Showcase your cassette deck

[pathakajit]

... And here's a pretty wicked Akai UC-F3. It is a mini component but as heavy as some of my full sized decks.
Legendary Akai sound quality!

This deck is currently on sale as a part of an entire Akai Mini Component System. Heres the sale thread- http://www.hifivision.com/sale-owner/62756-vintage-akai-mini-component-hifi-system.html

 

[Selvin]

My Newly acquired Nakamichi BX-100.

I am fan of Nakamichis BX-1xx series decks front panel which layout is bit different than conventional decks. I was in search for a decent two head Nakamichi mainly for Indian cassettes because I dont want worn out my three head DR-10. Found this in Olx and called the gentleman. He informed the deck has some problem that which is playing without cassette and stops immediately if use with a cassette. This is a typical symptom of worn out idler wheel and can fix easily and decided to take risk and picked.

The deck is in good condition internally and externally and no signs of any wear. The idler worn out as expected. Unable to find out the idler locally and I contacted our FM NakTech (Umesh) and he is kind enough to spare a new imported idler wheel even on free of cost. Replaced the idler and done some routine cleaning and greasing. Powered up, oh.. all functions are working properly.

Performance Yes, this is one of the Nakamichis entry level deck and one cant expect any wow. Playing well as expected to the price of the deck. In the past I owned many decks from Denon, Sony, Onkyo, Yamaha etc. This BX-100 is better than all of them but not miles ahead. My previous Onkyo TA-2830 sound is very close to this BX-100 in all aspects.

Compare to my DR-10, oh.. Suppose it is not to do. The price of DR-10 is about 3 fold higher than BX-100. DR-10 is miles ahead in terms of detail and upper frequency delivery. In Noise Reduction OFF mode playback hiss noise is bit lower in BX-100. Rewind and Forward are bit noisy in BX-100 when compare to DR-10 and this may be due to idler mechanism where in DR-10 it is gear drive in place of idler wheel.

Overall BX-100 is a nice reliable workhorse for day to day use.



Inside view

 

[reubensm]

The DR series are the hidden gems of the NAK series. Many pundits write them off saying that they were the very last of the NAKs and they were of a downgraded variety. In my view, they are some of the better sounding NAKs out there.

 

[tcpip]

All your posts remind me of my heart-breaking loss of my ZX-9. It died. One of its motor assemblies will need to be replaced, and preferably one of its heads too. The deck is lying in my loft, packed in bubble-wrap, hoping for some day when I'll have the money to get it repaired. (I've gotten it checked by two excellent technicians in Bombay, both of whom are well versed with Nak decks.)

I would not have believed how good a 3-head Nak can be, till I heard the ZX-9. IMHO, the Dragon has more "glamour" but may be harder to maintain, thanks to its auto-reverse and auto-azimuth-tuning mechanisms.

I still have probably 300 cassettes lying with me. Some are albums never published on CD, including rare Indian classical ones.

 

[reubensm]

The ZX-9 is a great deck. Don't give up on it. Keep looking up ebay for spares, you'll definitely come across them at some point, at affordable prices. Good thing about NAK decks is that if you get OEM spares, they can be restored to as good as new. I have restored a lot of stuff by picking up spares on ebay.

 

[nakamichi]

few of my tape decks...

 

[krazh]

like the option of being able to operate it vertically or horizontally.
super reliable and with warm peak indicating meters.

 

[plasmoid]

My trusty Technics RS-TR333 double cassette deck. Bought this new back in 1995. The only time it was serviced was to replace the pinch rollers on both decks around 10 years back...never changed the heads or anything else. There's a slight loss in higher frequencies in some test recordings I did recently, but playback is still great and functions perfectly. I'm super impressed by the reliability of Technics products. I also have a Technics equalizer that's around 28 years old and still working perfectly.

Out of all my stereo components this is my favorite, probably coz its been with me more than half my life and never let me down

 

[Kiran Vaidya]

Great Collection. I also have TCD-910. Of coursse TCD-911 is my dream. Kind regards

I use these cassette decks:


Revox B710

Tandberg TCD 440A

Tandberg TCD 910

And this Open Reel Tape Deck

Lyrec PTR-1 Frida

Niklas

 

[Kiran Vaidya]

The mighty Tandberg

-M

Excellent Stuff.

 

[Naren]

 

[Naren]

Love them, enjoying them again. During my college days had no much to spend on decent decks used to live with all-in-ones. Now i realize how great are the cassettes.

 

[Norton]

All your posts remind me of my heart-breaking loss of my ZX-9. It died. One of its motor assemblies will need to be replaced, and preferably one of its heads too. The deck is lying in my loft, packed in bubble-wrap, hoping for some day when I'll have the money to get it repaired. (I've gotten it checked by two excellent technicians in Bombay, both of whom are well versed with Nak decks.)

I would not have believed how good a 3-head Nak can be, till I heard the ZX-9. IMHO, the Dragon has more "glamour" but may be harder to maintain, thanks to its auto-reverse and auto-azimuth-tuning mechanisms.

I still have probably 300 cassettes lying with me. Some are albums never published on CD, including rare Indian classical ones.

Hi.
Would you be able to direct me to the technician in Mumbai. I have a dragon that needs fixing.
Regards Norton

 

[Arvind Singh Lodhi]

Nakamichi CD1 and Sony TC K81

 

[tcpip]

Hi.
Would you be able to direct me to the technician in Mumbai. I have a dragon that needs fixing.
Regards Norton

I haven't been in touch with him for many years, but his name is Naren Halankar.

He seemed to be specialised in Nak decks, even though he used to work on all sorts of hardware.

 

[Norton]

I haven't been in touch with him for many years, but his name is Naren Halankar.

He seemed to be specialised in Nak decks, even though he used to work on all sorts of hardware.

Thanks

 

[greenhorn]

Showing some of my recently aquired toys
There is a Denon DR M20 too, but it's going back to the thrift store because i have too many!
1. My latest aquisition - a Nakamichi 480 - got it for $50 - non working - seems its the cam belt - plays when i rotate the cam gear by hand. listening to it right now, and yes, the Nakamichi hype is justified, but its not significantly better than the Akai
2. Akai GX F31 - $35 - came with totally solidified grease and a slipping idler - both fixed!
3. Sony TC FX4 - $15 - worked perfectly, I had to go ruin it by breaking its membrane keypad controls when disassembling it to fix its door damping mechanism. Not sure if it can be fixed - sittting around for an arduino based remote control solution