My latest retro purchase: a Nakamichi DR-1 cassette deck

[MajorFubar]

It's only taken me 18 years to upgrade having bought a brand new Nakamichi DR-3 in 1994, but yesterday I proudly took delivery of a near-pristine Nakamichi DR-1.

I've never owned a cassette deck with an adjustable azimuth before (well other than taking a screwdriver to the head). It makes a massive different on some musicassettes, of which I have quite a few (and I married into more, as my wife didn't have a record player or CD player).

It didn't cost me an arm and a leg either: collectors ignore it because it isn't a 'legendary' Nak, so I get great performance for a fraction of the cost of a Dragon, CR-7E or a 1000-range tri-tracer. Excellent stuff.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi MajorFubar

Nice one DR1 8)

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[MajorFubar]

Thanks Rick, at least someone appreciates it!

 

[CnoEvil]

Hi Major.....I appreciate it......honestly!

I always aspired to one, but by the time I could afford a Nak, tape decks were not the right place to invest! :wall:

Enjoy your new purchase

Cno

 

[omnibeard]

Major - I definitely appreciate it, looks like a seriously cool piece of kit.

Unfortunately my entire tape collection got stolen many years ago, but I'd like one just to sit on a shelf, switched on and looking swanky.

 

[Balderdash]

What is the sound quality like against CD? Like you I also have a 63KI Sig which still holds its own (not that I use it any more admittedly).

Regards.

 

[nopiano]

Nice one, MF. As you can see I am already a convert. Mine has been with me about 14 years and was s/h from a nice bloke I met a hi-fi show in London who was getting into Home Cinema. (I bet all his gear is obsolete now!)

And you can still get it serviced properly, at a price.

Enjoy!

 

[MajorFubar]

For some reason I never noticed anyone had replied after me, so here I am a month late :doh:

@nopiano: yeah I have seen the ZX-7 in your signature. Good to see a few of us still using cassettes

What is the sound quality like against CD? Like you I also have a 63KI Sig which still holds its own (not that I use it any more admittedly).

Regards.

On good chrome tape (not tried metal yet) it's absolutely remarkable. PRAT is there in abundance, great instrument separation, great soundstage, and unless you're recording classical you probably don't even need NR. Audio from cassette recorders was often steretyped as having splashy treble which lacked crispness and a muddy, imprecise bass which lacked true weight. Well this cassette deck seriously blows those criticisms out the water. You don't say "wow that sounds darn good for a cassette" you just say "wow that sounds darn good". I love the azimuth control, but I would also like to have seen something like NAD's 'play trim' control which boosts or attenutes the high frequencies ahead of the Dolby circuit. This helps to prevent Dolby mistracking on dull musicassettes (of which there were many!).

What don't I like? Well as a serious recorder, and in the same vain as the 'missing' play-trim control, it surprisingly lacks any record-level trimming controls which would help to prevent Dolby mistracking on less-sensitive tapes, like the old BASF CR-E II. Other than that, really not much.