I happened to see this video of yours and found it very entertaining as well as educational… I avoided Nakamaichi’s due to reputation that they are hard to work on and very expensive. Plus I’m a big fan of all things Dolby S TOTL 3 head cassette decks. So in 2012 when I came back to tapes after about 20 years hiatus. Started getting my hands on Aiwa xk-s 7000,9000. Sony tc-ka5es, pioneer ct-93, t1000s, etc etc. When COVID hit, I took a chance got my first Nakamichi, RX-505 and wow I was blown away and could flip that tape all day long 😂. Now in 3 years I have 12 Nakamichi’s the CR7A,CR4A,CR3A. ZX-9, 682ZX, 680,660ZX,BX-300 which is my favorite cause of the bass bump! MR-1B, last acquired items: RX-202 and of course the Dragon… So I became Nak convert but still love all things Dolby S as well… Keep continuing your videos I’ve learn a lot..
Thanks for this clear demonstration. To save some space you can buy (not expensive) the NAK T-100 audio analyzer software. It has a generator and scope. Works fine for me.
Hello, nice detailed video. In my opinion on the left side it is just the erase head, Both record and playback heads are in the same "boxy" sandwitch. Correct me if i am wrong. Merry Christmass!
Merry Christmas! The erase head with the white plastic is to the left yes, the record head is the smaller head right next to the playback head. However the point is they are mounted separately with individual adjustments, on other brands they just have the record and playback combined into a single monolithic head with no way to adjust the positions independently (so it has 2 heads, but in a single body).
Some small notes to add: Adjusting bias is not a "more is better/higher level" thing. Bias results in a bell curve of the high frequency response. You'll notice quite quickly that there is a peak and on either side of the peak (lower or higher bias) the 15Khz tone will rapidly drop in amplitude. So don't be tempted to just keep adding bias to increase high frequency level, the opposite will happen. Classic transport 3 head Naks to watch for: LX-5, ZX-7, ZX-9, 670, 680, Dragon, 700 Mark II, 1000 Mark II, RX-505 3 head Naks to AVOID (no tape monitoring): 660, 581, 582 has tape monitoring but feels like a Fisher Price toy. There's a long standing myth perpetrated by Nak haters that Nakamichi uses a non-standard equalization. This is false, and it's been around so long that Nakamichi published an official rebuttal with tech data in the 1970s. The myth originated from their competitors slagging them off and trying to convince people that the reason Nak decks sounded better was because they were somehow cheating.
Realy therre were different standards for equalzation in USA and Europe - no any cheating. Just check other my comment. By my personal imprssion I prefer even that which is not matching normal tapes I only can't say which is which. I think in 70 ties Japan production was targeting Americans
As far as I get noiseless recording sounding not different then original from source which I get confirmed by ears with absolutely Hi FI system I do not make own measurements and calibrations I put 95% effort to system sounding because it is hughly absorbing. If system is not precision then non perfection of reproduction may even be a gain Example I have two almost identical Telefunken decks only one has added NR system High Com, other not. . And while I play original tapes in Dolby system the second of them reproduces in both channels identicaly stronger sub-low frequency. and first just normal. Without using Dolby it like only half. I suspect may be producer changed the correction to different standard used for different market. So I am happpy with first one which sounds unusual due to very deep bass . If I wolud make corrections I could loose it and miss it.
It's a strange hill to die on considering that there are still millions of other cheaper cassette decks out there that beat the CR-3A in terms of overall flatness of frequency response, signal-to-noise ratio and wow and flutter.
Lol... no.. I have the JVC V1010, the best deck they ever made, why it built quality is great, in terms of sound it is nowhere near a mid-range Nak. I never had a Revox (Studer) but man, that deck designed by a bunch of Engineers that seems like they never seen any other deck in their life before... so many bad mechanical designs and unusual circuitry...
@@maxfactor4209 Studer/Revox is very nicely constructed and have rugged transport mechanisms... but otherwise are pretty average decks. I can see the argument if you just went by build quality alone. They do make some nice reel to reels this side of a Nagra.
Peebles Audio Engineering calibration tapes are available here: www.naks.es/
Very nice Video, always learning something new. Keep up the good Work!
I happened to see this video of yours and found it very entertaining as well as educational… I avoided Nakamaichi’s due to reputation that they are hard to work on and very expensive. Plus I’m a big fan of all things Dolby S TOTL 3 head cassette decks. So in 2012 when I came back to tapes after about 20 years hiatus. Started getting my hands on Aiwa xk-s 7000,9000. Sony tc-ka5es, pioneer ct-93, t1000s, etc etc. When COVID hit, I took a chance got my first Nakamichi, RX-505 and wow I was blown away and could flip that tape all day long 😂. Now in 3 years I have 12 Nakamichi’s the CR7A,CR4A,CR3A. ZX-9, 682ZX, 680,660ZX,BX-300 which is my favorite cause of the bass bump! MR-1B, last acquired items: RX-202 and of course the Dragon… So I became Nak convert but still love all things Dolby S as well… Keep continuing your videos I’ve learn a lot..
Thanks for this clear demonstration. To save some space you can buy (not expensive) the NAK T-100 audio analyzer software. It has a generator and scope. Works fine for me.
Excellent, thanks!
Hello, nice detailed video. In my opinion on the left side it is just the erase head, Both record and playback heads are in the same "boxy" sandwitch. Correct me if i am wrong. Merry Christmass!
Merry Christmas! The erase head with the white plastic is to the left yes, the record head is the smaller head right next to the playback head. However the point is they are mounted separately with individual adjustments, on other brands they just have the record and playback combined into a single monolithic head with no way to adjust the positions independently (so it has 2 heads, but in a single body).
Some small notes to add:
Adjusting bias is not a "more is better/higher level" thing. Bias results in a bell curve of the high frequency response. You'll notice quite quickly that there is a peak and on either side of the peak (lower or higher bias) the 15Khz tone will rapidly drop in amplitude. So don't be tempted to just keep adding bias to increase high frequency level, the opposite will happen.
Classic transport 3 head Naks to watch for:
LX-5, ZX-7, ZX-9, 670, 680, Dragon, 700 Mark II, 1000 Mark II, RX-505
3 head Naks to AVOID (no tape monitoring):
660, 581, 582 has tape monitoring but feels like a Fisher Price toy.
There's a long standing myth perpetrated by Nak haters that Nakamichi uses a non-standard equalization. This is false, and it's been around so long that Nakamichi published an official rebuttal with tech data in the 1970s. The myth originated from their competitors slagging them off and trying to convince people that the reason Nak decks sounded better was because they were somehow cheating.
Realy therre were different standards for equalzation in USA and Europe - no any cheating. Just check other my comment. By my personal imprssion I prefer even that which is not matching normal tapes I only can't say which is which. I think in 70 ties Japan production was targeting Americans
A knack-a-mee-chey?
As far as I get noiseless recording sounding not different then original from source which I get confirmed by ears with absolutely Hi FI system I do not make own measurements and calibrations I put 95% effort to system sounding because it is hughly absorbing. If system is not precision then non perfection of reproduction may even be a gain
Example I have two almost identical Telefunken decks only one has added NR system High Com, other not. . And while I play original tapes in Dolby system the second of them reproduces in both channels identicaly stronger sub-low frequency. and first just normal. Without using Dolby it like only half. I suspect may be producer changed the correction to different standard used for different market. So I am happpy with first one which sounds unusual due to very deep bass . If I wolud make corrections I could loose it and miss it.
Big Ass Capacitors
It's a strange hill to die on considering that there are still millions of other cheaper cassette decks out there that beat the CR-3A in terms of overall flatness of frequency response, signal-to-noise ratio and wow and flutter.
Nakamichi are not the best, studer and jvc are
Lol... no.. I have the JVC V1010, the best deck they ever made, why it built quality is great, in terms of sound it is nowhere near a mid-range Nak. I never had a Revox (Studer) but man, that deck designed by a bunch of Engineers that seems like they never seen any other deck in their life before... so many bad mechanical designs and unusual circuitry...
@@maxfactor4209 Studer/Revox is very nicely constructed and have rugged transport mechanisms... but otherwise are pretty average decks. I can see the argument if you just went by build quality alone. They do make some nice reel to reels this side of a Nagra.