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It's Nak Smashing Time!


Cornwalled

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Does anyone else out there hate Nakamichi as much as I do? My BX-300 tape deck just gave out AGAIN after constant maintenance. So, I smashed the heck out of it. It was awesome. It ended up dangling from it's power cable, with a smashed in front end. Best part? I don't regret a thing. First the idler gives out (expected design flaw, I replaced it) Now the entire transport solenoid gives out. Service center says bin it. I say SMASH it! Much more fun. I recommend anyone else who has a Nak deck do the same. Even if it works! It's just the right thing to do...

Do yourself a favor and buy a Tandberg, a far superior deck in every way. I'm going to go pull out my old Denon that's given over 20 years of FLAWLESS service with not a single problem, ever! There's something to be said for total design disasters, and Nak has had TONS of em. Just look at every CDP or Cassette they ever made - complete reliability nightmares, Dragon included. I'm sick of Nak's cheap plastic garbage that craps out all the time. Over hyped, under performance, and they sound like bum.

(Okay, rant over..LOL) Feel free to share similar Nak bashing stories. I'd love to know I'm not alone...

-Jon

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I did that to an Epson printer once. snatched it from it's shelf ripping out all cables and flung from office to hallway in one smooth motion. Picked up the biggest chunk of chassis and repeatedly raised it over my head and heaved it to the concrete patio outside. Didn't stop until there were only tiny pieces left.

Best $99 I ever wasted.

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I did that to a very annoying Sony DVD player a few years ago. And I must admit it was rewarding. But not to my Nak Dragon!!!!

Keep in mind the Nak BX series was their run-of-the-mill lower priced consumer electronics "I must have the Nakamichi name" kind of stuff. The Nak 1000 and Dragon are still amongst the finest cassette tape decks ever made. They rival CD and many reel to reel decks in sound quality. They basically spelled the dimise of consumer reel to reel decks.

And before you get on the high horse against Nakamichi consider the fact that Nakamichi was also one of the major OEM cassette deck manufacturers. They've made cassette decks for nearly everyone at some point or another, Advent, Sony, you name it, espcially before they marketed their own brand name.

I can say this because I've owned several Nakamichi BX & CX series decks and they were no comparison to a Dragon or 1000 or 700. I even had a TD-1200 (essentially a Dragon playback transport) in my old 84 S-10 Blazer. It sounded as good as any car CD player and worked fine until the day I traded in the Blazer ~ eighteen years later!

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I thought Nakamichi died in the late 70's.............haven't heard or experienced them since "73".......................

One of his sons is still in the business.

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I've owned my Nak CR-1A since new and it has performed flawlessly and sounds great. I sold my Nak BX-300, but I thought it too sounded great and performed smoothly. And my Nak car deck, the TD-400 still works and sounds amazing. No complaints here. Epson printers on the other hand, I can fully embrace colters reaction. [:@]

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One of the most gratifying things to be done is to take a piece of crap tape deck, etc. and launch it repeatedly. Since it was crap anyways, did not work, and not worth even attempting to fix, you feel soooooo much better!!!! [Y][Y][Y]

That being said, I had a CR1A from the mid 80's until just a couple years ago and it never gave me any problems. Gave it to a budy of mine when I went with the "main battle tank" CD players from TASCAM. Usually Nakamichi has a very good rep for reliability.

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...Do yourself a favor and buy a Tandberg, a far superior deck in every way. I'm going to go pull out my old Denon that's given over 20 years of FLAWLESS service with not a single problem, ever! There's something to be said for total design disasters, and Nak has had TONS of em. Just look at every CDP or Cassette they ever made - complete reliability nightmares, Dragon included. I'm sick of Nak's cheap plastic garbage that craps out all the time. Over hyped, under performance, and they sound like bum...

-Jon

It's too early for April Fools posts so I'll take this at face value and say that hasn't been my experience, Jon.

I have a Tandberg cassette machine that I would really like to give the smash treatment to. I think it's a TC-310 or 320 or something like that (not at home right now). The cassette fouls the door and prevents the door from opening so it won't eject. It's a total mechanical joke. I've got a bunch of Nak cassette machines including a Dragon, an LX-5, and a 303 "flipper" and they've been great for me. I've also taken a liking to Nak receivers with Stasis power amps designed by Nelson Pass.

As for the sentiment that Nak decks "sound like bum", I'm not sure what to say. You should know that the Nak decks used different equalization than everyone else, based on their own interpretation of industry standards. As a result, playing a tape on a Nak deck that was recorded on non-Nak is less than optimal. Good luck with your Tandberg cassette deck, and hopefully you're not using a Tandberg receiver too. Although they looked cool but were about as unreliable as B&O electronics. Best to stick with good ol' Tandberg reel to reel...

triceratops

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My Nak bx300 is still working fine on the self in the back room. It was a great deck while I used cassettes, did have to take it in once for one motor though. Haven't used it in 8 to 10 years. I would sell it to you if you want to smash it though. That way you could smash 2 of them. Boy that would show them, sweet revenge. What's the going rate 2 or 3 hundred plus shipping. DevilGeeked just fooling with ya.

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