Re: [ARSCLIST] Nakamichi BX 1 Tape Deck

[David Seubert <seubert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My worry about machines such as this, (and my reason for avoiding them) is
also that parts aren't available. Professional equipment such as the Tascam
112 or the Marantz PMD502 have been made for years with few changes and
parts are hopefully easier to come by because there are thousands of decks
still in service. Nakamichi may have been good in their day, but they were
still consumer equipment and the parts pipeline isn't the same for consumer
equipment as it is with pro, and even that is probably changing with pro
analog gear. If you look at the Nakamichi web site these days it's all car
audio and home "environment" systems. They don't even sell cassette decks.
You think it fits in their business model to continue to make or stock
parts for the handful of 20 year old cassette decks that are still in
service? I doubt it. The dragon may be an exception because of it's azimuth
correction, but I would stay away from all other consumer cassette decks.

David Seubert
UCSB

At 08:59 AM 6/21/2004 -0400, Robert Hodge wrote:
> Dear Randy ,
>
> Remember, caveat emptor !!!
>
> Syracuse University ( not this department ) had a couple  of Nakamitchi
> cassette decks ( model unknown -  scrapped ) that were purchased around
> 1980 or so , that when needing service, parts were found to be unavailable ..
> These were also semi professional ( unbalanced output - RCA plugged )
> machines .
> They weren't Dragons- I suspect parts are still available for
> those  (Hopefully)
>
> Good Luck - I wish I could give you more info.
>
> Sincerely ,
>
> Bob Hodge
> Belfer Audio Archive
> Syracuse University
>
>
> >>> sirnailheadjr@xxxxxxxx 06/18/04 10:22PM >>>
> Hey...I found a Nakamichi BX-1 Cassette Deck in a resale shop the other
> day at the nice price of $25 and have been looking for an upgrade of my
> Fischer Double Deck before I pull out a huge box of old Cassettes of
> various live bands I recorded/played with years ago.  I'm looking to do
> digital transfers and know that some of the finest decks around are made
> by Nakamichi.
>
> The casing is black, but it has no manual or other documentation as to how
> old it is.  The deck looks to be in very good shape.  It's clean, very
> little wear or dirt from handling, almost no dings or scratches.  I looked
> into the cassette well and it was very clean, with almost none of the dust
> you would expect to flake out over the years.  The Play and Record heads
> looked clean with no gunk and very light wear.  The rubber rollers looked
> a bit faded or dry.  The RCA plugs also looked pretty nice with none of
> the wear you would find had the plugs been scraping from repeated removals.
>
> I can't do much more to check it out unless I buy it.  I'll put a tape in
> to see that it moves and hopefully be able to hook it to another stereo in
> the shop to see how it sounds.  Any advice on how well this model was
> built, when it was in production, how much I might have to expect in
> repair costs or other "Cheap & Dirty" diagnostic tricks I can use to see
> if the pitch is correct, etc.  Thanks.  Randy