Nakamichi 1000- the deck to die for

K

kuruvilajacob

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2011
Messages
1,225
Points
113
Location
Kottayam
Hi folks,
I had picked up a Nak 1000 a few months back. It was a blind buy and the guy who packed and sent it to me did a pretty bad job and the moment I opened the package I was so disappointed. The deck's wooden enclosure was completely broken. Surprisingly, due to the sturdy construction, the deck was quite intact. I had to choose between two technicians and I chose the one who had more than 40 years experience. He has done a fantastic job and I am playing my Thomsun cassette original recording of Dire Straits Brothers in Arms and I have played it hundreds of times but never like it sounds on the NAK 1000. It's just superb. I wish I had many more good tapes. Unfortunately, I have not taken good care of them. My brother has a fantastic collection and I will have to steal a few from him.
 
Last edited:
Congrats Mr. Kuruvila, looking in great nick. It would be great if you choose teak or rose wood for the body work, not sure what the original wood was.

People kill for the Dragon but in my opinion, the 1000 was the best ever Nak, probably the best cassette deck of all time!! This deck single-handedly changed the course of audiophile history and was solely responsible for putting cassette tapes on the world map (until the time of its release, cassettes were considered a low quality recording medium, primarily preferred for portable voice recording)

Can't even imagine the $1000 price tag in 1972, definitely built for Royalty. These were quite popular with Hollywood stars and American recording artists of those times. Frank Sinatra was one of the famous owners.

The 1000ZXL is perhaps the most sort after today, and most expensive deck in the world!!
 
Yes Reuben. I am sure it must have been of the highest quality. I dug out a Chrome cassette presented to me by someone years back and it has Al Stewart and Paul Anka. I can't believe tape can sound so crisp and sharp. The original outer cover was usual oak coloured veneer. I will try to make it look elegant with mahogany finish in due course of time. I have no idea how to align it . I did not find any switch for cr, metal tapes. I assume it may have auto sensing mechanism. Also, I have no idea how to clean the head and pinch rollers. I will have to study all those aspects in due course of time.Also, there are some patches on the front plate due to corrosion and I will have to figure out how to touch it without losing it's originality. BTW, how good is Tanberg 440 cassette deck?
 
kuruvilajacob said:
Yes Reuben. I am sure it must have been of the highest quality. I dug out a Chrome cassette presented to me by someone years back and it has Al Stewart and Paul Anka. I can't believe tape can sound so crisp and sharp. The original outer cover was usual oak coloured veneer. I will try to make it look elegant with mahogany finish in due course of time. I have no idea how to align it . I did not find any switch for cr, metal tapes. I assume it may have auto sensing mechanism. Also, I have no idea how to clean the head and pinch rollers. I will have to study all those aspects in due course of time.Also, there are some patches on the front plate due to corrosion and I will have to figure out how to touch it without losing it's originality. BTW, how good is Tanberg 440 cassette deck?
Click to expand...

The 440 is one of the most highly regarded Tandbergs. I have not heard this deck but dad used to talk about it in detail and compare it to his Akai GX39D. He used to say that the 440 was very famous for its top quality playback while he felt that the Akai was better with recordings. And of course, he preferred the Akai because it had the glass head. Interestingly our forum member Rosh, has this deck. It would be great to check with him on first hand user experience-based reviews.

http://www.hifivision.com/cassette-tape-decks/22691-showcase-your-cassette-deck-5.html#post336597

Personally, I was never quite a fan of the bed-type decks. Preferred the ones that could be kept on a rack with front-loading.
 
kuruvilajacob said:
Hi folks,
I had picked up a Nak 1000 a few months back. It was a blind buy and the guy who packed and sent it to me did a pretty bad job and the moment I opened the package I was so disappointed. The deck's wooden enclosure was completely broken. Surprisingly, due to the sturdy construction, the deck was quite intact. I had to choose between two technicians and I chose the one who had more than 40 years experience. He has done a fantastic job and I am playing my Thomsun cassette original recording of Dire Straits Brothers in Arms and I have played it hundreds of times but never like it sounds on the NAK 1000. It's just superb. I wish I had many more good tapes. Unfortunately, I have not taken good care of them. My brother has a fantastic collection and I will have to steal a few from him.
Click to expand...

I have a TDK MA90 with Chet baker - "this is jazz" on one side and cannonball Adderlley on the other. could let you have this ( and some others .all on metal, if i can find them)
 
kuruvilajacob said:
Hi folks,
Thomsun cassette original recording of Dire Straits Brothers in Arms
Click to expand...

Those were fake cassettes IMHO - possibly very high quality fakes. Thomson , what I heard was possibly biggest audio pirate ,without giving any respect to copyright he used to sell tapes . Esp his special casetettes - Best of ( perticular singer) , Top 100 of ( perticular year) were popular.

Later what I heard that his source was CD not other casettes .Normally his blank tapes were Sony , TDK or even Maxell so their quality was good
 
Thomsun or Thomson?. As i remember it, these came from 'GULF', the quality of the recording was top notch. I don't know if they were pirated but compared to 'T series' they were much more superior in quality. Like chalk and cheese.

I am still looking for some live recordings i have heard in my school days.

I have a humble AKAI 39D and one B&O Beocenter 2000 for my cassette listening. The amplifier and FM/cassette deck of the Beocenter give truly top notch music quality. My AR 17 has never sung as beautifully as with this amp.
 
Last edited:
Yes, Thomsun pirated cassettes originated in the "Gulf". They were high quality cassettes and "fake" is the wrong word to use for them. "Pirated", yes, "Fake", no! I have over a 100 [or is it 200? I forget] Thomsun cassettes stashed away in a suitcase. A legacy of my misspent youth. Rock and Country music primarily. Some day, I'll convert them. Some day. I've been saying this for over 10 years now :-)
 
My brother brought a few Maxcell chrome tapes recorded on another Nak and the recording was far superior to the Thomsun I listened earlier. My brother has a DR 7 deck. It is used with much care and sounds good. But I have never had very high end cassette decks except a Nak 480 which was excellent.
 
stillsearching.. said:
I have a TDK MA90 with Chet baker - "this is jazz" on one side and cannonball Adderlley on the other. could let you have this ( and some others .all on metal, if i can find them)
Click to expand...

That would be nice as I don't have too many good quality tapes and it is hard to get good blank ones these days
 
Reuben,
I contacted another gentleman in Kerala who has a Tanberg 440 A. It's one of his many decks and he has only good things to say about it
 
they were Pirated indeed, but the recordings were top notch, better than any Indian recording available at the time and what more, they used high quality tapes like Sony CHF C60

The name was Thomsun

the GX39D is not that humble, it would easily features in the list of top 50 cassette decks of all time and is perhaps, AKAI's most famous cassette deck.
 
To add to that Gamava and King's had some good cassettes too.
Then there was IMD/GMR etc, which were not really that great in terms of tape quality, but still even those tapes work fine these days!
 
Some of the GMR tapes from Indonesia and the recording quality was really good. the quality of the tapes were bad . I had a beautiful collection all recorded by professionals Mr.Anand from Anan Nagar Chennai and Mosin also from Chennai. They had good collection of CDs from which recordings were made in TDK or Sony Cassettes. Unfortunately, I did not maintain them.
 
How about the quality of Indian Cassettes? Most of my collection are cassettes released by Echo, AVM, Magnasound, HMV, Sargam, Johny Sagariga and few Sony. Which make tapes they used? Is they are safe to play such high end decks? Any comments on quality of Chennai based 'Meltrack' tapes?
 
Wharfedale Linton Heritage Speakers in Red Mahogany at a Special Offer Price
Wharfedale Linton Heritage Speakers in Red Mahogany finish at a Special Offer Price. BUY now before the price increase.

Similar threads

vnmathur57
Belt change in Nakamichi 480
Replies
0
Views
5K
vnmathur57
vnmathur57
R
Any Nakamichi Cassette Deck Servicing Expert in Bangalore ?
Replies
2
Views
10K
rajivaryan1984
R
kumarab
Belts for Nakamichi Cassette Deck 1
Replies
7
Views
12K
kumarab
kumarab
kumarab
Cassette Deck 1: Part 2, Calibration
Replies
2
Views
11K
kumarab
kumarab
Akaudiotech
Nakamichi 600 Cassette deck Complete Restoration
2
Replies
21
Views
25K
Akaudiotech
Akaudiotech
Back
Top