Actually, more than that if, you add in shipping, ($100~., insurance $15~). When you send something like a Dragon out for repair, you don't just bubble wrap it and stick it in a box. Well you shouldn't. If you consider the cost for a functioning unit, spending a couple of hundred on a proper shipping box, correct amount of insurance , locks is a drop in the bucket. It's something to be aware of. Even then, it's no guarantee that your deck won't be destroyed by the shipping service. M~
Just saw this thread. Gotta tell you a story about my Dragon. It's around 1994. Nakamichi USA is on life support. A lot of the helping, friendly geeks who worked there have left. We haven't ordered anything from Nakamichi for over a year. Their reason for being has ceased to exist. Nobody is using cassettes anymore, especially high end ones. Their 6 disc CD changer mechanism didn't catch on. They are just another stereo receiver company and everybody is buying home theater systems. Our old Nakamichi rep comes in the stereo store, selling us something other than Nak. Under the heading of how does the corpse smell, he says Nakamichi has officially discontinued the Dragon. Humm. I owned one in the past and sold it. I came to regret that. I think I have a ZX-7 at that point, which was a fine deck but not a Dragon. After he leaves, I call Nakamichi USA. I find the woman who used to run service and parts is now chief operating officer for the whole company, or so it seems. After a bit of chit-chat, I tell her I'd like to buy a Dragon. She says yes but she wants to check inventory in the warehouse first. She puts down the phone and comes back shortly, saying she has two left I say I want to buy one for personal use on salesman's accommodation, which means the price would be 50% of retail, lower than the best sheet cost. She says yes and gives me the price. I say we are an inactive dealer. I'm pretty sure I don't have a signed franchise agreement with Nakamichi. She says yes. I say we are really inactive. Getting frustrated with me, this time with a bit of spit, she says yes. I say, well, then, oooo-kay, and pull out a credit card. I'm no fool. I can hear someone who is worried about making payroll that week. So that's how I bought the Penultimate Dragon from Nakamichi. A few years ago, after sitting in the box too long, it stopped working. I, too, sent my Dragon into Willie Hermann. He's a miracle worker. It works great now. I just listened to four tapes a few weeks ago. You have to regularly play a Nakamichi to keep it running. The Dragon does sound amazing. My Tandberg TD-20A reel-to-reel outperformed it but the Dragon consistently sounded better than any DAT machine I put up against it.
I don't think I can afford to get a dragon even if theres one out there in prisitine condition. However not too long ago, my beloved teac recorder was forced to retire permanently. As I was looking at the ads for a cassette deck replacement, my eyes just popped out and I didn't even know there was an on-going hype with cassette prices going crazy. Took me about a month to find one and I got the 80's sony 3-head and the nakmichi bx-300 from my neighbor. He said haven't been using it for almost 20 years. What a stroke of luck and both are even running perfect. This is my first nakamichi equipment and seems like its very well built. Pretty much both of the machine are pretty good in their own way. I like the sony in recording and the nakamichi more on playback. its got a super fast forward without blowing up the tape. So I been reading a lot about the 2 recorders. I was also thinking about maintaining it along the way and that could be a lot of trouble to do. when I opened both machines, I can do the nakamachi both belts and service (which I did already) and capacitors in the future. but when I saw the sony.. I said forget it and I just put the cover back on. Theres like 10 million capacitor in there and I wont be able to handle that. Not too long ago, I was able to acquire another bx-300. This time I had to pay a certain pricetag. But it was in a box. I wont say its new but its right there and obviously its been inside the box for a very long time...
Was fortunate to just purchase a Nakamichi MR-1 in like-new condition from one of our fellow SHers. It was not used for roughly 27 years, came in like-new condition, and has not had any performance issues in the 2 months it has been used. Suspect this is unusual but, regardless, those are the facts of this particular case. The MR-1 is considered one of Nak's underrated decks and is not usually compared to the Dragon or the 680 series. SO, two points related to the above posts. First, the MR-1, Nak's only balanced deck (and preferred by the radio community), is an incredible performer. It sounds nothing like any other cassette deck I have heard and all you hear is the music. The closest listening comparison I could make is to a R2R but even here it is different (not necessarily better). The MR-1 is, apparently, similar to the BX-300. Wish I could hear a Dragon to compare the two. If the Dragon is even better than the MR-1, then I would love to hear any sound that spectacular. Comments above suggest that cassettes can sound as good as vinyl. For my best pre-recorded tapes, the MR-1 is BETTER than my VPI vinyl playback -- but only for those best tapes. The analog comes through loud and clear and there are none of the vinyl noise issues. Second, just got an Otari MX-5050 BII, reconditioned, to use in my home studio. It runs 1/4 inch ATR tape (IEC, 320) at 15ips and is 2 track. There is no comparison between the MR-1 and the Otari; they are completely different animals. The MR-1 is as perfect as I have heard for pre-recorded tapes. The Otari is splendid at accepting very complex mixes and recording them with ease -- to well past 20k and with heavy, loud levels of saturation. You could not record these kinds of dense mixes on the MR-1 with the same level of security and, in contrast, the Otari does not sound particularly great playing the few pre-recorded R2R tapes I have (but they are all at 7.5ips). SO, having both, will not be recording on the MR-1 and will not be playing pre-recorded stuff on the Otari. AND, in a perfect world, will be buying another MR-1 as soon as I can find another quality unit.
Actually not converting the tire to the gear has one advantage: The reel motor will last longer due to the fact that the tire allows for some motor slippage. This keeps the motor from developing dead-spots as readily as can happen with the gear assembly.
The Dragon is only a smidge better sounding than is the BX-300. The Dragon has significantly greater flexibility in adjusting the bias and record sensitivity while recording. And it has the auto-azimuth on playback which helps give-it better compatibility with tapes recorded on other machines. But other than this, its performance is not dramatically better.
I just hope both bx-300 can extend themselves to my lifetime use. I'm learning a bit more about these machines. I probably need to rotate the units usage while I store the unplugged on a room temperature storage like where I store my new cassettes.
Just moving right now. But since I'm used to using them for my photographic gear, I'll be investing in Pelican cases for my ZX-7 and Tandberg 440A decks. They're cheap enough and should withstand being launched by a disgruntled courier. I'll likely adapt the inside a little, by adding room (removing more foam than the deck dimensions) for polystyrene 'peanuts' so as to add additional but softer protection than the foam inserts. Not decided on that yet but that would allow the chassis to shift within the protected case and minimise shocks to the internals.
That's real good thinking. The way how the shipping goes now for everyone is doing mail order its just a Fut-Bol' fumble fest. Man when they delivered my amp last March and on top of saying Fragile Glass, bangs here and there and on every corner and there was a nike logo on top of the box like they used it as a step on. Last june I had another amp thou this was rather small., we'll say 30 lbs. Looks like the shipping guy didn't have a good day. He just threw the box in my garden like saying "Here's your damn reisong., I just quite yesterday..."
I've said it before here, my Dragon is the one piece of audio equipment that I regret selling. Willie had done his overhaul several years back but I just wasn't using it enough. I'd play a tape once a week to keep it limbered up. Sold it for top dollar but I still miss it. Dragons are a functioning piece of art and sound great.
You definitely MUST have some soft packing along with the hard. It is not just the case of the deck that you are protecting. Your packing needs to be soft enough that if the travel-case should suffer any sort of impact that the transport will not break-loose from inside of the deck's case. Don't ask me how I know this...
Hi I was wondering if anyone were able to download the song list. Not the song but the text file out of spotify so I can copy rather than typing it one by one.
Are you talking about the songs from the image? If so, I copy and paste from Discogs to a text which strips the formatting and then paste into my working app. M~
Tarnished ears: Thanks very much for your informed comparison -- this is of great help to me. Have to pass this along. When I first got the MR-1, hooked it up to my analog chain with a 300B tube amp and high efficiency speakers, put in a cassette and thought "that's the best cassette deck I have ever heard. It's very, very good." Then, because it has balanced circuits, hooked it up to my SS setup with differential Emotiva XPA-1 monos (fully balanced). Loaded a cassette and literally fell into a trance. FOUR HOURS later was still putting in cassettes and listening to the extraordinary sound. The deck is a different beast in balanced mode. And that is why I wonder how much better the Dragon could be. The BX300 is unbalanced, BTW.
I got it...This will definitely save the time. Its like a back door..came out like this: 17. When Smokey Sings ABC • Alphabet City 4:18 18. The Way It Is Bruce Hornsby, The Range • The Way It Is 4:57 19. Hungry Eyes Eric Carmen • The Definitive Collection 4:11 20. Slave To Love Bryan Ferry • More Than This - The Best Of Bryan Ferry And Roxy Music 4:19 21. Don't Stop The Dance Bryan Ferry • More Than This - The Best Of Bryan Ferry And Roxy Music editing is better than writing the whole stash.. thanks..
+1. My RX-505’s UDAR was reversing quite stiffly because it hadn’t been used since I got a B77 last year. I now use the RX-505, the BX-300, and the BX-125 weekly just to keep the mechanics moving and lubricated. That 30+ year old technology still sounds great!
Caution Will Robinson. You will have to listen to the both of them to know for sure. The sonics of a Dragon are "IMHO" very intoxicating in "my system" it's all a matter of taste. But I'm biased and have never heard a BX-300 although I do own a 150 which I like. M~
Going back to the cassette players, its signified if you have 3 heads or more is better than 2. probably the alignment. Ive use a lot of good 2 heads that sounds like the high dollar ones. I was able to resurrect "again and probably for a moment" my old teac and this machine is really good with ferric-chrome tapes both recording and playback. I'm actually doing playbacks on what I recorded last night. Its got the solid bass, extensive high on analog sound. Its just incredible. The true test of a good recording is a playback to a second or another system ,,, then going to your car system.
FYI - The Dragon is unbalanced too. But I doubt that this makes a difference for short cable runs unless you are running a fully balanced system which has to convert unbalanced signals to balanced. Now, I'm not doubting that the balanced connection sounded better in your system. But this was almost certainly because your preamp's design is/was optimized for balanced connections, not because balanced inherently sounds better than unbalanced.
No preamp used in the system; all sources run direct to amplifiers. Big difference with the MR-1 for the balanced circuits; these are separate and distinct in the MR-1s construction. If you get a chance to hear one you will see. Use balanced systems in my home studio exclusively and am well familiar with their advantages.
