Hi there. I restore and sell Nakamichi cassette decks myself. I get annoyed with these hacks that make themselves look like professionals. I could never do this to anyone. If I was living near you, I would have repaired this for you for a cost of a coffee because you had paid 500 buck already. The crackling is typical for these generation Naks. They suffer from orange cap disease, and the switch contacts need a good de-oxit. The 480 is quite a robust machine after it has been serviced. Kudos to the tech that worked on your CR7. He has Parkinson's and he's still working, good on him. I own a CR7 and love it. Oh and the McIntosh turntable is the business! Thanks for sharing. Peace from down under.
I went after the Nak gold ring many yrs ago. Wound up with a restored 700ZXL with the original remote Dolby C unit and a restored RX-505. Realize there are now about 6 people in the entirety of NA that can accurate calibrate and fix them. They require their own special tools & jigs. And even the tools are trading at incredible $$$. Nak used grease that turned to glue and caps that leaked(badly) and if you're unlucky enough to have the dreaded 'orange caps' they almost always go bad in time. Also, the Sanyo transports have little motors that develop flat spots. Sometimes they can be rehabbed, but mostly not for the long term. Best way to find a Nak is to like approach ESL and see if they have any units for sale that they rehabbed and the owners bailed. ESL is the best, but also the most expensive restoration shop. The whole transport on the CR-7a should come out and the idler tire and belts replaced.....glue-grease all stripped out and re-greased.The chances that a local guy having all the Nak tools & jigs and being able to calibrate it properly are low. Most cassette techs can fix these to some extent, but again, Nak requires special tools to calibrate. Great deck....save up some $$$ and go with ESL in the future for the win! (I have no affiliation with ESL, in fact I don't even like the main guy, 'Jeff' there). I used Willy Hermann in the Bay Area, but he's hopelessly backlogged they tell me now. All the people left restoring these Naks will tell you the WORST place to buy a Nak is on eBay.
Yup! ESL will be the ones. Called Willy, and he said a 1 1/2 wait! My guy had the tools to adjust the play & record heads, channel levels, Azimuth, and it auto calibrates etc...hopefully it gets me buy till Jeff can look at her. Totally worth it! Thanks for your great comments Kevin! 👌🎼💯✨
I’m scott from Ardmore Oklahoma. I’ll start by thanking you for sharing an intimate passion for innovative quality. Systems are personal things, and the older gentleman who serviced the Nak for you made my eyes well, seeing him bravely handling his Parkinsons. I wish him a world of peace, and relief. He is a definite member of Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation” without a doubt. In my universe, nothing’s more special than being in the presence of fully functioning, other-worldly gorgeous systems, playing the world’s greatest performances. I’ve rambled enough… in the coming weeks, I’ll discuss more of my background in our joy at experiencing engineering genius. Thank you for posting.
I love your enthusiasm! I feel you with the memories of your life as a young guy. Thats why I have half of the gear that I have. I could probably have a better system if it weren't for my audio journey memories. I mean, who needs cassette, Reel to Reel, equalizers, etc? Me! Thats who! Most of my stuff is vintage, but I love it all! Thank you for sharing your journey! Peace ✌
I have several top level Nakamichi decks and they are great quality and sound. I have been buying pre-recorded tapes . I been buying new blank tapes at ATR TAPE online great product.
Just discovered your channel. Enjoyed the video, impressive system and I love the beautiful compact bachelor pad with the stunning panoramic view of the city- the perfect backdrop! You took me on a nostalgic trip down memory lane. My dad got me into music and quality audiophile gear. Back in 1976 when I was 15 he had a Nakamichi cassette deck and it was a beast. We never bought any pre recorded tapes, we recorded our own mix tapes on the best quality tape we could get our hands on. Thinking back to those needle drops and count ins to make sure we had the least amount of dead space and of course recording everything in real time. It took forever to compile those tapes but it was worth it! When Mini Disc came along it was the future and of course the digital download and streaming revolution swept everything away. Cassette had its day and will always have a place in my heart but I can't see me ever returning to the format. I love my vinyl, CDs, SACDs and streaming which is more than enough for my needs. Sorry to hear about your terrible experience on e bay- I just don't understand why any trader would behave in such an unprofessional way, what good does it do for them? Those Nacs sure look good- the knobs, switches VU meters and flashing lights really the design aesthetic of the period. Happy listening.
@vpconcepts Dude if you ever want to hear this thing blasting in stereo through Vintage studio reference monitors loaded with 18inchers paired with some altec lansing 3 ways (that handle the middle frequencies like a champ) being driven by 500 watts of Sansui majesty to absolutely stuff the airspace of an old JCPenny building... Come on down to Old Memes in Shelton, only two hours south of Seattle. I've always wanted to hear a CR7A in person and we can shoot it out against a few other cool decks that I have amassed down here in the store. It's a funky store; part thrift shop, part music store, part game store, part recording studio... You'll probably dig it. Cheers! (I'll even let you dub one of my mixtape masterpieces of shi...)
Most cassettes sold by the record companies back in the day were crap. My best sounding cassettes were the ones I made myself from my vinyl and (later) CDs. Congratulations on the Nakamichi deck. Very nice.
Yup! I have some commercial tapes that beat my SACD & vinyl, and others that sound like garbage! I will be buying some new cassettes to record my audiophile collection on. But I do love the nostalgia of that old type 1 tape sound! 😂👌🎼💯✨
Hey there. Owned a 480 from new back in the 80's when I sold them. But that CR 7 is better! I cannot remember what happened to that 480. I also know your repair guy quite well. Has worked on a number of things for me. I also have another gentleman that Mr. L recommended when he got over his head with a Quad 909 amp I have. Anyway, they both have been working on hi fi for upwards on 50 years and know each other. The other gentleman works out of his house now, after retiring from a 40 year career designing test equipment at Fluke. He also had his repair shop out in another near Boeing location during that same time. He repaired my Quad, updated an old Dynaco PAS 3, and he also repaired a Beomaster 4400 that was IN PIECES from a similar transaction to your Nakamichi. I purchased it to give you my daughter and son in law to go with a Beogram 4002 turntable that I had also purchased for them. There were many things wrong with the 4400. It had sat in my basement for 4 years, the box had gotten wet even. This gentleman fixed it! And it is right now playing music in my kid's house in Snohomish. I held out almost no hope. I took it over in pieces and when I got it back, it looked like new and works flawlessly, driving a pair of Vandersteen 2CE's I gave them too. But I would be happy to share his info with you too. These two older gentlemen are the best in the Seattle area for vintage gear. Your fellow is especially good with vintage Japanese brands. The other fellow works on anything. I've seen McIntosh, HH Scott, Tandberg, Denon tables and on and on. Both are great, but this Granite Falls based fellow is even better I believe. And that is saying a lot. I live in Everett but before I was introduced to my Granite Falls guy, I used to make the long drive to the other shop. I always took my yellow lab with me and he always insisted I let her in so he could give her water and a dog snack. Great guys.
Small world! Man I love stories like this one. And a Beogram?, nice! I'd love the info on your repair guy. My e-mail is paul@vpconcepts.com. Thanks for watching Daina! 👊💯🎼🎉✨.
Nakamimichi decks are out of this world! I started hunting for a Nak deck 15 years ago. Always wanted one when l was a student but couldn’t afford it of course. So 15 years ago bought myself a CR1 and learnt to service it from forums. Had to buy an oscilloscope and a bunch of test tapes including take up torque tape. Having changed the belt and tuned the deck l was astonished at how good prerecoded cassettes can sound. Analogue magic. And then wondered how a higher end Nak could sound. So l then got myself a Bx300 and ditto serviced , tuned, and caliibrated it. Belts were from Marrs, USA. Holy molly….l was in heaven with even better sonics and the recordings even on lowly TDK D ferrics were awesome. For some reason recordings made from CDs sound even better than the CDs. Warm and lifelike for lack of better words…. Cut a long story short now l also own two 480 decks, a 680zx, an RX505 ( what a beauty this baby is), a ZX9 and yes a CR7A (the best recording deck in my books with its computerised autocalibration). The ZX9 records very good too but the manual metered calibration 400hz and 15khz when measured on the scope can be slightly off as you are relying on the segments on the VU meter. Using a scope makes the ZX9 spot on accurate setting tape voltage levels vs source 400hz and 15khz but the CR7 does it with just a push of a button.
Wow, great story! Yes, recording from my Electrocompaniet CD player to my Nak, gives even better sound using a quality cassette. Analog magic for sure! 👍💯🎼✨
Congrats on your 6K subscribers! I recognized John from your video, I've had a number of R to R decks serviced by him. He's sorry to say, a dying breed. I'm sure if this was your 1st encounter with him, it was initially a shock seeing his shop! Floor to ceiling gear every square inch!! Very alarming, however I learned over the many hours I talked with John that a lot of the gear is actually stuff he has acquired and not necessarily customer repairs. I spent a few hours actually assisting John by holding a flash light or lifting equipment in hopes of him getting to my repair (which had been there for over a year!!) In the end he came through and always charges a reasonable fee for his services. Glad you were able to get the deck serviced. If you ever have a meet up I'd love to hear your system!! Keep up the great content.
Thank you Ron. Yup! You know the place! (Shhhhh). I'm always down for a coffee, and usually invite people up for a listen after that. You can never have enough audiophile friends! My e-mail is paul@vpconcepts.com. Thanks for watching! 😉👊💯🎼✨
There's another gentleman in Granite Falls that John introduced me to when he got in over his head. On one of my pieces. Like John, 50 + years repairing stuff. He works out of his house now but he can work on anything Vintage. Read my comment about some of the stuff he's worked on for me. British, Danish. Norwegian gear, 1950's American. Marantz, McIntosh. HH Scott and many more. He is very good and very reasonable. I'll be happy to share.
Heee hee, best kept secret. Great to hang out at his shop. He and I scoped my Nak BX100 together today! I recognize where you live as well by the view from your window. Nice pad!
What a fun segment and congrats on reaching 6000 subscribers! The deck sounds absolutely wonderful. Would you believe I also own a CR-7A. It's been sitting in my attic for over 20 years. I need to retrieve it and determine if it still operates, after hearing yours.
Really?!!! So they are worth $2,300+ in non working condition. And $3,500-$5,000 working. The CR-7A is in the top 3-5 players ever made and values are going through the roof. Yours will at a minimum, need the main motor brushes & bearings lubed and ran for a few hours, and possibly the belts could have deteriorated over time. Hopefully you have a service repairmen local who knows these decks and you can get her up and running again! Thanks for watching Tony! 👌🎼✨
stunning setup sir. i have nacanichi cassette deck 2 i owned since i bought yrars ago this how i found ur video casstetes. were my love learning abot hi fi. im so glad u got the dragon to match. ur stunning system. tapes are so underated. i still have few. it sounds. wonderfull on ur system cheers from oz its all about the music
If you are about to step off the deep end, I’m already off the cliff. I own a Sony Tc-k690, 3head and a Nakamichi Rx-505, 3 head, the one that physically pushes the tape out and flips it around for auto-reverse. I also have the box and remote control. As you know those remotes are super rare. I owned a Nakamichi Dragon at one point, but it was about to need service and there is one guy in New Jersey that could fix it, but the cost was ridiculous, it I do miss it. The fun part of this hobby is the pre-recorded cassettes that you start to collect, the normals, chrome and metal formulations. As you collect more tapes, you will get more into it as you want to know which pre-recorded tapes sound the best. You are curious of how it will sound and what your end result will be. Have bought many cassettes and it has been an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. There was a guy from England that has a RUclips channel, but I think he got out of the tape business, but he still post from time to time. I will check for you and get his channel name to see if he still does this because he posted two videos recently and he reviews tapes. Nakamichi reminded me of when I was 18 years old going into the audio store and looking at both and couldn’t afford neither and eventually owned both.
It's been a fun hobby! Making my own high end recordings has surpassed wanting anymore commercial tapes. But my collection now at 28 is pretty good. And yes, I finally got a Nak! (High school dream too). Thanks for watching as always Sid! 👊🎼💯
@@vpconcepts9838 I have that info for you, the guy is Cassette Comeback on RUclips. You can ask him if he still is selling and he has two new videos, one from 12 days ago and one from 3 days ago. He used to have a website and I know that at one point he stopped selling, but not sure of his status now, but I will be watching the latest two videos. He is very knowledgeable. If you are not already a member, you will enjoy it and yes he has a Nakamichi Dragon and the almighty, Revox B215, among many, many others. Revox is also a brand I always wanted to own. His channel is nerdvana for guys like us.
Hey Paul! Congrats on your 6K subscribers. Too bad I didn't get to connect with you again before I left Seattle. Enjoy the music and keep inspiring those of us who would be audiophiles if money allowed!!!
Nice! I bought a non working RX-202 in excellent cosmetic condition $100. It needed a new Idler tire, and I serviced the reel motor. It's working like new!! It pairs well with my Nak MB 2S cd player.
6k subscribers💥💪🏼😁 Congrats🎉 my friend 🤝🏼 always enjoy watching your channel also nice pickup on the Nakamichi CR- 7A glad that turn out great and sound impressive💥👍🏼😁👽✌🏼
I feel your pain. I have a TEAC 8030S that started resetting the counter on its own. I sent it to a TEAC specialist in Toronto for what I thought was a simple fix. It came back with new leaf switches and a serviced transport. It would not play and the tech was at a loss to offer an explanation. So I ordered a JDM unit from Japan. I swapped out the transformer and transport to satisfactory results. Having vintage gear go south can be a headache and kick in the plums. I am now back in business playing my prerecorded mix tapes and the smile is back on my face. I hope this deck outlives me (71) and it can bring a smile to someone else. So glad to hear that you sorted your issues out. The web can be a minefield. Cheers from Canada (the cold part).
I´m amazed with your care about the cassette decks! Because I´m an old timer that love analogue audio so much, I do have also an nice Nachamich 482, but it got some techinical issues, and I still struggling to fix it properly. But that it is all right because it is a piece of the history of my life, So it is worth the work for a perfect restoration. I already have also an nice turntable Techinics SL-Q03 that works since when I was 16 years old. Oh I love how it sounds so far. Keep making awesome videos for audiophiles, I know that only few people really care.
Old audio electronics repair technicians are a lost craft sadly in my country. I have to depend on myself to learn some diy servicing at the bare minimum to keep my stuff alive.
Nice video bro I'm back to cassette tape come back too I have my revox 215 tape deck n my nakamichi RX 303 is so cool it bring back memories how cool analog music was n a cassette could sound better with the best recording of a tape 2 oh a metal tape could sound better than a cd depend on the recording n tape 2 n metal tapes sound really good
After watching your video, I made an 8 hr round trip and bought Nakamichi CR-7A from one owner in a decent condition. Man !! I gotta tell you I just fell in love ❤with Nakamichi Sound. Thank you so much Paul 👍👏🙏 Appreciate your great work. Could you pls recommend where I can send my Nakamichi for a basic service ?? Appreciated.
Thank you for watching! George Myer AV in LA can do the work. He's about 3-4 weeks out from taking new Nak customers. He's not cheap at $135hr. But they are top level techs. I just had my electrocompaniet CD player fixed with an upgraded laser & it's better than factory! A 2 week turnaround! Any other repair center I called was a 6 month wait. I'm sending my CR7 in this month for a full rebuild. Gonna cost me about $1,200 I'm figuring. Totally worth it since these are going for $5k + serviced. Ask for Moris the owner, tell him Paul with the electrocompaniet cd player & RUclips channel sent you. Here's his website, good luck! www.georgemeyer-av.com
@@vpconcepts9838 Thanks for replying. I dealt with George Myer in LA before. They are a total RIP OFF beware. Charged me $150 for the diagnosis of my Vintage Sansui ( which was in already working condition- just wanted a general checkup ) and My Vincent SV500 Hybrid Tube Amp ( Amp stopped working). Didn’t tell me what the Dx was 🙄 after weeks of keeping my amp there. Finally guy calls me and told me he needed to fix some circuits and it will cost me $ 550-600 and if it decided not to repair and I can leave the amp for them for free. I was so mad 😡 made my 2 hr trip. Declined their service. It turned out to be a blown out fuse 😕 ordered a $3 fuse from GRAINGER and installed myself in less than 30 mins. Amp worked perfectly fine ever since. They are so greedy and they are a total RIP off. Pls msg me I could share all their communications and invoice also for you to believe me. Pls be careful. Thanks anyways.
@@vks4392 wow! That's to bad. My experience was great. My CD player from factory wouldn't play 2 CD's in my collection and also had a noisy transport door. Now both CD's play & the door is smooooth. They charged me $80 for the diagnostic but put it towards the repair. I'm sorry you had a bad experience! See you on the next video. 😉👊🎼✨
That's a beautiful Nak you've got there and I'm sure it benefits from using good footers and interconnects, I was just wondering if you had thought about upgrading the mains cable. I still have my old DR-2 which I still enjoy. I was just becoming aware of what mains cables could do-this was 30 years ago and I was a bit skeptical....but the proof was in the listening. At the time I was using DNM solid core mains cable as I had just got one of their preamps. The cable wasn't much thicker than the fixed mains lead so it was quite an easy job to split the grommet and hardwire the DNM straight into the circuit board. The improvement was not subtle-I was gobsmacked ! I'm sure you could fit an IEC inlet for bigger cables. A few years later I was introduced to Black Ravioli footers and tried them under the chasis-Gobsmacked again ! Really quite amazing how much you can improve the performance of a decent cassette deck. Thanks for another great vid and cheers from Sunny Scotland.
Agreed, I have all kimber kable Palladian power cords in my system. I would like to keep the Nak stock though and not ruin its value with mods. She is plugged into my PS Audio P10 power director, so it's pure AC power feeding her. Thanks for watching Alistair! 👌🎼✨
Greetings ! Thanks for the interesting video! Let me say, for a better ratio of useful signal and noise, you need to set the recording level on type 4 tapes to at least 5 dB. With this signal-to-noise ratio, the inclusion of a noise reduction system is not required. The CR 7 reads many tapes with ease, so make the most of its potential. Good luck 👍.
Next time if you’re looking for something vintage or rebuild or brand, you go to sky fly in New Jersey. They are awesome. And they specialize in Nakamichi
I remember reading the review of the Nakamichi CR-7E( here in the UK guess the "E" is Europe) in HiFi Review mag £2100.... in the 90's if my memory serves me well OH HOW I LONGED for one of those tape decks. May you have the joy that I imagined back then, all the love and every success to you.
You know what this player is right? No wow and flutter unless you play a poor commercial tape. This player competes with reel to reel on a new type II, recorded real time from a high end source. It sounds better than my 10k CD player/DAC combo. I'm very happy to say the least! Of course you could look at my record player & say "good luck to listening to wow and flutter, and cracks and pops"...but I digress. Thanks for watching Brother 😉👊🎼💯✨
Yeah! What is this failure to ship crap on EBay…I’ve had 3 items bail on me…it sucks.. Nice McIntosh system..love the Turntable.. I’m a Yamaha fanboy just bought the KX 930 3 head for less than it sold new
Evening, What is the Plexi Glass cleaner or polish you mentioned in the beginning?(I need to order some good products for cleaning). Thanks I'm 51 now and all through my early life Nakamichi was always in the stereo magazines! I wish I would of purchased a few Dragon's when I was 16, 18.(or at least 1). Anyways, I have a RX-202 just for playback of my 40 years of Cassette's! -Duane, MI
maybe because they really work it´s my favorite nakamichi the CR-7a , but still trying to see if the cassette deck 1 fails being already with me for 30 years ,but the dragon which i had two i sold them easy for 5x the money i paid for them new, also have the ZX-9 ,the 1000 ,the 1000ZXL special edition ,a RX-505 and the best this relating to hours of use and repairs or maintenance ,the BX-2 when i bought my first Dragon for 720 dollars in 1982 i also bought this and the one that keeps working with regular maintenance, but i have a problem, i colect hi-fi components since late 60´s and i have 48 cassette decks from several brands, the Denon DRM-800a from 89 is for sure good but it as a problem ,no calibration but one of the best playing or recording having the only diference from the DRM-700a the heads ,amourphous on the 800 and sendust on the 700, everything else is the same and the diference is in the sound more detail in the amourphous as used in the 90´s pioneer high-end model of each year ,that i have the CT-959 ,the CT-979 ,the CT-93 and the CT-95 all are diferent ,even bought the CT-S630S because it as the flex function who is nothing related to yamaha´s play trim but seems to work in my recordings like a azymuth corrector, and another point ,all my life i only bought 4 pre-recorded cassettes being the first ,More from Pink floyd ,bostons first album great sound( but it dirts the head after a few seconds of listening)the cars best of when it came out with "drive" as seen on live aid and talking heads "naked" because i was on holidays and wanted to hear this albums, doesn´t make sense buying pre-recorded cassettes also never met a person who did it ,even guys who had not turntable would buy the record ,they could record into a reel or cassette and today having all their records in good condition
@@vpconcepts9838 if the maxell uses the light grey casing from the 90´s i think you should not use them they were very badly built allthough i´ve used maxell since i had only a reel to reel deck from akai. Till early 90´s or 91 are still okay ,the XLII-S was one of my favorite cassettes till their black casing, after it´s a gamble
Any Nakamichi requires service at least every 5 to 7 years. I did a refurb on a Nakamichi CR-4A a few months ago, new belts and lube. Very poor design as the dual capstan supply capstan the belt only contacts a small area of the supply flywheel. The other problem area is the cam switches, no matter what contact cleaner I used on them the resistance was all over the place but low enough to work. The cam motor is also problematic they develop flat spots on the motor. Running the motor in reverse with a 9 volt battery for a while cured the problem. Parts are no longer available for these decks so BUYER BEWARE !
Sent it to Willy Herman for a full rebuild. It's been glorious for a few months now. Very happy! But yes, vintage electronics require a full overhaul to perform back to spec. 👊💯🎼✨
Strength in numbers, I have 5 cassette decks in rotation. The most reliable has been a NAD 6240 and the worst a Sony. It is to bad that good cassette media is hard to find now. I have been recording cassettes after using a good bulk tape eraser with excellent results. You have a very nice system ! TD4800 is having random logic problems , my next challenge.
Hi ! It's been a long time. My friend you need real power supplies for the switch and the rooter. Audiophonic make Ms decent ones. I tried Ifi power supplies then real ones. It's not the same. Ifi sounded lean while real linear power supplies sounded full. 👋🏾
The ifi fits in the distribution panel nicely for the switch. Does the linear? Also it seems the router has a proprietary plug and the ifi adapters didn't fit. Would the linear? Do you have a link to the product? The router is plugged into my Chang light speed conditioner. 👌🎼✨
Nice system but are you sure you have enough remotes? I never buy any electronics on ebay - having been burned many years ago. I had a Nakamichi Dragon deck and turntable and lost them to a house fire but had 5 memorable years with them.
Congrats on the 6K subs! Sorry about your crummy journey with the tape deck. What is this Kimber SACD you speak of? Is this something available for purchase?
It's an SACD that Ray Kimber gave out to stores to give to customers who bought their cables. I see them pop up on e-bay or Amazon. Maybe if you buy a pair directly from Kimber Kable, they will still have some in stock? Thanks for watching! 👌🎼✨
Until very recently I had a Nakamichi Cassette 1.5. For some reason everything works until the “Play” function quit. Always liked it. I haven’t decided what to do with it as I have only
Big Naks are good,but expensive and also expensive to service. There are way cheaper tape decks out there,especially if you only playback old tapes who offer exellent sound quality. But its a hobby alright.
I love you tape deck, I grew up with that source being our primary source. So it great to see it get its due. But I’m interested in your tube amp. Is it a Decware. See I’m thinking about tube amps too, but I am hesitant because I too used to have a Yuqin tube buffer, which turn into a nightmare, so it scared me off. How does it sound, and does it make a huge difference.
Hi Justin! Glad to see you are well. My new Headphone amp is on my instagram channel with multiple comments on the posts. I will be doing a video on her next month! Loving the Nakamichi through it with both my headphones. 😉👊💯🎼✨🎉
CR5A under appreciated, CR4A good deal, CR3A; BX300 great deck. BTW, what products did you use to clean your deck? Two more things I would like a copy of that demo tape and do get on that list. Yeah, I know. You can find me at Steve Hoffman forums (macster). While you are there take a look at my profile.
Two things send me a copy of that demo tape, I want to listen to it closely and get on that repair list. You can find me at Steve Hoffman forum (macster), while you are there take a look at my profile.
I have 8 tracks. You would be amazed how good they are. Im a Nak fan. They make the best decks for sound. But ive found $100 that come close. Obviously not equal but $100 versus $2000, how can it.
@@vpconcepts9838 I compared your cr7's kind of green with that on a photo in "hifi-wiki', which shows a peppermint nuanced green. But that should be wrong, as all other pictures of cr7s I looked at meanwhile look like yours.
@vpconcepts thanks so much! I really admire your very well balanced way of handling the New York unfortunate experience 😕 great reviews on your channel! Your system shines ✨️
i have a lot high-end models from nakamichi bought by my father but i remenber when already working or having a job ,i didn´t work that much as today i returned to work and i coment things on youtube having already being retired but never stoped working, this to say that i went for pioneer and akai decks all were better sounding than any nakamichi ,but my father passed away last year and all hi-fi and music stuff came to me . Not saying they aren´t good but since 1979 till late 90´s all pioneers played and recorded better than any nakamichi and i´ve received the 1000ZXL special edition and the CT-93 is way better sounding playing or recording but also tried the 1979 CT-F1250 and it´s better only 3 years older than the dragon and the last tests i´ve made were with all decks restored ,i remenber in 82 buying the Dragon and thinking that this would be a great improvement but soon i become sad because the 79 pioneer sounded better even with cassettes recorded on the Dragon, they were tunned to perfection ,also had the golf GTi MKI that was called rabbit in the US, but as second source of income i used to sell 2nd hand cars from my house and first i started to go to LA with a friend of mine in 77 and bought US cars to sell in Europe but in 84 i stoped because it was very expensive to bring them to Europe but still have a few pontiacs a dodge and a mercury cougar 69 model
I had the golf MKI Rabbit, what a car! I'm not sure why the Naks didn't sound good to you. They are ranked in the top 5 best in the world. Mine sounds as good as my 10k digital front end. That being said, it's more about owning one of my childhood hero's, I guess beauty & sound is in the eye & ear of the beholder. I always root for every brand to succeed in our hobby & love them all. Thanks for watching always my friend! 👌🎼✨
As a longtime cassette enthusiast I must say it makes my skin crawl seeing pre-recorded tapes playing in a Nakamichi. High-End decks are better used with high quality Type II or Type IV New Old Stock Tapes like Maxell XLII-S or TDK MA tapes and recording from vinyl albums or Reel To Reel tapes to them. Pre-Recorded tapes are the lowest quality junk the reproducers could find. The tape is super thin often over saturated with sound and the "Calendaring" (The smoothness of the tape surface), is closer to fine grit sandpaper than it is to High Quality Tape stock. Your heads will be ruined quickly if you continue to play pre-recorded garbage on that deck. Get a el-cheap-o Technics, or Kenwood deck to chew up heads with those tapes you bought. Save the Nak for high end blanks.
I don't play prerecorded tapes. I took all the artwork from them and record on Maxell XLII and TDK MA. All prerecorded tapes I did buy were all new type II Chrome or higher grade, so I could A/B them against the higher end tapes for perspective, education, & Nostalgia . I only did this transfer for sound quality & not because they cause damage. Willy Herman said it wouldn't hurt the deck at all, the heads on a Nakamichi don't wear like others and it has a pad lifter on the CR7A to prevent this. It just got back from a full rebuild, see my other video: "Vintage Nakamichi Meets Modern Electrocompaniet!" An Audiophile in Seattle. ruclips.net/video/LP3fF_Fy7Rs/видео.html I'm enjoying the deck everyday. Thanks for watching Fred! 👌🎼✨
I don't knock anyone for working on their own equipment. You don't pay top dollar for a "fully serviced" Nakamichi to arrive with any buttons dirty. And I don't need to service any cassette deck when I have Willy Herman taking care of me. Happy New Year brother👌💯🎼✨
💥💥💥💥Hey guys! I'm pleased to announce in cooperation with Kimber Kable, a promo code for my RUclips and social media followers. A discount code for 10% off your entire order! Use VPCONCEPTS online at checkout or mention the channel if ordering by phone. My thanks to you for all who follow me and support the audio community! 🙏🏻👊💯🎼🎉✨💥 Kimber.com (801) 621-5530
lucky you the cr-7a is one of the best decks ever made by nakamichi ,allthough the ZXL old series were looking good and modern not like other models seemed made with a ancestral design ,the dragon is a good example ,in the 80´s it was discussed by every magazine of hi-fi and the study made prove it to be not as good as any high-end deck from other brand but again people are made paying 5.000€ for it ,and old happy owners for having discarted with a huge profit their old bad working decks ,it costed in 94 1.500€ being a badly built deck ,people should wonder why evrybody wants to sell them ,and the ones that came out good as the CR-3 those do never appear for sale
I'd love to buy a nakamichi deck but no one within 100 miles from me will touch a standard deck let alone something this complex. I would be chewing my nails to the bone shipping it back and forth for service. UPS/FedEx are rough on packages.
I'm a little older than you with older ears..But here's the thing our perceptions and what we like is personal.. I'm not a fan of the Nak my fav is the equally good Revox or even better from the same company Studer..The Studer is the Ultimate it's almost like..No I'll not bother your ears and opinions are your own and never anyone else's because they are not wrong either.. Just enjoy music the equipment takes second place 🙂
Hi there. I restore and sell Nakamichi cassette decks myself. I get annoyed with these hacks that make themselves look like professionals. I could never do this to anyone. If I was living near you, I would have repaired this for you for a cost of a coffee because you had paid 500 buck already. The crackling is typical for these generation Naks. They suffer from orange cap disease, and the switch contacts need a good de-oxit. The 480 is quite a robust machine after it has been serviced. Kudos to the tech that worked on your CR7. He has Parkinson's and he's still working, good on him. I own a CR7 and love it. Oh and the McIntosh turntable is the business! Thanks for sharing. Peace from down under.
Thank you! In one of my newer videos, I talk about its proper service. It's 100% now! Thanks for watching! 👍🎼✨
I went after the Nak gold ring many yrs ago. Wound up with a restored 700ZXL with the original remote Dolby C unit and a restored RX-505. Realize there are now about 6 people in the entirety of NA that can accurate calibrate and fix them. They require their own special tools & jigs. And even the tools are trading at incredible $$$. Nak used grease that turned to glue and caps that leaked(badly) and if you're unlucky enough to have the dreaded 'orange caps' they almost always go bad in time. Also, the Sanyo transports have little motors that develop flat spots. Sometimes they can be rehabbed, but mostly not for the long term.
Best way to find a Nak is to like approach ESL and see if they have any units for sale that they rehabbed and the owners bailed. ESL is the best, but also the most expensive restoration shop. The whole transport on the CR-7a should come out and the idler tire and belts replaced.....glue-grease all stripped out and re-greased.The chances that a local guy having all the Nak tools & jigs and being able to calibrate it properly are low. Most cassette techs can fix these to some extent, but again, Nak requires special tools to calibrate.
Great deck....save up some $$$ and go with ESL in the future for the win! (I have no affiliation with ESL, in fact I don't even like the main guy, 'Jeff' there). I used Willy Hermann in the Bay Area, but he's hopelessly backlogged they tell me now. All the people left restoring these Naks will tell you the WORST place to buy a Nak is on eBay.
Yup! ESL will be the ones. Called Willy, and he said a 1 1/2 wait! My guy had the tools to adjust the play & record heads, channel levels, Azimuth, and it auto calibrates etc...hopefully it gets me buy till Jeff can look at her. Totally worth it! Thanks for your great comments Kevin!
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The vintage tech guy is an endangered species, you were lucky he was available in your area, sounds great.
Truth 👌💯🎼✨
It's nice to see a man with the luck to see his passion come to life.
🙏🏻💯🎼✨
That is an awesome kitchen. I had an ‘87 Jetta with a Carver amp and Polk speakers.
I’m scott from Ardmore Oklahoma. I’ll start by thanking you for sharing an intimate passion for innovative quality. Systems are personal things, and the older gentleman who serviced the Nak for you made my eyes well, seeing him bravely handling his Parkinsons. I wish him a world of peace, and relief. He is a definite member of Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation” without a doubt. In my universe, nothing’s more special than being in the presence of fully functioning, other-worldly gorgeous systems, playing the world’s greatest performances. I’ve rambled enough… in the coming weeks, I’ll discuss more of my background in our joy at experiencing engineering genius.
Thank you for posting.
Thank you for watching! 🙏🏻🎼✨
I love your enthusiasm! I feel you with the memories of your life as a young guy. Thats why I have half of the gear that I have. I could probably have a better system if it weren't for my audio journey memories. I mean, who needs cassette, Reel to Reel, equalizers, etc? Me! Thats who! Most of my stuff is vintage, but I love it all! Thank you for sharing your journey! Peace ✌
Thanks Stephen! I love the passion in our hobby and how we can share it with everyone, thanks to social media connecting us all. 😉👌💯🎼✨
I have several top level Nakamichi decks and they are great quality and sound. I have been buying pre-recorded tapes . I been buying new blank tapes at ATR TAPE online great product.
Just discovered your channel. Enjoyed the video, impressive system and I love the beautiful compact bachelor pad with the stunning panoramic view of the city- the perfect backdrop! You took me on a nostalgic trip down memory lane. My dad got me into music and quality audiophile gear. Back in 1976 when I was 15 he had a Nakamichi cassette deck and it was a beast. We never bought any pre recorded tapes, we recorded our own mix tapes on the best quality tape we could get our hands on. Thinking back to those needle drops and count ins to make sure we had the least amount of dead space and of course recording everything in real time. It took forever to compile those tapes but it was worth it! When Mini Disc came along it was the future and of course the digital download and streaming revolution swept everything away. Cassette had its day and will always have a place in my heart but I can't see me ever returning to the format. I love my vinyl, CDs, SACDs and streaming which is more than enough for my needs. Sorry to hear about your terrible experience on e bay- I just don't understand why any trader would behave in such an unprofessional way, what good does it do for them? Those Nacs sure look good- the knobs, switches VU meters and flashing lights really the design aesthetic of the period. Happy listening.
Awesome story! Thanks for watching Moutton! 👊💯🎼✨
I can't wait to get 1 it sounds beautiful all nakamichi s the best warm and musical
I’m glad you found a great Nak cassette deck. I bought my 480 in 1979. It was serviced last year and sounds great!
Awesome!! And thanks for watching! 😉👊🎼✨
Imagine cassette version of 1997 backstreet boys sounds way better than a CD
I'm looking for a Nakamichi cassette deck. I'm glad to see your video to ensure sound performance. Sounds great btw
Thank you! 👊🎼💯✨
Footers used: black diamond racing (BDR) cones & pucks.
Interconnects used: Kimber Kable Select KS 1016
Album sample from: Joe McQueen & friends-
10 at 86*
Love it!
You have an amazing system & the deck sounds great 👌
Thank you my friend! She's back this Monday, after a full tear down & rebuild back to factory specs! Thanks for watching always.👍🎼💯✨
@vpconcepts Dude if you ever want to hear this thing blasting in stereo through Vintage studio reference monitors loaded with 18inchers paired with some altec lansing 3 ways (that handle the middle frequencies like a champ) being driven by 500 watts of Sansui majesty to absolutely stuff the airspace of an old JCPenny building... Come on down to Old Memes in Shelton, only two hours south of Seattle. I've always wanted to hear a CR7A in person and we can shoot it out against a few other cool decks that I have amassed down here in the store. It's a funky store; part thrift shop, part music store, part game store, part recording studio... You'll probably dig it. Cheers! (I'll even let you dub one of my mixtape masterpieces of shi...)
Great sound, even on RUclips! 👍👍👍👍👍
@@SoundMediaVibes Thanks for watching! 👍💯🎼✨
Most cassettes sold by the record companies back in the day were crap. My best sounding cassettes were the ones I made myself from my vinyl and (later) CDs. Congratulations on the Nakamichi deck. Very nice.
Yup! I have some commercial tapes that beat my SACD & vinyl, and others that sound like garbage! I will be buying some new cassettes to record my audiophile collection on. But I do love the nostalgia of that old type 1 tape sound! 😂👌🎼💯✨
Hey there. Owned a 480 from new back in the 80's when I sold them. But that CR 7 is better! I cannot remember what happened to that 480. I also know your repair guy quite well. Has worked on a number of things for me. I also have another gentleman that Mr. L recommended when he got over his head with a Quad 909 amp I have. Anyway, they both have been working on hi fi for upwards on 50 years and know each other. The other gentleman works out of his house now, after retiring from a 40 year career designing test equipment at Fluke. He also had his repair shop out in another near Boeing location during that same time. He repaired my Quad, updated an old Dynaco PAS 3, and he also repaired a Beomaster 4400 that was IN PIECES from a similar transaction to your Nakamichi. I purchased it to give you my daughter and son in law to go with a Beogram 4002 turntable that I had also purchased for them. There were many things wrong with the 4400. It had sat in my basement for 4 years, the box had gotten wet even. This gentleman fixed it! And it is right now playing music in my kid's house in Snohomish. I held out almost no hope. I took it over in pieces and when I got it back, it looked like new and works flawlessly, driving a pair of Vandersteen 2CE's I gave them too. But I would be happy to share his info with you too. These two older gentlemen are the best in the Seattle area for vintage gear. Your fellow is especially good with vintage Japanese brands. The other fellow works on anything. I've seen McIntosh, HH Scott, Tandberg, Denon tables and on and on. Both are great, but this Granite Falls based fellow is even better I believe. And that is saying a lot. I live in Everett but before I was introduced to my Granite Falls guy, I used to make the long drive to the other shop. I always took my yellow lab with me and he always insisted I let her in so he could give her water and a dog snack. Great guys.
Small world! Man I love stories like this one.
And a Beogram?, nice! I'd love the info on your repair guy. My e-mail is paul@vpconcepts.com. Thanks for watching Daina! 👊💯🎼🎉✨.
Nakamimichi decks are out of this world!
I started hunting for a Nak deck 15 years ago. Always wanted one when l was a student but couldn’t afford it of course. So 15 years ago bought myself a CR1 and learnt to service it from forums. Had to buy an oscilloscope and a bunch of test tapes including take up torque tape. Having changed the belt and tuned the deck l was astonished at how good prerecoded cassettes can sound. Analogue magic. And then wondered how a higher end Nak could sound. So l then got myself a Bx300 and ditto serviced , tuned, and caliibrated it. Belts were from Marrs, USA. Holy molly….l was in heaven with even better sonics and the recordings even on lowly TDK D ferrics were awesome. For some reason recordings made from CDs sound even better than the CDs. Warm and lifelike for lack of better words….
Cut a long story short now l also own two 480 decks, a 680zx, an RX505 ( what a beauty this baby is), a ZX9 and yes a CR7A (the best recording deck in my books with its computerised autocalibration). The ZX9 records very good too but the manual metered calibration 400hz and 15khz when measured on the scope can be slightly off as you are relying on the segments on the VU meter. Using a scope makes the ZX9 spot on accurate setting tape voltage levels vs source 400hz and 15khz but the CR7 does it with just a push of a button.
Wow, great story! Yes, recording from my Electrocompaniet CD player to my Nak, gives even better sound using a quality cassette. Analog magic for sure!
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Congrats on your 6K subscribers! I recognized John from your video, I've had a number of R to R decks serviced by him. He's sorry to say, a dying breed. I'm sure if this was your 1st encounter with him, it was initially a shock seeing his shop! Floor to ceiling gear every square inch!! Very alarming, however I learned over the many hours I talked with John that a lot of the gear is actually stuff he has acquired and not necessarily customer repairs. I spent a few hours actually assisting John by holding a flash light or lifting equipment in hopes of him getting to my repair (which had been there for over a year!!) In the end he came through and always charges a reasonable fee for his services. Glad you were able to get the deck serviced. If you ever have a meet up I'd love to hear your system!! Keep up the great content.
Thank you Ron. Yup! You know the place! (Shhhhh). I'm always down for a coffee, and usually invite people up for a listen after that. You can never have enough audiophile friends! My e-mail is paul@vpconcepts.com.
Thanks for watching! 😉👊💯🎼✨
There's another gentleman in Granite Falls that John introduced me to when he got in over his head. On one of my pieces. Like John, 50 + years repairing stuff. He works out of his house now but he can work on anything Vintage. Read my comment about some of the stuff he's worked on for me. British, Danish. Norwegian gear, 1950's American. Marantz, McIntosh. HH Scott and many more. He is very good and very reasonable. I'll be happy to share.
Heee hee, best kept secret. Great to hang out at his shop. He and I scoped my Nak BX100 together today! I recognize where you live as well by the view from your window. Nice pad!
Thanks brother! And thanks for watching!
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That's great paul,glad everything 👏 went your way in the end,have fun 😀
You're going to love the CR-7A! I love my restored CR-4A after upgrading from my original CR-2a and BX-300.
A lot has happened since this video too! Thanks for watching! 👍🎼✨
Congrats you have reached your 6K subscribers and your CR-7A is sitting in place finally 😊🎉
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What a fun segment and congrats on reaching 6000 subscribers! The deck sounds absolutely wonderful. Would you believe I also own a CR-7A. It's been sitting in my attic for over 20 years. I need to retrieve it and determine if it still operates, after hearing yours.
Really?!!! So they are worth $2,300+ in non working condition. And $3,500-$5,000 working. The CR-7A is in the top 3-5 players ever made and values are going through the roof. Yours will at a minimum, need the main motor brushes & bearings lubed and ran for a few hours, and possibly the belts could have deteriorated over time. Hopefully you have a service repairmen local who knows these decks and you can get her up and running again! Thanks for watching Tony! 👌🎼✨
stunning setup sir. i have nacanichi cassette deck 2 i owned since i bought yrars ago this how i found ur video casstetes. were my love learning abot hi fi. im so glad u got the dragon to match. ur stunning system. tapes are so underated. i still have few. it sounds. wonderfull on ur system
cheers from oz
its all about the music
I love my CR-7A, the auto cal is great! Thanks for watching Gerard!!👌💯🎼✨
If you are about to step off the deep end, I’m already off the cliff. I own a Sony Tc-k690, 3head and a Nakamichi Rx-505, 3 head, the one that physically pushes the tape out and flips it around for auto-reverse. I also have the box and remote control. As you know those remotes are super rare. I owned a Nakamichi Dragon at one point, but it was about to need service and there is one guy in New Jersey that could fix it, but the cost was ridiculous, it I do miss it.
The fun part of this hobby is the pre-recorded cassettes that you start to collect, the normals, chrome and metal formulations. As you collect more tapes, you will get more into it as you want to know which pre-recorded tapes sound the best. You are curious of how it will sound and what your end result will be. Have bought many cassettes and it has been an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
There was a guy from England that has a RUclips channel, but I think he got out of the tape business, but he still post from time to time. I will check for you and get his channel name to see if he still does this because he posted two videos recently and he reviews tapes. Nakamichi reminded me of when I was 18 years old going into the audio store and looking at both and couldn’t afford neither and eventually owned both.
It's been a fun hobby! Making my own high end recordings has surpassed wanting anymore commercial tapes. But my collection now at 28 is pretty good. And yes, I finally got a Nak! (High school dream too). Thanks for watching as always Sid! 👊🎼💯
@@vpconcepts9838 I have that info for you, the guy is Cassette Comeback on RUclips. You can ask him if he still is selling and he has two new videos, one from 12 days ago and one from 3 days ago.
He used to have a website and I know that at one point he stopped selling, but not sure of his status now, but I will be watching the latest two videos. He is very knowledgeable.
If you are not already a member, you will enjoy it and yes he has a Nakamichi Dragon and the almighty, Revox B215, among many, many others. Revox is also a brand I always wanted to own. His channel is nerdvana for guys like us.
Already follow him 😉👌💯🎼✨
Hey Paul! Congrats on your 6K subscribers. Too bad I didn't get to connect with you again before I left Seattle. Enjoy the music and keep inspiring those of us who would be audiophiles if money allowed!!!
Thank you! 🙏🏻🎼💯✨
Nice! I bought a non working RX-202 in excellent cosmetic condition $100. It needed a new Idler tire, and I serviced the reel motor. It's working like new!! It pairs well with my Nak MB 2S cd player.
Sweet! 👊🎼💯✨
Keep up the vids, I’m on the cassette audio journey myself brother!
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6k subscribers💥💪🏼😁 Congrats🎉 my friend 🤝🏼 always enjoy watching your channel also nice pickup on the Nakamichi CR- 7A glad that turn out great and sound impressive💥👍🏼😁👽✌🏼
Thank you! 👊💯🎼🎉✨
@@vpconcepts9838 NP 💥👊🏼😁👽✌🏼
Realy Cool video ! Yes Dolby C in naks - immaculate ! The fact you v got set of new heads , I would buy them without hezitation ! 😊😂
Willy Herman did a full service on her since, and she's 💯. See my other video. Thanks for watching! 👍🎼✨
I feel your pain. I have a TEAC 8030S that started resetting the counter on its own. I sent it to a TEAC specialist in Toronto for what I thought was a simple fix. It came back with new leaf switches and a serviced transport. It would not play and the tech was at a loss to offer an explanation. So I ordered a JDM unit from Japan. I swapped out the transformer and transport to satisfactory results. Having vintage gear go south can be a headache and kick in the plums. I am now back in business playing my prerecorded mix tapes and the smile is back on my face. I hope this deck outlives me (71) and it can bring a smile to someone else. So glad to hear that you sorted your issues out. The web can be a minefield. Cheers from Canada (the cold part).
True story! I just got back from Victoria, BC. Man I love that city! Happy listening Jim!
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I bought a BX300 locally when it became available. (just because)
Amazing set up well done with your choices.
Thank you Bob! 👊💯🎼✨
Congratulations on 6000 subscribers man 👏👏 Well deserved 👍
- Love the Nakamichi
You've been with me since the beginning brother...now for that 10,000! 🥳👊💯🎼🎉✨
I´m amazed with your care about the cassette decks! Because I´m an old timer that love analogue audio so much, I do have also an nice Nachamich 482, but it got some techinical issues, and I still struggling to fix it properly. But that it is all right because it is a piece of the history of my life, So it is worth the work for a perfect restoration. I already have also an nice turntable Techinics SL-Q03 that works since when I was 16 years old. Oh I love how it sounds so far. Keep making awesome videos for audiophiles, I know that only few people really care.
Thank you Johnny! 🙏🏻💯🎼✨
Brilliant
Believe me Big Bro, we are just love Your videos i talking with You by comments :) Thanx for You work for us
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Old audio electronics repair technicians are a lost craft sadly in my country. I have to depend on myself to learn some diy servicing at the bare minimum to keep my stuff alive.
Lovely, Now you need a Technics RS1500 Reel to Reel, or a Revox B77 or B77 Mk2.
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Nice video bro I'm back to cassette tape come back too I have my revox 215 tape deck n my nakamichi RX 303 is so cool it bring back memories how cool analog music was n a cassette could sound better with the best recording of a tape 2 oh a metal tape could sound better than a cd depend on the recording n tape 2 n metal tapes sound really good
I love the sound of type 2. Yes they do sound better than my CD player & turntable...and
That's saying a lot! 👌💯🎼✨
Great video! Back in the I had the ZX-7
Nice! 👍💯🏆🎼✨
I have a 680zx & CR-7A, perfect combo
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🤗😎 THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR STORY👊 SUPERCOOL 🥶 and sad at the same time 🥺 BUT GREAT MEMORIES …WITH MANY MORE TO COME 🤗😍😍😍
After watching your video, I made an 8 hr round trip and bought Nakamichi CR-7A from one owner in a decent condition. Man !! I gotta tell you I just fell in love ❤with Nakamichi Sound. Thank you so much Paul 👍👏🙏 Appreciate your great work. Could you pls recommend where I can send my Nakamichi for a basic service ?? Appreciated.
Thank you for watching! George Myer AV in LA can do the work. He's about 3-4 weeks out from taking new Nak customers. He's not cheap at $135hr. But they are top level techs. I just had my electrocompaniet CD player fixed with an upgraded laser & it's better than factory! A 2 week turnaround! Any other repair center I called was a 6 month wait. I'm sending my CR7 in this month for a full rebuild. Gonna cost me about $1,200 I'm figuring. Totally worth it since these are going for $5k + serviced. Ask for Moris the owner, tell him Paul with the electrocompaniet cd player & RUclips channel sent you. Here's his website, good luck! www.georgemeyer-av.com
@@vpconcepts9838 Thanks for replying. I dealt with George Myer in LA before. They are a total RIP OFF beware. Charged me $150 for the diagnosis of my Vintage Sansui ( which was in already working condition- just wanted a general checkup ) and My Vincent SV500 Hybrid Tube Amp ( Amp stopped working). Didn’t tell me what the Dx was 🙄 after weeks of keeping my amp there. Finally guy calls me and told me he needed to fix some circuits and it will cost me $ 550-600 and if it decided not to repair and I can leave the amp for them for free. I was so mad 😡 made my 2 hr trip. Declined their service. It turned out to be a blown out fuse 😕 ordered a $3 fuse from GRAINGER and installed myself in less than 30 mins. Amp worked perfectly fine ever since. They are so greedy and they are a total RIP off. Pls msg me I could share all their communications and invoice also for you to believe me. Pls be careful. Thanks anyways.
@@vks4392 wow! That's to bad. My experience was great. My CD player from factory wouldn't play 2 CD's in my collection and also had a noisy transport door. Now both CD's play & the door is smooooth. They charged me $80 for the diagnostic but put it towards the repair. I'm sorry you had a bad experience! See you on the next video.
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@@vpconcepts9838Thanks for your reply. glad it went well for you. Mine didn’t go well.
@@vks4392 enjoy the Nak! We are lucky owners! 👊💯🎼✨
That's a beautiful Nak you've got there and I'm sure it benefits from using good footers and interconnects, I was just wondering if you had thought about upgrading the mains cable. I still have my old DR-2 which I still enjoy. I was just becoming aware of what mains cables could do-this was 30 years ago and I was a bit skeptical....but the proof was in the listening. At the time I was using DNM solid core mains cable as I had just got one of their preamps. The cable wasn't much thicker than the fixed mains lead so it was quite an easy job to split the grommet and hardwire the DNM straight into the circuit board. The improvement was not subtle-I was gobsmacked ! I'm sure you could fit an IEC inlet for bigger cables. A few years later I was introduced to Black Ravioli footers and tried them under the chasis-Gobsmacked again ! Really quite amazing how much you can improve the performance of a decent cassette deck. Thanks for another great vid and cheers from Sunny Scotland.
Agreed, I have all kimber kable Palladian power cords in my system. I would like to keep the Nak stock though and not ruin its value with mods. She is plugged into my PS Audio P10 power director, so it's pure AC power feeding her. Thanks for watching Alistair!
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i am looking forward to own this baby in the future,i still enjoying my reVox B 710 Tape
but it is hard to get one here in switzerland,
I am in the process of doing a trade in with my cr4a for a cr7a. I’m looking forward to the upgrade!
Niiiice! 👍💯🎼✨
Greetings ! Thanks for the interesting video! Let me say, for a better ratio of useful signal and noise, you need to set the recording level on type 4 tapes to at least 5 dB. With this signal-to-noise ratio, the inclusion of a noise reduction system is not required. The CR 7 reads many tapes with ease, so make the most of its potential. Good luck 👍.
Hello! I record type 2 at "5" and type 4 metal at "7 ", per the CR7 Manuel. It's sounding great, thanks for watching! 👌🎼✨
Next time if you’re looking for something vintage or rebuild or brand, you go to sky fly in New Jersey. They are awesome. And they specialize in Nakamichi
Yes they are great, but charge about 3 times what an item is worth. And I'm no cheapskate! I love watching their RUclips channel though 👌🎼💯✨
The reason why I like your videos is because… well, you remind me of me…. and for the rest of your video and the CR-7A….. SUBLIME.
Thanks for watching as always Chris!
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I remember reading the review of the Nakamichi CR-7E( here in the UK guess the "E" is Europe) in HiFi Review mag £2100.... in the 90's if my memory serves me well OH HOW I LONGED for one of those tape decks. May you have the joy that I imagined back then, all the love and every success to you.
Thank you! The latest service I had done really brought it back to life! Thank you for watching always Daniel 🙏🏻🎼💯✨
Your problem is easily fixed with Deoxit. Spray that stuff and it will cure the static.
Have fun listening to wow and flutter.
You know what this player is right? No wow and flutter unless you play a poor commercial tape. This player competes with reel to reel on a new type II, recorded real time from a high end source. It sounds better than my 10k CD player/DAC combo. I'm very happy to say the least! Of course you could look at my record player & say "good luck to listening to wow and flutter, and cracks and pops"...but I digress. Thanks for watching Brother 😉👊🎼💯✨
Hope this deck still works for you. I’m looking for something similar.
Sent it to out for a full service a few months ago. Working as new 👍🎉🎼✨
Yeah! What is this failure to ship crap on EBay…I’ve had 3 items bail on me…it sucks.. Nice McIntosh system..love the Turntable.. I’m a Yamaha fanboy just bought the KX 930 3 head for less than it sold new
Thanks for watching Foxrock321! 👍🎼✨
at 16:00
wouldn’t it be awesome if this guy had a young apprentice learning this incredible skill.
True story 👍💯🎼🙌🏻
Evening, What is the Plexi Glass cleaner or polish you mentioned in the beginning?(I need to order some good products for cleaning).
Thanks
I'm 51 now and all through my early life Nakamichi was always in the stereo magazines! I wish I would of purchased a few Dragon's when I was 16, 18.(or at least 1). Anyways, I have a RX-202 just for playback of my 40 years of Cassette's!
-Duane, MI
Here you go Duane, and thanks for watching and supporting Cassettes!
www.plexusplasticcleaner.com/about.html
@@vpconcepts9838 Thanks for taking the time for replying!
You bet! 👍🎼✨
What kind of speakers are those in your main music setup? Thanks!
Sonus Faber Sonetto V 👍🎼✨
I decided to collect 10 other tape decks, and could have had a working CR-7A for 700 eur in 2010. And everybody asks me if I have a Naka :-). Nope
maybe because they really work it´s my favorite nakamichi the CR-7a , but still trying to see if the cassette deck 1 fails being already with me for 30 years ,but the dragon which i had two i sold them easy for 5x the money i paid for them new, also have the ZX-9 ,the 1000 ,the 1000ZXL special edition ,a RX-505 and the best this relating to hours of use and repairs or maintenance ,the BX-2 when i bought my first Dragon for 720 dollars in 1982 i also bought this and the one that keeps working with regular maintenance, but i have a problem, i colect hi-fi components since late 60´s and i have 48 cassette decks from several brands, the Denon DRM-800a from 89 is for sure good but it as a problem ,no calibration but one of the best playing or recording having the only diference from the DRM-700a the heads ,amourphous on the 800 and sendust on the 700, everything else is the same and the diference is in the sound more detail in the amourphous as used in the 90´s pioneer high-end model of each year ,that i have the CT-959 ,the CT-979 ,the CT-93 and the CT-95 all are diferent ,even bought the CT-S630S because it as the flex function who is nothing related to yamaha´s play trim but seems to work in my recordings like a azymuth corrector, and another point ,all my life i only bought 4 pre-recorded cassettes being the first ,More from Pink floyd ,bostons first album great sound( but it dirts the head after a few seconds of listening)the cars best of when it came out with "drive" as seen on live aid and talking heads "naked" because i was on holidays and wanted to hear this albums, doesn´t make sense buying pre-recorded cassettes also never met a person who did it ,even guys who had not turntable would buy the record ,they could record into a reel or cassette and today having all their records in good condition
I record 100% to Maxell XLII & TDK SA now.
@@vpconcepts9838 if the maxell uses the light grey casing from the 90´s i think you should not use them they were very badly built allthough i´ve used maxell since i had only a reel to reel deck from akai. Till early 90´s or 91 are still okay ,the XLII-S was one of my favorite cassettes till their black casing, after it´s a gamble
Any Nakamichi requires service at least every 5 to 7 years. I did a refurb on a Nakamichi CR-4A a few months ago, new belts and lube. Very poor design as the dual capstan supply capstan the belt only contacts a small area of the supply flywheel. The other problem area is the cam switches, no matter what contact cleaner I used on them the resistance was all over the place but low enough to work. The cam motor is also problematic they develop flat spots on the motor. Running the motor in reverse with a 9 volt battery for a while cured the problem. Parts are no longer available for these decks so BUYER BEWARE !
Sent it to Willy Herman for a full rebuild. It's been glorious for a few months now. Very happy! But yes, vintage electronics require a full overhaul to perform back to spec.
👊💯🎼✨
Strength in numbers, I have 5 cassette decks in rotation. The most reliable has been a NAD 6240 and the worst a Sony. It is to bad that good cassette media is hard to find now. I have been recording cassettes after using a good bulk tape eraser with excellent results. You have a very nice system ! TD4800 is having random logic problems , my next challenge.
@@cars654 I'm using New Old Stock only. I have settled on Maxell XLII, I had to many issues with TDK SA 👍🎼✨
use only tdk or sony cassettes or before the 90´s maxell also or basf till 84 at the most ,you´ll never have problems with it
Hi ! It's been a long time. My friend you need real power supplies for the switch and the rooter. Audiophonic make Ms decent ones.
I tried Ifi power supplies then real ones. It's not the same. Ifi sounded lean while real linear power supplies sounded full.
👋🏾
The ifi fits in the distribution panel nicely for the switch. Does the linear? Also it seems the router has a proprietary plug and the ifi adapters didn't fit. Would the linear? Do you have a link to the product? The router is plugged into my Chang light speed conditioner. 👌🎼✨
I bought from brickaudio77 once, and if l remember correctly l had a similar experience. Just subscribed by the way.
Thank you Michelle! 👌💯🎼✨
I haven't seen a Nakamichi in 35 years. Note that's why i don't do business with Ebay. I have a really nice Denon very heavy.
I've generally had good luck on
E-bay. 2 bad buys in 18 years. Thank goodness for buyer protection! 😂👌🎼💯
Nice system but are you sure you have enough remotes? I never buy any electronics on ebay - having been burned many years ago. I had a Nakamichi Dragon deck and turntable and lost them to a house fire but had 5 memorable years with them.
Those remotes are my family!
Thanks for watching Mikem! 🤣👍🎼✨
@@vpconcepts9838 so you have names for them? That's scary....
Congrats on the 6K subs! Sorry about your crummy journey with the tape deck. What is this Kimber SACD you speak of? Is this something available for purchase?
It's an SACD that Ray Kimber gave out to stores to give to customers who bought their cables. I see them pop up on e-bay or Amazon. Maybe if you buy a pair directly from Kimber Kable, they will still have some in stock? Thanks for watching! 👌🎼✨
those pre-recorded cassettes might be a problem, buy good cassettes record them from records or cds and use the inlay pappers
Nice record player what is that
McIntosh MT5 👍🎼✨
Until very recently I had a Nakamichi Cassette 1.5. For some reason everything works until the “Play” function quit. Always liked it. I haven’t decided what to do with it as I have only
Any chance you got this deck from a guy named Kerry?
No sir. 🎼✨
Big Naks are good,but expensive and also expensive to service. There are way cheaper tape decks out there,especially if you only playback
old tapes who offer exellent sound quality. But its a hobby alright.
ruclips.net/video/LP3fF_Fy7Rs/видео.htmlsi=DD1D81sGayEtumyz
👌💯🎼✨
I love you tape deck, I grew up with that source being our primary source. So it great to see it get its due. But I’m interested in your tube amp. Is it a Decware. See I’m thinking about tube amps too, but I am hesitant because I too used to have a Yuqin tube buffer, which turn into a nightmare, so it scared me off. How does it sound, and does it make a huge difference.
Hi Justin! Glad to see you are well.
My new Headphone amp is on my instagram channel with multiple comments on the posts. I will be doing a video on her next month! Loving the Nakamichi through it with both my headphones. 😉👊💯🎼✨🎉
CR5A under appreciated, CR4A good deal, CR3A; BX300 great deck. BTW, what products did you use to clean your deck? Two more things I would like a copy of that demo tape and do get on that list. Yeah, I know. You can find me at Steve Hoffman forums (macster). While you are there take a look at my profile.
Two things send me a copy of that demo tape, I want to listen to it closely and get on that repair list. You can find me at Steve Hoffman forum (macster), while you are there take a look at my profile.
I have 8 tracks. You would be amazed how good they are. Im a Nak fan. They make the best decks for sound. But ive found $100 that come close. Obviously not equal but $100 versus $2000, how can it.
I thought u were gonnsa Men At Work - Down Under. U don't like it?
I love it, I own all of them on every format... but that would get me demonetized. Thanks for watching! 🤷♂️💯🎼✨
Did you change the green LED colour of the cr 7?
Nope, still green 👍
@@vpconcepts9838 I compared your cr7's kind of green with that on a photo in "hifi-wiki', which shows a peppermint nuanced green. But that should be wrong, as all other pictures of cr7s I looked at meanwhile look like yours.
@@jakefiersing it's a Florescent display, no LEDs. They all came one way set from the factory, you can't change them. 👍
Can anyone help with a cassette deck technician San Francisco Bay Area? 🙏
George Meyer AV. Not cheap, but great
👌💯🎼✨
www.georgemeyer-av.com
@vpconcepts thanks so much! I really admire your very well balanced way of handling the New York unfortunate experience 😕 great reviews on your channel! Your system shines ✨️
Thanks for watching always Steve! 👊🏆🎼✨
i have a lot high-end models from nakamichi bought by my father but i remenber when already working or having a job ,i didn´t work that much as today i returned to work and i coment things on youtube having already being retired but never stoped working, this to say that i went for pioneer and akai decks all were better sounding than any nakamichi ,but my father passed away last year and all hi-fi and music stuff came to me . Not saying they aren´t good but since 1979 till late 90´s all pioneers played and recorded better than any nakamichi and i´ve received the 1000ZXL special edition and the CT-93 is way better sounding playing or recording but also tried the 1979 CT-F1250 and it´s better only 3 years older than the dragon and the last tests i´ve made were with all decks restored ,i remenber in 82 buying the Dragon and thinking that this would be a great improvement but soon i become sad because the 79 pioneer sounded better even with cassettes recorded on the Dragon, they were tunned to perfection ,also had the golf GTi MKI that was called rabbit in the US, but as second source of income i used to sell 2nd hand cars from my house and first i started to go to LA with a friend of mine in 77 and bought US cars to sell in Europe but in 84 i stoped because it was very expensive to bring them to Europe but still have a few pontiacs a dodge and a mercury cougar 69 model
I had the golf MKI Rabbit, what a car! I'm not sure why the Naks didn't sound good to you. They are ranked in the top 5 best in the world. Mine sounds as good as my 10k digital front end. That being said, it's more about owning one of my childhood hero's, I guess beauty & sound is in the eye & ear of the beholder. I always root for every brand to succeed in our hobby & love them all. Thanks for watching always my friend! 👌🎼✨
As a longtime cassette enthusiast I must say it makes my skin crawl seeing pre-recorded tapes playing in a Nakamichi. High-End decks are better used with high quality Type II or Type IV New Old Stock Tapes like Maxell XLII-S or TDK MA tapes and recording from vinyl albums or Reel To Reel tapes to them. Pre-Recorded tapes are the lowest quality junk the reproducers could find. The tape is super thin often over saturated with sound and the "Calendaring" (The smoothness of the tape surface), is closer to fine grit sandpaper than it is to High Quality Tape stock. Your heads will be ruined quickly if you continue to play pre-recorded garbage on that deck. Get a el-cheap-o Technics, or Kenwood deck to chew up heads with those tapes you bought. Save the Nak for high end blanks.
I don't play prerecorded tapes. I took all the artwork from them and record on Maxell XLII and TDK MA. All prerecorded tapes I did buy were all new type II Chrome or higher grade, so I could A/B them against the higher end tapes for perspective, education, & Nostalgia . I only did this transfer for sound quality & not because they cause damage. Willy Herman said it wouldn't hurt the deck at all, the heads on a Nakamichi don't wear like others and it has a pad lifter on the CR7A to prevent this. It just got back from a full rebuild, see my other video:
"Vintage Nakamichi Meets Modern Electrocompaniet!" An Audiophile in Seattle.
ruclips.net/video/LP3fF_Fy7Rs/видео.html
I'm enjoying the deck everyday. Thanks for watching Fred! 👌🎼✨
that dolby button was just dirty , no big deal 😊 , if u are not able to change a belt or clean a button then casette decks are not for you
I don't knock anyone for working on their own equipment. You don't pay top dollar for a "fully serviced" Nakamichi to arrive with any buttons dirty. And I don't need to service any cassette deck when I have Willy Herman taking care of me. Happy New Year brother👌💯🎼✨
@@vpconcepts9838 unfortunatelly there are a lot of scammers who change some belts , idlers and then say FULLY SERVICE UNIT , best regards!
Best regards! 👍💯🎼✨
💥💥💥💥Hey guys! I'm pleased to announce in cooperation with Kimber Kable, a promo code for my RUclips and social media followers. A discount code for 10% off your entire order! Use VPCONCEPTS online at checkout or mention the channel if ordering by phone. My thanks to you for all who follow me and support the audio community!
🙏🏻👊💯🎼🎉✨💥
Kimber.com
(801) 621-5530
lucky you the cr-7a is one of the best decks ever made by nakamichi ,allthough the ZXL old series were looking good and modern not like other models seemed made with a ancestral design ,the dragon is a good example ,in the 80´s it was discussed by every magazine of hi-fi and the study made prove it to be not as good as any high-end deck from other brand but again people are made paying 5.000€ for it ,and old happy owners for having discarted with a huge profit their old bad working decks ,it costed in 94 1.500€ being a badly built deck ,people should wonder why evrybody wants to sell them ,and the ones that came out good as the CR-3 those do never appear for sale
Cassettes suck in the modern era!! 🗑️
Pick your poison. Thanks for watching!
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I'd love to buy a nakamichi deck but no one within 100 miles from me will touch a standard deck let alone something this complex. I would be chewing my nails to the bone shipping it back and forth for service. UPS/FedEx are rough on packages.
Truth! 😂👌💯✨
Good night~Bravo.fanatstic - take care,))
I'm a little older than you with older ears..But here's the thing our perceptions and what we like is personal.. I'm not a fan of the Nak my fav is the equally good Revox or even better from the same company Studer..The Studer is the Ultimate it's almost like..No I'll not bother your ears and opinions are your own and never anyone else's because they are not wrong either.. Just enjoy music the equipment takes second place 🙂
If I could own every piece of equipment I've fell in love with, I would own a warehouse.
Thanks so much for watching Garth!
😂👊💯🎼✨
@@vpconcepts9838 Me to lol
😉👊💯🎼✨