9's. Man rocked some old Camaros and novas back in my day 👍🏁🏁👍
Dated a girl in high school, around 1990, who’s aunt drove a dope ass Black over black 560sec, lowered, staggered BBS RS’s. Full Nakamichi system, a couple amps in the trunk, cassette head unit, a/d/s 7’s in plates on the rear deck for a mellow but accurate low end. The aunt would let us take it out every now and then, felt like the baddest thing rolling on gasoline, which it kind of was.
Nice touch with the tig camera btw love the new content keep up the good work bud
No worry bout the temp overlay. Itd be bout the same just a bit hotter. All around good stuff. Thanks for trying it @ 1 ohm I was curious as I'm sure many were. Keep em coming yo!
I miss the OLD stuff. That sat on the shelf next to MB quart and Macintosh. These 3 were the tops brands at most high shops when I got into car audio back in 90’s
200 bucks is good for 6 channels and that control.
50x6 is still a good amount of power.
Only question is why those ratings...
@@ilkkak3065 lots of decks boast that 50x4 rating "why would i buy an amp that does the same?".
@@Polywog77 Good point. There are some videous that shows 4x50w HU gives 15-19w/channel and 4x100w HU gives even 23w/chanel. I did not think that might be behind these over rated specs. I've known so long that amps might give less or more than they are rated. Back in 90's it just was so much harder to find information of measurement.
In the 80's, i was making first steps into HiFi, i bought the marvelous Nak BX-300. I loved the PA-7 amp (STASIS licenced from Threshold / Nelson Pass), it was a monster! I started DJ'ing and one of the fellow DJ (who owned a car audio shop) went to the bar with a impressive Nak kit in his car: TD-700 head unit, and a bunch of PA-400M amps IIRC, Gauss sub, etc! (we're talking about 1987!). From what i see in this video, it'll be hard to get back to their reputation with "inflated" specs... Too bad.
Back in the day, the Nakamichi Dragon was the finest home cassette player you could buy. It was lusted after by many audiophile. Then they produced a few head units with the same technology for cassette playback that cost at least $1K. So sad to see they have been dragged down to the gutter.
The TD1200 car deck was THE cassette deck to have in your car. If you knew someone with a Nak tape deck and a decent turntable and used decent cassettes, it would sound better (way better) than the first cd players. It would give you a larger dynamic range and wasn't as harsh as the first cd players were.
I actually had the 1200 and the RX505 auto reverse cassette deck for the home. Still in storage.
I use to do the warranty repairs for Canada in early 2000's. Some car stuff was good and some great. I have the CD-700 head unit which is still fargin marvelous sounding. Have a few of the CD-100 heads( 6 cd for size of single din) not to shabby either. Been to factory when it was in California. The home stuff is amazing. If you can get the systems they used in music stores to demo cd's, all that was Nakamichi.
I give you full permission you can use any one of my beats in my Big Bass C Bass music playlist.
Cheers for testing a brand that is not mainstream 🍻
I installed their car stuff in the 80's. Amps were good for mids and highs. Head unit didn't hold up to well. I remember the whole cassette carriage would slide out the front to help maintain head alignment.
Yeah I remember Lexus and Nakamichi had a partnership from 1989 to 2001. Those systems sounded great in those cars. Especially in the Lexus LS 400.👍🏾👍🏾🔊🎶🎵
I had it. The LS400 only had 4 inch speakers in the doors, too
I always wanted a Nakamichi head unit back in the 90's. Had some clarion units, then got a real nice one from Eclipse. They really made some nice ones.
Yeah sick fo sho
Still have my Nakamichi Dragon I purchased in Japan in 1983. Working perfectly.
That’s a dream tape deck.
I was looking at getting one of these. Not anymore. Thanks for saving me some money Big D!
I've always heard of their amplifier but I've never seen them. Did they sell car amplifiers in the '90s as well?
I'm fortunate that I own a PA 2004 Nakamichi that has been going strong since 2009 😁.Still sounds Great !!!.
Soundstream just came out with 2 brand new lines of amps, Reserve for dealers only. And the beast TXP line there are the real deal!! There on a comeback!!
Nakamichi: who are you?
Big D: the guy wanting to keep the industry honest.
Nakamichi: crickets....at less than claimed spl. 😀😇😎
Would their $1800 amp be just as accurate? Hmmmm??
A Whistleblower ....
I have the same camera, just don't use it around the house or you'll be fighting drafts and such forever. Nakamichi I believe is not the same company as it use to be. I used the Dragon and Dragon 2 back when they came out. CD quality from a cassette tape. Works of art.
Wow, My first car amp I ever bought in I think 1985 was a Nakamichi, It was 70 watts a channel, super clean but didnt put out much, it sounded more like 35 a channel. haha Still was a really good amp at the time. I still have it today.
I was a Navy brat and my Dad would give me all his old gear when he upgraded. Okinawa, Japan baby!!!! My neighbor Art his dad father had the deck that would flip.
N Power = Nominal Power? Or in this case not rated power? I’ve been disappointed in the last few 6 channel amps I’ve tested, but this one seems decent for the money it’s just unfortunate they chose not to rate it truthfully.
Yeah Rob. I’m pretty sure the “N” does stand for normal power output. I’ve seen a few amps now that are rated that way.
Once I saw those cheap speaker terminals, I figured the output wouldn't be good....thanks for the test ..I would love to see you test one of those newer cerwin vega amps as well
I loved the auto reversing tape decks that were motorized
👌😬👍
Watch 9 1/2 weeks auto reverse at it's best. Plus Micky rourke with no wrinkles
This reminds me of Soundstream. Top brand in the industry from the 90's that has become a joke since being sold to other companies. I am glad to see smaller companies pop up that have pretty decent products that are well made and affordable. We have more options than these giant corporations pushing crappy, overrated products.
Nak use to be really quality equipment back in the day... what happened to them is the same thing that happened to others like PPI... great quality back in the 80’s and 90’s! But today, just cheap stuff. Too bad we can’t go back in time. Try NVX 2700 on the amp dyno!!!
Thanks for the review 👍
Thanks for watching and commenting!
RJ-11 is nice because its easier to replace when you damage the cable on accident, or if you have the crimp tool you can cut custom cables so you don't end up with yet another coil of wire jammed into a kick panel picking up EM interference.
Nakamichi was used in a lot of Lexus cars from 1989 to like the early 2000s? They were a upgrade from the stock Pioneer system that came with the cars.
I’m still running old school US Acoustics and a Boston. Old school Nakamichi would be a nice find.
I still love I can nakamichi!!!
My system slams!
God bless
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Back in the day, i loved the sp-200 plates, and if the foam wasnt roted id still be playing them.
Oh, snap!!! We got thermal cam action!
Stepping up the game for my peeps!
I have a nakamichi 3 head cassette player. CD quality when using TDK MA or SA tapes, I was pleased with the sound. Last I saw a nakamichi was at Sears close out, dinky speakers and headphones.
Appreciate the new content.
Had a head unit back on the days, didn't know they were still around
I recently dug out my NAK PA-200 amp and used it to build an ok-ish boombox with a kenwood 5.25 component set as my shop radio
I remember a guy had a Nakamichi tape head unit that slid out like a CD player in the 90s. I so thought that was the shit back then. He had twelve 12s in a Eclipse. Sounded damn good.
Forgot about Eclipse. Nice head units, on par with the Alpine 7909 back in the day
Hey Big D, happy labor day weekend!✌
Take a picture of the bridging logic just in case.
I gots it. I’ll trade Nak the pic for one of the N60t amps 🤪
Definitely a nak-off! :-P
Nakamichi was definitely a high end brand. Best cassette deck hands down was the Dragon. And head unit (also cassette) was the TD-1200. Used that combo until the late 80s. Never liked my Disc Jockey because it skipped on loud beats. DAT fixed that and could also record discs with no loss of quality. Those were the days.
EDIT: Lossy compression on audio tracks does not affect lower frequencies nearly as bad. Check out Jorge Torres' channel, some decent bass tracks that will make your port loaded subs cry uncle! :-)
My first system in a 76 kingcab Datsun had a Nckamichi head unit and 2 12" soundstream subs and amp's. California soundworks in the 90's. Midnight mini's and cursing Lancaster Blvd...
Nakamichi was known to outsource their budget stuff to the Maxxsonic style brands, subsequently making them crap. But for stuff they cared about, they went hard. Real hard.
Another banger good job big D
I am glad that I came across the test of this amplifier, after watching it I lost my appetite for its power.
Kudos to the person doing this test, good job
Thanks for another great video big D!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Came for the disappointing dyno results, stayed for the sweet ass flir attachment
Heeyyyyy you reviewed the amp I posted in one of your vids!
See, it does happen! I listen to recommendations
Thanks man really appreciate it.
Them 80's Gold Nakamichi cassette decks....drooolllllllllllllllll
👌😬👍
Yup...still have my old TD400 cassette deck...had it installed in a 85 Nissan Pickup with two 12” in the bed...lol
Hey it’s a 6 channel that doesn’t eat up a lot of power. Seems like a fun beginner amp
It sounded good on my end, but Im using the morel mps 4.400 class a/b on my front stage.& ac 1.800 on my subs