Thanks for sharing that. I knew my dad had a Nakamichi back in the early to mid 80's, but I couldn't have told you what model it was although I remember exactly what it looked like. Went to the site and there it was, a BX-2. Used to make all of my tapes for my Camaro using that deck.
Will do. I just got the deck out and found an empty belt baggy. I totally forgot that the last time I had the deck out, the tire replacement didn't totally fix the usual issue. I ended up replacing the belt as well and everything was good. I'm wondering if the belt was going and this caused less tolerance with the tire wear. We'll see when I get it out soon to play something.
An update on my BX-300 issues. I pulled the deck out after 2 years of non-use. It started with the stopping during play again (halfway sometimes but mostly when getting towards the end). So I changed the tire and it played a couple sides of the tape before the issue was back. I then read around more and found reference to the torque pot inside. Since I don't have a reference cassette and exhausted everything else I know to try and don't use it enough to warrant the cost of servicing it, I went ahead and nudged the torque pot higher. I mean the slightest nudge possible. I wasn't even totally sure it moved at all but was pretty sure it did. Ever since, it's been playing tapes just fine. Hasn't stopped once, even when I threw a 100min tape at it. We'll see how long this "fix" lasts.
As much as I love cassette decks, non-use is a killer. You really have to run a tape at least once a month, or you will run into operating trouble...
I have the same issue on a BX-1. It’s really a deck I keep for sentimental reasons, don’t use it much, so I really can’t justify repairing it. But I might try your pot adjustment. Does anyone know how I can identify the torque adjustment pot on my BX-1?
In the BX-300 it is marked VR601 and was somewhere in the area I sloppily circled in red in this pic of a 300. Don't know how much of this relates to the BX-1 but I'd look in that area to see if there is a VR601 pot. If you find it, just barely nudge it clockwise and see what that does. First take a pic of it and also maybe put a nail polish line on the edge first so it can be put back to the original position if needed.
The ZR-1 Corvette is nice...but does it have a cassette player?...No? Well, you can play your cassettes AND go faster than that ZR-1 in some F150's.
Actually, mine suffered from this because of none use. It started working, after I kept in the auto reverse mode and working the switches when I turned the deck on. If it's Willy then its around $800.00 for an overhaul of a Dragon. It depends on the deck. The best thing is to contact him and get a quote. M~
So what would be a good "budget" Nakamichi deck to get and have refurbed that comes close in performance to the Dragon and other top models for record and playback but does not have all the bells and whistles?
My RX-202 deck went into a local shop a couple of years ago for a big refurb, but has been back at least three times since. The problem is that OEM parts are not available and knock-offs are hit and miss. Even the shop was fed up with their supplier so the last time we did not use the parts they had in stock but ordered from someone else. It took a couple of weeks (just beat Covid!) but everything's great right now. (In the end it was all about one little idler wheel.) I can't imagine a deck sounding any better and don't believe that moving up the Nak food chain would yield a worthwhile return on the cost. Jeff
I should at least try that...but after all these years of sitting idle, I really do owe it to myself to send that thing in for a full service. Problem is I have a bunch of serviced decks and it is all I can do to keep them in use. Maybe it's time to calce some off and start a Dragon Repair fund?
I feel your pain. I have 6 and run all of them every Tuesday's for an hour or so. It's kind of a pain, but thats the price of me being greedy. M~
