Brilliant.....I enjoyed it..... What a device. Super. Definitely one of the best cassette decks they made back then. Greetings from the Netherlands Limburg Maastricht and above all continue with High-end and videos. Peace and love and of course coffee beans..... ✌🏾🌍😘
I will soon have a wonderful opportunity to evaluate the best Pioneer deck with the best Akai deck. And then I'll buy myself a Nakomichi. )) And something tells me that Nakomichi has over-praised everything. Thanks for video! )
wow. forget what I paid for my ZX-9. years ago. nice to know whats its worth. used to Dub tapes for TV playback and copy master tapes. never use it anymore. I'll keep it for now. thx for review.
you are right! the pro/ high-end machines tend to have lower frequency responses/conservative specs than the consumer grade machines, if you notice (especially r2r decks). BUT the sounds from the Pro decks are clearly better. so don't pay much attention to the specs.
Had a ZX-9, which was considered a Dragon Killer.. I blind tested 15 people 30 years ago listening through my old AKG150 Headphones, using the Nak, a Dual 604 turntable with a Shure V5 type3 cartridge and a Technics CD Player. I recorded the album 'White Winds' from Andreas Wollenweider to a metal cassette with dolby C, from vinyl. I also had the same material on CD as well.. Short story: no one was able to hear any difference predictably; including myself! Once calibration is done on a high-end Nak, any cassette's sound is indistinguishable from the original material.
I have the little brother of him, the ZX7. Is with me since the 90’s. Probably I am the second owner. Unfortunately, I have a technical problem with him. The blue bowden cable that made the mechanical alignment, is broken. And without this , it is impossible to record. I will try to weld the metalic part and hope this fix the alignment
I have the ZX-7, ZX-9, and a Dragon. The two ZX's sound the same to me, to be honest. However, I find the Dragon has the better bass output. It's far more controlled and coherent compared to the other two. So, I use the ZX's for recording and the Dragon for playback. However, in terms of reliability the Dragon is also the most temperamental.
the dragon seems that they built it with cheap material wich makes it fail at the end of a couple of years this because of the heat that puts out of shape some parts that are related with the playback and recording ,the ZX-7 and the ZX-9 are both excelent decks in my opinion much better than the dragon and allthough they are both very good one can notice the diference between the two if the system is at least with average quality but it´s not a huge diference but a litle better sound on the ZX-9 wich is an improved ZX-7, i Had two Dragons and they did failed both and some years ago i bought the ZX-9 having already the CR-7a wich i found it to the best Nakamichi deck ,excluding the ZXL1000, i also have a Pioneer CT-93 wich surprised me for having a better sound and better built in quality materials , but all are good and the pioneer is around 10 years more modern(excluding the CR-7a) and with more recent developments in terms of playing and recording tapes, there is also the CT-939mkII and the Akai GX-75 or 95(both the same)that sound better than the early 80´s nakamichi decks but nakamichi decks when working good they have a system well engeniered with great quality ,also tried the more recent(90´s) cassette deck 1 wich is a great cassette deck, the more evolved from Nakamichi, regards
The cassette had two merits. You could copy your friend's albums for free and the cassettes you made yourself were easily the best sounding car sound then available. That is all.
unfortunately, the perception of cassette tapes is that they didn't sound that good, but maybe that was because people bought cheap cassette tapes and recorded on . And maybe also cheap cassette recorders or ones that didn't cost that much. the result could be dark sound and noise
They had cassette decks with ability to bias the deck to different cassette tapes as far back as the mid 1970's. There was a Kenwood KX1030 model which had a built in test tone oscillator which was very effective, but it wasn't such a high end feature back then. You could buy the deck new on sale for around $250. I don't see spending big money on cassette decks. They are severely challenged on dynamic range, they sound compressed like FM. They also have a smaller sound than reel decks you can find used for $300 and less. The budget Sony reel to reel deck I had back in the 1980s was an overachiever and easily beat any top of the line cassette deck I compared it to. Yet cassette playback can be very nice. Some music requires dynamics less than others. I have a secret mod for cassettes decks which involves using something from VHS, which improves the transparency and cleanliness on playback to an uncanny degree and opens up the sound much more too. Like your spent $1000 in upgrades, but costs near nothing. Speaking of VHS, remember that? After a while they started coming out with VHS HIFI VCR's. The low fi stereo vcrs came out first, but when the HIFI versions came out, Audio magazine tested a bunch of them and came to the conclusion that VHS HIFI machines had equivalent sound quality to all but the best reel to reel decks. Better than cassette. Audio magazine did both dubbing experiment comparisons and a microphone recording comparison involving recording the jingling of keys. In stores that sell used stuff, these machines are readily available and common for usually around $20. You can still find sealed VHS recording tape. Further into the 1980s some brands of VHS tapes were advancing in quality so that there was not as much tape dropouts, which resulted in a buzzing sound. VHS tapes are much wider than both cassette and reel to reel. The VHS tapes moves slowly but the unique recording heads spin very fast while recording and playing back, approximating tape speed many times higher. The sound quality of VHS HIFI machines varied some. Buying many brands and comparing is not costly and very interesting. If you know someone who can modify a good VHS HIFI machines output circuitry, you may end up with the sound quality of a multi thousand dollar reel tape machine, with the advantage of much cheaper tape with 6 hours of recording time per tape. Unlike reel to reel where there is immense improvement at higher tape speeds, recording in VHS HIFI makes little difference between the 2 hour and 6 hour speed. Years later you every occasionally get buzzing from dropouts if the tape itself has degraded.
Yes this is a beautiful machine ..if you see one and can afford it buy it ..they are built like tanks ...I look on with my Sony decks ..with deep envy ..sigh..
it´s a shame that doesn´t come close to pioneer top end decks in any type of comparison ,but i have the ZX-9 also others from nakamichi because if they weren´t built with cheaper plastic they would top all others because of the engeniering quality ,but the brand built them with cheap materials
@@RUfromthe40s I know that in thew USA people prefer the Pioneer Fisher, KENWOOD etc. brand pretty much. Well, it all is a marketing thing. These days nearly all Japanese audio companies build top of the art audio components to show what they are able to do. In the end of tape deck era, the machines became more and more integrated designed. Especially tape decks got advantage of more integrated electronics and inventions. I think the famous Nakamichis had been the very best at their time.
@@borlibaer they which ,it´s nakamichi crap , i can say it had two dragons and still have a 73 or 4 3 head deck with calibration from my father as a 680ZX(good) a ZX-9 ,a CR-7a and maybe the best , the cassette deck 1 ,having bought in early 80´s a Dragon and in early 90´s another(i was told it was improved, but nothing but the same crap )also my father before he passed away from an hOSPITAL ERROR BEING 92 AND FULL OF LIFE ,he bought the golden edition of the 1000ZXL ,my CT-93 from Pioneer after several tests my father couldn´t believe how much better the pioneer was in every senses, as an example the also pioneer CT-F1250 from 1979 is far better than all the decks i refered before, and they were cheaply built and cheaper decks compared to a Pioneer , Akai or even Kenwood (also one of the best brands in cassette decks but forfoten since the 70´s) as TEAC/Tascam is too
Tape and source sounded the same to me. I have a question about fixing cassette decks though. Can someone direct me to a proper forum where I can list problems and get solutions for Technical/Electrical problems for working on cassette decks.?
thanks for this video, Guido! I have a Zx7, I think the same, except for the direct transmission! can I ask at what level-volume was the source of your recording? 3/4 ?
I have a question sir, which one is better for record a cassette? using high end tape deck or a compo(e.g. LG MDD64). I assumed that since compo is fully digital it better than using high end tape deck
Hifi engine has wow and flutter at .045% And they didn't put the glass in because the first produced models OVERHEATED And they yanked the cover out so it would cool
IO HO ILCR7 COMPRATO NUOVO E NE SONO INNAMORATO NON LO VENDERO MAI ,LA QUALITA DEL SUONO? MIGLIORE DEL CD DEL QUALE NON NE AVEVAMO BISOGNO, FA DELLE COPIE DEI VINILI FANTASTICHE,IN OGNI IMPIANTO HIFI CHE SI RISPETTI DEVE TROVARE POSTO UN DECK "OVVIAMENTE NAKAMICHI".
I had one of these back in the 80's! Nakamichi is the ultimate cassette machine. Honestly, the ZX-9 to me sounds better than most modern digital recordings. Great trip down memory lane!
agreed ,either than the B-215 from revox this is my favorite deck but only bought it in late 90´s after having bought a 82 Dragon(should had bought earlier the ZX-9) and a 93 Dragon(should have bought the cassette deck 1 ), both DRAGONS were garbage(fantastic engeniering, built from the cheapest materials they had at the time) but profitable, i should had bought 20 of them ,but one doesn´t guess that in a period of 20 to 30 years the all world makes the same error again, don´t get me wrong it was a great deck but in two years of heavy use i started to notice problems, big ones. While my first good cassette deck a CT-F1000 from pioneer bought in 76 is still working great with minimal maintenance, maybe because at the time i only listened to cassettes in the car , at home ,reels . but the best decks are in my opinion the Pioneer CT-93 and the Akai GX-95(or 75) also the Denon DR-M34HX, only my opinion
Ciao Enrico, if you know me the answer is only one: OCC copper (or Silver, better) cables, with teflon insulation and quality connectors. Probably gold because of oxide or silver (oxide is conductive). I did several videos on DIY (cheap and effective: ua-cam.com/video/u3EPL6hI_H4/v-deo.html) and shelf products: ua-cam.com/video/K5tFrlCvn3o/v-deo.html If you want the best at a decent price, go Neotech like the NEi 3001 III (copper) or NEI 1001 (silver). Some sell these ready to use or you can do them starting with bulk cable.
thanks for the video. I am 56 years old and grew up with cassette recorders. This technique fascinates me again. So I got an old Kenwwod KX 7030 and repaired it again. In the digital age, a recorder makes little sense, but it's a lot of fun. I now have several recorders that I will repair again. I recently found an old tape that I recorded 35 years ago. It still works. Greetings from a fan from Northern Germany.
I think analogue recording makes sense even in the digital age, by offering warmer and nicer sound. Copying LP to tape, or Master tape to another tape (although very expensive to find Master tape) are just a few examples. But many argue that even digital source sounds nicer once recorded on a tape. So, good luck with repairing your gear, it makes a lot of sense to do it!
@@alexeizhiltsov6797 "Warmer" and nicer depends of the equipment used, the source media, the soundsystem you use and finally your room (+ your preferences of course!). You can prefer a "coloured" sound wich is a sum of each component distortion: You can indeed prefer the "analog fingerprint", it's like saying i prefer equalizer curve "A" over curve "B". All i can say is that technically speaking, the digital format is a much better format. You could be surprised to choose a good DAC over a turntable... or not! Sound is a bit of a cult and that's ok! But hey, we're all here for the pleasure of listening to music, whatever the way you do it!
i agree the zx9 is a very great cassette player i remb Crutchfield magazine displaying this model The engeenering is truely a piece of artwork ( Thanks for the video share love the content )
What does a cassette deck say BEFORE.......And then AFTER Dolby noise reduction? Librarians and safe crackers have been known to say this also. For the answer scroll down and turn your phone right side up. Shhh.......Quiet. And I said right side up.
This is really cool! Something I can relate to! I was fortunate enough to spend time with a Nakamichi expert who services and rebuilds the decks. So I heard a CR-7, ZX-7, ZX-9, Dragon, my 682ZX, 1000 ZXL and 700 ZXL side by side. And yes, it absolutely depends on your preference, but for me the 1000 ZXL was the real winner. But it's VERY expensive (and big). The ZX-9 and ZX-7 were about equal sound wise for me and about as good as a 700 ZXL (the ZXL's are VERY hard to set up, but when they fire on all cilinders, WOW!). The CR-7 is technically perhaps better than the ZX, but it sounded more like a CD. Which is... boring? But still VERY good! My 682ZX was technically the least impressive (still top 15 of all time I think), but it's slightly warmer and looks really nice. I love it! The one I liked the least was the Dragon. More like the CR-7 but really not as good. And when the Dragon head wears out, that's it, no more replacements. But for the others, much less of an issue.. Also, the ZX-9 is very much like the 682ZX of a year before, but it adds the azimuth (very cool), and on the 682ZX the bias is automatic, the 400 Hz manual with screws on the front. The knobs on the ZX-9 are definitely an improvement! My dream would be a 1000 ZXL, 700 ZXL or ZX-9/7, but I'd have to win the lottery ;) Still, I recorded Blank & Jones - Relax (Edition One) which is ever so slightly bright on top on a Sony Metal-XR (used) cassette and played both the CD via my dCS Delius DAC and the 682ZX for a bunch of people, and most of them preferred the cassette! They just didn't believe it WAS a cassette. Couldn't have been, they said... I love cassettes! And I still love this channel!
I agree that the 1000 ZXL is in a league of its own. I have a serviced 700 ZXL and it is very close. The friend I bought mine from also has an overhauled 1000 ZXL and he could not tell a difference between their recordings. I worked on his ZX-9 and it is a special machine. Very tough to find a supply capstan slave belt with the right tolerances to work properly on it though, mainly due to the crowned brass pulley on the supply capstan. Note that the 682ZX also has record azimuth adjustment, although it is automatic rather than manual like the ZX-7/9.
@@reeltorock Funny that. We experience the same thing. How close the 700ZXL got to the 1000ZXL. And I personally like the look of the 700 better.. It’s I remember correctly, the 700 did 8 measurements to auto calibrate, but the 1000 supposedly did over 30. That’s why they are so hard to set up the expert said. We couldn’t hear a difference on type iv, but with type i, we sure did. The crappier the tape, the more the 1000ZXL seemed to shine!
@@erwindewit4073the 1000 ZXL did auto tape type recognition, whereas the 700 ZXL was manual. AFAIK the calibration process besides that was almost identical. I agree that both decks can do magic with mediocre tape. I ran duplicator SA through my 700 ZXL recently and the results were astounding. When these machines are restored to factory operation, they are truly incredible. That is a part of the opinion of high end Naks that is not always well understood. They have to be properly overhauled to make the objective opinion actually like-for-like.
Thanks for this! I think your classification is rather correct. We must keep in mind that the condition of a deck is always different. So for example your first audition of a Dragon was nothing special becasue of a worn out head or capacitors etc. For a true idea (which I don't have eaither) you really need to listen to various decks of teh same model. This is just a suggestion. Thanks for you interesting input. I would have loved a pic of the faces of the guys when you revealed it was a cassette! ;-)
@@reeltorock Yep, the expert told me it cost 1500 euros to recap and setup (including cleaning the mechanism of course) as it takes him a full month of work (part time, he’s a database man during the day). The 682ZX ‘only’ took him 1,5 weeks..
I never had ZX-9 , have ZX-7 , but my technician , who deals with Nakamichis all the time does not see any difference, performance wise , yes ZX-9 Super Tuned , has direct drive and on a paper has better Wow Flutter & Distortion by 0.000 something ( if I remember right) , it is more for Super demanding fellows ) with big buck) ZX-7 to me has clear analog curly sound , CR-7 has indeed CD like beautiful closer to 90ies sound , 🐉 🐲 Dragon to me is a Referee , it sounds something on the middle between ZX-7 and CR-7, both three decks , different sounding, I love them three , can not choose my favourite ) 660zx/670zx/680zx another Beautiful machines, identical sounding , Very powerful HIgh /Low frequencies, Very detailed very Beautiful as well 682ZX and little bro 681ZX is another 💎 gem , Dolby C added along with 15kHz Calibration Tone . Sound to me bit different from 6×0 ZX series, 682 ZX to me very musical and sounds like something between ZX-7 and 6x0ZX series Excellent both Recorder & Player , and think 🤔 this is 682 ZX Superior Nakamichi deck in my possession . Does it mean that I don't like my other Nakamichi decks? No . I like them all )
I have always dreamed of owning one of these ZX-9's. I cannot afford one to add to my fleet of tape decks, yet.... anyway. Someday maybe. Hopefully they are not $10,000 by then. I do worry about finding one in the future that has low head wear. I really wish someone had a huge stock of NOS Nak heads for these. They could last forever if you had a couple of spare head sets to put in them. Anyway thanks for close up look at this wonderful instrument. It truly is a treasure. Thanks.
Hello from Brazil!!! Could you tell me, why does nakamichi use different names for types of cassettes and the correspondence with standers types? Thank you!!!!
i bought a Ferrograh Logic 7 Reel to Reel Deck in 1978 over the Revox B77 because of the sonics the Ferrograph just sounded better in hiendsite i should have bought the Revox because 2 years later Ferrograph went bust and when the heads wore out i could not get them replaced but you can always get spares for Revox because they made so many, i also have the Revox B215 Cassett and it is also a 4 motor Direct Drive and it sounds great
While the RX-505 does have the "cool factor" of the unidirectional auto reverse, it is otherwise basically an upside-down LX-5. A good performer in its own right, but the ZX-7/9 are on another level for recording. The Dragon is tough to beat for playback versatility.
@@reeltorock You are re-enforcing my point, which is: It would be great to have a vid comparing multiple Nakamichi decks(instead of the usual vids covering only one deck at a time). It would be a great resource for analogue fans.
@@MrAustrokiwi it will take a long time as many of my decks need recapping and general service, but I own most of the top Naks and will make that comparison one day.
@@reeltorock of all the Dragon is the worst , i had two ,the first was badly built ,cheap materials then the 90´s arrive i´m buying a new system and a friends says ,did you tried the dragon?yes it´s a very bad cassette deck but then he says try a new one and so i tried and they do work perfect when new and he tells me that in all this years they were improved but again after 3 years of heavy use i sold it before it stoped working and with some money more i went to the Pioneer CT-959 ,perfect . Returning to nakamichi i do prefer the ZX-9 or the RX-505 or even maybe the best CR-7a ,what surprised the most was the minimal(this regarding cassette decks was the Cassette Deck 1,this last 3 the ones i own but last week a friend of mine knowing that i was restoring old decks and using again cassettes he ofered me a BX-2, it works but i still never heard it ,simple maybe a good deck ,not comparable with the others except the Dragon ,for sure it´s better because of it´s simplicity
Just for fun, i would try a blind test with you! I'd bring a good quality pro DAC (like an RME ADI2DACFS) and record one of your reference record! You would then use this very beautiful NAK tape deck (i love it!) and record the same reference record. We would do a blind A/B comparison between the NAC and the DAC: There would probably be a slight difference but i'm really not sure what signal you would choose! And maybe you wouldn't ear the difference between the 2! Just to be clear, i'm not here to say that you're wrong or right using analog equipment. In my case, i'm a long time audiophile, DJ and Electrical Engineer. I've done live sound mixing, analog conversion of majority of my best vinyl records. I've done pro and audiophile speaker design. I've design pro and audiophile electronic crossovers. I've listened to many very high end soundsystem (at the Montreal Audiofest!). We're all here for the same: Pleasure! Analog has definitely a "fingerprint" that you can like... or not! In my case, analog sources are out of my life since at least 15 years. I still have my Dual CS-5000 turntable. I sold my Harman/Kardon TD4600 long time ago (when i started to record my vinyls with my pro soundcard). The digital format is much better technically speaking and the resulting sound quality is a function of the quality of the DAC you use to bring the digital information into the analog domain (like they've done for vinyl). But digital (as analog!) can be done right or wrong. As imperfect vinyl / analog can be, you can obviously prefer this type of sound and it's perfectly OK, it doesn't prove/disprove anything! People are most of the time misunderstanding the way digital works and often have in their minds "the staircase loosing information" idea, which is not true! The vinyl, for example, is an analog / physical storage media. Channel separation is much lower than with digital, dynamic is much lesser, noise and distortion is much higher, there is RIAA circuit error and distortion and you put on top of that degradation which is inevitable. I still love the big 12" physical jacket you can take in your hand and see the artwork, but i use a server containing all my music (terabyte of flac!) : It is so convenient and quality is always the same whatever the number of time i listen to a track! But, as with analog, i have very high quality digital files and very low ones too. Conclusion: I'm not questioning your analog preference, i'm just curious what you would think of a properly done digital recording session and playback! Analog is a bit of a "cult" and i hear so many false claims and plain wrong explanations on the net, all i'm saying is you could be surprised and "reconciliate" with digital! Majority or recordings in studio are done in digital and transfer to analog for vinyl at the end of the mixing process. So majority of time, the vinyls you like has been on the digital domain at its origin! So the idea is to use high quality DAC when listening. And for very high end soundsystem (as for analog), matching components for your preferences and your listening room. Don't forget that from source, every components has its own transfer function that accumulate along the signal path until it reach your ears! And the room is a big transfer function by itself! Think of it as a cascade of equalizers in series with different curves, each one attenuate/boost certain frequencies in the signal. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_function So, in a perfect world, every components wouldn't add anything to the signal and we would listen to the original unaltered studio mixing. Happy listening to everybody and thanks for this good video!
I love properly masterd digital, which unfortunately it's 10% of all released music. I have thousands of cds and other digital hogh-res media. You probably don't know my channel but I am probably the most open person in this sense. No cult. BUT, at the top of my experience and the high-end analog AND digital gear that I have owned during time, analog almost always the winner. The engagement is so intense that I can't ignore it. This happens also with digital, but only vary rarely.
@@anadialog I get you. You prefer analog and you see something in it. You say 10% digital is mastered properly, i'd say it's really not better on the analog side!!! And we know that at the source, 95%+ of the recording / mastering / mixing is done in digital domain. Phrases like "it deserves analog" is sounding a bit like a cult, do you agree? I'd say more simply "it deserves competency, knowledge and quality hardware". Very easy to end up with bad recordings, analog or digital!
Great video really enjoyed this one I have an Akai GX-R88 which is also quite a lovely deck for recording and playback. The difference between the source and the tape is very close so this is obviously a quality tape deck congratulations man.😁🎧👍
Another great demo. I like you cover the ZX-9 & what it has to offer to those who are using cassettes as playback & recording, & those who would be interested in getting into the format. I recalled be station in Germany & the Nakamichi products were in the Base Exchange BX & even then they were expensive. My dream Cassette deck was the Dragon, boy I would salivate over that thing; nevertheless, @ $1,500.00 that was a bunch to spend on a cassette deck in the 1980’s. I settle with the Harman Kardon CD 491 which was half the price & a fairly nice deck. Fast forward to today to your post & I’m pretty upset with you, now you have me wondering, what if? 🤣😂 I be pondering 🤔 my dreams of the Nakamichi Dragon all over again. Thanks Buddy Keep the reviews coming. 👍🏽
If I wanted what I call a "big" Nak, this would be it! I've learned over the years and have concluded that I'll deal with ONLY DD decks. I've gone through HELLA Naks, they're 💰 pits and have settled for an LX 3, sendust head, and a hotrodded power supply.....I'M 😎!
I bought my ZX-9 in Japan back in the mid-eighties. I believe I only paid $800 then, mainly because the Yen was 250 to the dollar. I pretty much stopped using it when cds came out. It's now in the shop getting a tuneup. I'm looking forward to getting it back and listening to the tapes I made almost 40 years ago.
I’ve owned Nakamichi products and never really impressed by their cassette decks. The only cassette deck I have now is the Denon DN 790R. Outside of it’s stellar specs (20-20khz, 90 db / Dolby S, 3 head, XLR), sound wise it sounds great.
Years ago. a company.made a cassette deck which pulled many inches of tape, clear out of the cassette shell before playing it, in order to avoid any sound degradation caused by the cassette shell itself. The company was Luxman, and there is disagreement whether the cassette deck was just a prototype or released to the public. The shell of things can alter, improve or degrade the sound; it has been proven with phono cartridges. Even headshells, if you've ever tried a wooden one. I wouldn't think of playing a record with the turntables dust cover attatched. As far as cassettes, who knows, as the Luxman was the only player to remove the tape from its shell. A good video would be to do one about what are the holy grails of prerecorded cassettes? We know what many of the LP holy grails are, what about cassette? M&K Real time years ago came out with a series of prerecorded audiophile cassettes. They are as rare in the U.S. as the goose that laid the golden egg. More famous for their direct to disc lps, namely For Duke and Fatha, which currently for minty lp copies, usually get $40 to $75 at auction. There is another vintage M&K direct to disc LP which commonly gets 10 times more than either of those 2 lp's. Does anyone know which LP it is? It's very surprising.
i also think the same and i had still recorded cassettes that at the time were already very good and the ZX-9 sound was more dynaimic than the dragon sound recordings this in 83 or 84
I would very much like to hear one of these machines before I buy hey ok top of the range NAKAMICHI zx9 cassette deck what about choosing headphones and record deck and stylus amplifier to match the NAKAMICHI cassette deck would cost a lot of money to get the very best sound qaulity from you're album collection I'm use Sony headphones to listen to this download cost me just £20.00
Hey guys, I have a question. All my tape players are callibrated, on/by/from the same reference tape. Last week I've got.them back from the repair shop. Now, allot of tapes from my collection are recorded on several unknown players, since I've bought them second hand.. On some of them, even If I whippe them, ( I record nothing ), still I can hear some old recordings. So I want to ask you guys, are there devices ( old time ), which were designed exclusively for this job? I don' care if I delete both channels, I want only my recordings on those tapes. "Original Hiss, but I have Dolby S, still is more pleasant then two, sometimes 3 different songs concomitant/in the same time, to listen.. Thanks for advices.
I had a Denon cassette recorder with Hx pro, if I recorded with Dolby C I basically heard no difference from the original sound on the CD. I probably want as low a noise level as possible. Note I used TDK Chrome tape. worked very well for my Denon
Great review and video, thank you! I own a Dragon and a CR-7 but have always wanted a ZX-9 exactly for this recording azimuth. Now, some people prefer the Nakamichi 1000ZXL, and some also prefer Tandberg 3014 -or even better, the studio versions 910 and 911 (the latter is playback only and has a very robust playback azimuth mechanism). Unfortunately I’ve never heard 1000ZXL or any of those massive Tandbergs.. Any comments or experience would be so much appreciated!
The 1000 ZXL is probably the best deck in the world for recording, mainly due to the extent of the calibration system. I have heard one, and own a 700 ZXL which has essentially the same abilities. The ZX-7/9 are not far off. The wow and flutter of the ZX-9 is better than the ZXLs, in fact. A Dragon transport in a 1000 ZXL would be impossible to beat. The Tandberg 3014A is definitely up there in the same league. There was no perfect deck that did it all for recording AND playback. The Dragon is one of the most well-rounded decks out there, with the NAAC for playback and excellent manual calibration facilities for recording.
@@reeltorock I agree. But after hearing 2 1000 ZXL’s, they will ALWAYS be my favourites. Also the colour of the sound it produces.. But playback of cassette recorded with different decks, the Dragon is in a league of its own!
In an all-out comparison ANADIALOG, how would you rate the Z9 and the Dragon vs the Revox b215? The Revox B215 is a deck I also always wanted as well, which is why I asked. I use to own a Dragon. How do these rate against your Pioneer D-107. I don't think we will ever again see this era of cassette recording ever again. I loved going to hunt down the different types of tapes, which are now on their own very expensive to exploit these great decks. I own a Nakamichi RX-505 and a Sony TC-K690.
Naks where good-trouble is there bias was so off compared to car cassette they were a poor choice // for Home use was finr-I had 1000-nak and had adjust admis all the time
How much trouble we need to take to listen to a music? Nakamachis were only in my dreams. But now, I don't want to touch any of those old formats. I still do love those.
i notice something that might not be the same reason others also do it is recording any cassette in the ZX-9 till 0 point only wich diminish the quality of the recording ,in the manual is explained why to do not use less recording volume than what nakamichi says in it´s manual, regards
I had many cassette including a Nakamichi not as good as this one the problem is the machines are much better than the format I used to record live classical and pop music BBC broadcasts mainly which listening to the replay head when recording was indeed was very close to the original but play it back some weeks or months later lost level and high frequency out put I tried a Sony ELcassete machine and that a totally different world more like a reel machine
the way they refer to do not chase good specifications it´s true but when having two decks with good sound and recording perfect one would choose the better built over the best specications being both good allthough the poorly built as better ones but not enough to notice the diference this talking about the frequency response mainly and other specifications, i stoped using dolby because a good deck delivers no hiss no matter the type of the cassette ,only some original recordings come with hiss those can be recorded with dolby c or s, regards
when it came out the price of the dragon in 82 was around 800 dollars ,i bought one and was the worse experience i had with a cassette deck ,i remenber almost buying the ZX-9 or the ZX-7 but i failed and there were so much better decks at the time but a litle expensier, the mid 70´s model that i don´t remenber the reference ,my father had one and was very good ,well built delivering good recordings and output sound i remenber he send it to repair but already with a lot of years of use and it came new again ,i was using a pioneer and it delivered a very good sound also, i´m not sure but i think it was a ct-1000
I was wondering something. You have out of this world equipment, so maybe you would know. Is it really possible using just 2 front speakers to hear sounds coming from behind you. I kind of doubt that, although on rare occasion it sounded like some instruments were not far from being off to the side of me; but not quite. They say if you play something like Hotline Bling, a track by Drake (whoever he is), that you can distinctly hear sounds way behind you, using only 2 stereo speakers in front of you.. Is this true?
As used prices go up and R2R becomes more popular, cassette tape deck mfgr's will more likely add sophistication. I love cassettes, currently own a Marantz PMD510 purchased new in 2003.
I ask myself, why with the current technology brands don't put themselves at the service of new cassette decks, there is such a fervent demand… I bought a pioneer ct979 and I already missed the cassette is a ritual like the turntable. And by the way I like the way you present and explain things, very natural good work and keep going.
João Marques ,eu tenho o modelo anterior que só difere no tipo de calibração de resto são idênticos ,o CT-959 que tive parado desde 1995 até 2017 quando instalei novas correias, ficou a trabalhar como novo , gravei a primeira cassette uma tdk ma-xg porque no manual diz que o deck vem calibrado para essas cassetes e sem calibrar gravei umas musicas de cd e o som era idêntico ao som de um minidisc que gravei ao mesmo tempo no modelo topo de gama da pioneer(MD-J707 ou parecido) e do cd(um PD-S802) de onde gravei ,isto com um amigo a ouvir que me disse não notar diferença entre as três fontes de som ,a primeira coisa que fez foi comprar um deck de cassetes que não usava desde 1984, pois achava que o som das cassetes era mau, usando um deck que o pai dele comprou anos antes mas com as correias gastas com muita folga. Acerca do gira-discos tenho um SL-1000 MKII da technics com uma agulha nova a MP-300 da nagaoka e um PLC-580 da Pioneer que também mudei recentemente a cartridge e agulha para uma grado gold III prestige pois ambas as antigas agulhas já não se encontram disponíveis para venda e têm um som na minha opinião melhor que maior parte dos cds isto devido ao som das guitarras de albúms antigos convertidos para cd que soam muito abafadas no som do cd normalmente nas frequências médias agudas e médias graves, cumprimentos e um bom ano
João Marques ,era excelente que isso fosse posto na práctica mas temos os decks antigos que já eram muito bons, ainda experimentei um deck pioneer o CT-07 que foi dos últimos que sairam e já tinha um DAC interno que gravava cassetes normais com um tipo de gravação misto pois dizia AD-DA converter na tampa frontal do deck de cassetes.
Dolby B was designed for the KLH reel to reel recorder to reduce hiss. Then used in the Advent Nakimichi, Advent Wollensak, and HK Nakimichi cassette decks. These first NAK decks were mechanically poor. Dolby C and S were later added to further reduce cassette deck tape hiss. Most duplicated commercial tapes were with B. And Advent Chrome tape (III) was really replaced by Type IV. Today, as new tape factory had to be made, as they ran out of tape, it is Type 1 (Maybe Tascam is II). Most IV tapes are new old stock from years ago. New independent music tapes sparking the cassette boom have no noise reduction. New mass produced single roller decks cannot record Dolby tapes. So, your use to record new tapes is unusual. And only IV tapes make audiophile quality recordings. For the Revox/Studer multi motor decks, an Australian company has produced new pinch rollers (Also reel to reel and turntable parts.) Last repair on a regular Nak deck, the small rollers to drive the reels were getting in short supply 5 or more years ago. What about pinch rollers for the Nak decks? Is anyone making Dolby B, C and S calibration tapes? Parts is the big issue when buying these decks at premium prices. Maybe someone is making new Nak parts. But all three companies are long out of the deck business. (Tandberg out of business.) It is unlikely that Dolby decks and IV tapes will revive like vinyl. So, most people need to get a good A to D unit and a good digital recorder to be practical and not waste a couple of $1000 on obsolete decks.
Excelente video, increíble no hay diferencia entre la fuente y la cinta. Tengo un TASCAM 122 MK3, no lo has probado ???? que te parece este Deck. Nakamichi siempre será el mejor entre todos.
Great vid as always but it should be noted ALL Nakamichi 3 head decks have discrete heads and all pre-Sankyo (later era) transports have asymmetrical capstans. Even their cheap decks were very good quality where it counted, sacrificing only features. The 481/482/581/581 then LX-3/LX-5 are among the best recording decks of their day and had the exact same transport as the big boys. They were still expensive, but cheap for a Nakamichi.
Wow!... I can only dream of a deck like this. I am actually impressed with my Kenwood KX-W6020 recording ability though. Happiness is about managing expectations, right? I should have bought a high end deck before they made a comeback. 😂
Dear presenter of the Ana(dia)log, may I ask for your advice ? Do you know the DENON DR-M710 (92-93) and the DENON DR-M24HX (87-88) ? Which one would you choose to buy nowerdays, as they are at least 30 years old ? --- In hifi-wiki you can read, that the 710 is the 3. evolution, which followed the 24HX. The price of the newer 710 was back then 450 DM, half of the 24HX, 900 DM.🙏
Got a Cassette deck 1 and CR7 (when they were unpopular), the CR7 doesn't sound like a typical cassette deck as I knew it, despite having had an Aiwa 770 and an Akai GX95. I think the replay electronics are very well-designed in the CR7. Worth the money if you have enough decent recordings, especially of vinyl. The Cassette deck 1 is more ordinary sounding apart from the azimuth correction.
When we are talking about cassette tape used to record and cassette decks themselves, shouldn't we be saying something about what brand of tape to use and what brand of machine to use if you listen to rock music, or if you happen to listen to classical for instance. For instance people who listen to rock music might be very happy with JBL or Klipsch speakers. I don't think those would be my first choice for classical though. People like myself who listen to both are not that common, and even I listen to one type of music much more than the other. I only used premium recording tape to record; Maxell chrome tape and TDK SA. I never got into using metal tape. There is no less difference between how the 2 different brands of tape sound than the difference between different brands of speakers. On the many cassette decks I've used them with, Maxell definitely has a sound that is obviously centered around a full and meaty/gutsy midrange. TDK is more laid back and the treble is more its forte. Great(est) for Jazz and classical, although its no slouch on anything. Some rock music which has a very accentuated forward midrange, actually takes a welcome step back, recorded on TDK. They both have a very different sound, and the favorite vintage recording tape of some people is actually the type 1 tape Maxell UDXL I. The transparency of the sound on that tape is very special. I usually used type II tapes however. The sound of the tapes will differ somewhat depending on what type deck is used, but I believe its basic character remains. So it's very important that you choose the right tape for what kind of music you listen to. Same thing goes for cassettes decks. For instance if I were a rock music famatic, I would look for a tape deck which best serves that type of music. For instance I would not be looking for a used Aiwa for rock music. A classic Sony model or if you can afford it, a used Tandberg might be more ideal to your liking. I once put a Mercury Living Presence title re-released on cassette on my Aiwa. It didn't sound very much like Living Presence recordings sound. When the Aiwa quit working and I put in a Sony deck, that Living Presence sound that I know from many LP examples I had, was instantly back. The former editor of TAS wrote that the Mercury Living Presence series of LPs were the best examples of recorded sound. All those years I just figured that sound wasn't captured on tape. It was after all, but you have to find the right deck to play it on. Cassette decks can sound very different, just like speakers or anything else. More suited to one kind of music than another.
@@anadialog I have that one too...but mostly TDK, BASF and Maxell...quite a few metal tapes. Never any issues. But thanks for a nice video. I actually have a friend that will sell me the ZX-9 for about 700 euros. But then it needs restoring 🙃👀 But still sound like a good deal compared to the prices you mention 😊
![ANA[DIA]LOG](http://yt3.ggpht.com/50CpmGNilS8aoMlarZVhI_GxRDoZdbj4ZgwCMZXg-Rq2PrEvCytlE6RVyLUrNY-rwE_sAlZ1Zw=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)
I honestly thing that cassette decks and cassettes are the most beautiful components in the hi fi world. This ZX-9 is right at the top !
The same here :-)
Reel to reel is more nicer imo
@@Badassvidsz basically it takes me back to my childhood where I experienced with recordings and mixing which was so much fun and innocent 😇
@@yanivshef
פעם שניה שאני פוגש אותך באותו תחביב ביוטיוב ☺️
אתה מאזור המרכז?
@@itayashkenazy2895 אנחנו כנראה על אותם ערוצים 😁 כן אני מרחובות
Brilliant.....I enjoyed it..... What a device. Super. Definitely one of the best cassette decks they made back then. Greetings from the Netherlands Limburg Maastricht and above all continue with High-end and videos. Peace and love and of course coffee beans.....
✌🏾🌍😘
Thanks Javier!
I will soon have a wonderful opportunity to evaluate the best Pioneer deck with the best Akai deck. And then I'll buy myself a Nakomichi. )) And something tells me that Nakomichi has over-praised everything. Thanks for video! )
I own the mighty Nakamichi ZX-7 (same deck)..and some other awesome Nakamichi's.. ..thanx
wow. forget what I paid for my ZX-9. years ago. nice to know whats its worth. used to Dub tapes for TV playback and copy master tapes. never use it anymore. I'll keep it for now. thx for review.
you are right! the pro/ high-end machines tend to have lower frequency responses/conservative specs than the consumer grade machines, if you notice (especially r2r decks). BUT the sounds from the Pro decks are clearly better. so don't pay much attention to the specs.
Had a ZX-9, which was considered a Dragon Killer.. I blind tested 15 people 30 years ago listening through my old AKG150 Headphones, using the Nak, a Dual 604 turntable with a Shure V5 type3 cartridge and a Technics CD Player. I recorded the album 'White Winds' from Andreas Wollenweider to a metal cassette with dolby C, from vinyl. I also had the same material on CD as well.. Short story: no one was able to hear any difference predictably; including myself! Once calibration is done on a high-end Nak, any cassette's sound is indistinguishable from the original material.
Amen!
I have the little brother of him, the ZX7. Is with me since the 90’s. Probably I am the second owner. Unfortunately, I have a technical problem with him. The blue bowden cable that made the mechanical alignment, is broken. And without this , it is impossible to record. I will try to weld the metalic part and hope this fix the alignment
I have the ZX-7, ZX-9, and a Dragon. The two ZX's sound the same to me, to be honest. However, I find the Dragon has the better bass output. It's far more controlled and coherent compared to the other two. So, I use the ZX's for recording and the Dragon for playback. However, in terms of reliability the Dragon is also the most temperamental.
the dragon seems that they built it with cheap material wich makes it fail at the end of a couple of years this because of the heat that puts out of shape some parts that are related with the playback and recording ,the ZX-7 and the ZX-9 are both excelent decks in my opinion much better than the dragon and allthough they are both very good one can notice the diference between the two if the system is at least with average quality but it´s not a huge diference but a litle better sound on the ZX-9 wich is an improved ZX-7, i Had two Dragons and they did failed both and some years ago i bought the ZX-9 having already the CR-7a wich i found it to the best Nakamichi deck ,excluding the ZXL1000, i also have a Pioneer CT-93 wich surprised me for having a better sound and better built in quality materials , but all are good and the pioneer is around 10 years more modern(excluding the CR-7a) and with more recent developments in terms of playing and recording tapes, there is also the CT-939mkII and the Akai GX-75 or 95(both the same)that sound better than the early 80´s nakamichi decks but nakamichi decks when working good they have a system well engeniered with great quality ,also tried the more recent(90´s) cassette deck 1 wich is a great cassette deck, the more evolved from Nakamichi, regards
I recently got myself a BX-300. It's no ZX-9 but man, its my baby.
Nice!!
The cassette had two merits. You could copy your friend's albums for free and the cassettes you made yourself were easily the best sounding car sound then available. That is all.
In the studio tape is a medium that can be physically manipulated to create unique analog effects. For me this is an additional merit.
unfortunately, the perception of cassette tapes is that they didn't sound that good, but maybe that was because people bought cheap cassette tapes and recorded on . And maybe also cheap cassette recorders or ones that didn't cost that much. the result could be dark sound and noise
They had cassette decks with ability to bias the deck to different cassette tapes as far back as the mid 1970's. There was a Kenwood KX1030 model which had a built in test tone oscillator which was very effective, but it wasn't such a high end feature back then. You could buy the deck new on sale for around $250. I don't see spending big money on cassette decks. They are severely challenged on dynamic range, they sound compressed like FM. They also have a smaller sound than reel decks you can find used for $300 and less. The budget Sony reel to reel deck I had back in the 1980s was an overachiever and easily beat any top of the line cassette deck I compared it to. Yet cassette playback can be very nice. Some music requires dynamics less than others. I have a secret mod for cassettes decks which involves using something from VHS, which improves the transparency and cleanliness on playback to an uncanny degree and opens up the sound much more too. Like your spent $1000 in upgrades, but costs near nothing.
Speaking of VHS, remember that? After a while they started coming out with VHS HIFI VCR's. The low fi stereo vcrs came out first, but when the HIFI versions came out, Audio magazine tested a bunch of them and came to the conclusion that VHS HIFI machines had equivalent sound quality to all but the best reel to reel decks. Better than cassette. Audio magazine did both dubbing experiment comparisons and a microphone recording comparison involving recording the jingling of keys. In stores that sell used stuff, these machines are readily available and common for usually around $20. You can still find sealed VHS recording tape. Further into the 1980s some brands of VHS tapes were advancing in quality so that there was not as much tape dropouts, which resulted in a buzzing sound. VHS tapes are much wider than both cassette and reel to reel. The VHS tapes moves slowly but the unique recording heads spin very fast while recording and playing back, approximating tape speed many times higher. The sound quality of VHS HIFI machines varied some. Buying many brands and comparing is not costly and very interesting. If you know someone who can modify a good VHS HIFI machines output circuitry, you may end up with the sound quality of a multi thousand dollar reel tape machine, with the advantage of much cheaper tape with 6 hours of recording time per tape. Unlike reel to reel where there is immense improvement at higher tape speeds, recording in VHS HIFI makes little difference between the 2 hour and 6 hour speed. Years later you every occasionally get buzzing from dropouts if the tape itself has degraded.
Super video 👌👍🤗
Yes this is a beautiful machine ..if you see one and can afford it buy it ..they are built like tanks ...I look on with my Sony decks ..with deep envy ..sigh..
I suggest to do minimum a second calibration turn for the azimut, after setting the bias. And yes, this deck is really special. I refer to the ZX-7.
it´s a shame that doesn´t come close to pioneer top end decks in any type of comparison ,but i have the ZX-9 also others from nakamichi because if they weren´t built with cheaper plastic they would top all others because of the engeniering quality ,but the brand built them with cheap materials
@@RUfromthe40s I know that in thew USA people prefer the Pioneer Fisher, KENWOOD etc. brand pretty much.
Well, it all is a marketing thing. These days nearly all Japanese audio companies build top of the art audio components to show what they are able to do.
In the end of tape deck era, the machines became more and more integrated designed.
Especially tape decks got advantage of more integrated electronics and inventions.
I think the famous Nakamichis had been the very best at their time.
@@borlibaer they which ,it´s nakamichi crap , i can say it had two dragons and still have a 73 or 4 3 head deck with calibration from my father as a 680ZX(good) a ZX-9 ,a CR-7a and maybe the best , the cassette deck 1 ,having bought in early 80´s a Dragon and in early 90´s another(i was told it was improved, but nothing but the same crap )also my father before he passed away from an hOSPITAL ERROR BEING 92 AND FULL OF LIFE ,he bought the golden edition of the 1000ZXL ,my CT-93 from Pioneer after several tests my father couldn´t believe how much better the pioneer was in every senses, as an example the also pioneer CT-F1250 from 1979 is far better than all the decks i refered before, and they were cheaply built and cheaper decks compared to a Pioneer , Akai or even Kenwood (also one of the best brands in cassette decks but forfoten since the 70´s) as TEAC/Tascam is too
@@RUfromthe40s interesting! Think Pioneer also had some intersting R2R machines these days.
So, how about those new decks from a major manufacturer that a little birdie told you about?
Still waiting...I updated the information in a recent video: ua-cam.com/video/63CU_Fzv1jk/v-deo.html
Tape and source sounded the same to me. I have a question about fixing cassette decks though. Can someone direct me to a proper forum where I can list problems and get solutions for Technical/Electrical problems for working on cassette decks.?
IMO Tapeheads is one of the best: www.tapeheads.net
My dad called it the dragon slayer it sounded epic
thanks for this video, Guido! I have a Zx7, I think the same, except for the direct transmission! can I ask at what level-volume was the source of your recording? 3/4 ?
Almost the same if you watch the video, peaking at 3
I have a question sir, which one is better for record a cassette? using high end tape deck or a compo(e.g. LG MDD64). I assumed that since compo is fully digital it better than using high end tape deck
teac z 7000 the best of forever i Teac Z 6000 and Revox b215s
if it's from 1982, it probably doesn't have things like HX pro or Dolby S. Because they came later
I wonder how this compares with the much more expensive Nakamichi Dragon
I have both. For me the Dragon is better in playback, while the ZX9 is better for recording.
1 to 1 recording imho
Hifi engine has wow and flutter at .045%
And they didn't put the glass in because the first produced models OVERHEATED And they yanked the cover out so it would cool
IO HO ILCR7 COMPRATO NUOVO E NE SONO INNAMORATO NON LO VENDERO MAI ,LA QUALITA DEL SUONO? MIGLIORE DEL CD DEL QUALE NON NE AVEVAMO BISOGNO, FA DELLE COPIE DEI VINILI FANTASTICHE,IN OGNI IMPIANTO HIFI CHE SI RISPETTI DEVE TROVARE POSTO UN DECK "OVVIAMENTE NAKAMICHI".
Grande! Il CR7 è lassù nell'olimpo!
funny it has such relatively crummy meters....
Love the way you mispronounce apex ! 😂
Sorry about that! As you probably know I am mainly Italian so I do several mistakes 🙈
You don’t pronounce apex like that it’s “ A-PEX”
I'm Italian so I mispronounce several words, sorry about that.
I had one of these back in the 80's! Nakamichi is the ultimate cassette machine. Honestly, the ZX-9 to me sounds better than most modern digital recordings. Great trip down memory lane!
agreed ,either than the B-215 from revox this is my favorite deck but only bought it in late 90´s after having bought a 82 Dragon(should had bought earlier the ZX-9) and a 93 Dragon(should have bought the cassette deck 1 ), both DRAGONS were garbage(fantastic engeniering, built from the cheapest materials they had at the time) but profitable, i should had bought 20 of them ,but one doesn´t guess that in a period of 20 to 30 years the all world makes the same error again, don´t get me wrong it was a great deck but in two years of heavy use i started to notice problems, big ones. While my first good cassette deck a CT-F1000 from pioneer bought in 76 is still working great with minimal maintenance, maybe because at the time i only listened to cassettes in the car , at home ,reels . but the best decks are in my opinion the Pioneer CT-93 and the Akai GX-95(or 75) also the Denon DR-M34HX, only my opinion
Hi Guido, which cinch cables you can suggest for nakamichi? I have a cr4, thanks
Ciao Enrico, if you know me the answer is only one: OCC copper (or Silver, better) cables, with teflon insulation and quality connectors. Probably gold because of oxide or silver (oxide is conductive). I did several videos on DIY (cheap and effective: ua-cam.com/video/u3EPL6hI_H4/v-deo.html) and shelf products: ua-cam.com/video/K5tFrlCvn3o/v-deo.html If you want the best at a decent price, go Neotech like the NEi 3001 III (copper) or NEI 1001 (silver). Some sell these ready to use or you can do them starting with bulk cable.
NAKA AZ NAKA minden féle tekintetben !!!! + sárkány !!!!
thanks for the video. I am 56 years old and grew up with cassette recorders. This technique fascinates me again. So I got an old Kenwwod KX 7030 and repaired it again.
In the digital age, a recorder makes little sense, but it's a lot of fun. I now have several recorders that I will repair again. I recently found an old tape that I recorded 35 years ago. It still works. Greetings from a fan from Northern Germany.
I think analogue recording makes sense even in the digital age, by offering warmer and nicer sound. Copying LP to tape, or Master tape to another tape (although very expensive to find Master tape) are just a few examples. But many argue that even digital source sounds nicer once recorded on a tape. So, good luck with repairing your gear, it makes a lot of sense to do it!
@@melancholiehypochonder7905 40 Geräte ist ja eine tolle Sammlung. Ich muss mich mittlerweile bremmsen, sonst bekomme ich Ärger mit meiner Frau ;-)
Keep it up! If you record you understand and appreachiate more sound and music.
@@alexeizhiltsov6797 "Warmer" and nicer depends of the equipment used, the source media, the soundsystem you use and finally your room (+ your preferences of course!). You can prefer a "coloured" sound wich is a sum of each component distortion: You can indeed prefer the "analog fingerprint", it's like saying i prefer equalizer curve "A" over curve "B". All i can say is that technically speaking, the digital format is a much better format. You could be surprised to choose a good DAC over a turntable... or not! Sound is a bit of a cult and that's ok! But hey, we're all here for the pleasure of listening to music, whatever the way you do it!
@@jorgjanssen9973 audiophile and musician, or only audiophile?
I'd say it's an outstanding cassette deck. The playback sounded excellent to me.
Loved the smell of new cassette tapes.
i agree the zx9 is a very great cassette player i remb Crutchfield magazine displaying this model The engeenering is truely a piece of artwork
( Thanks for the video share love the content )
What does a cassette deck say BEFORE.......And then AFTER Dolby noise reduction? Librarians and safe crackers have been known to say this also. For the answer scroll down and turn your phone right side up.
Shhh.......Quiet.
And I said right side up.
This is really cool! Something I can relate to! I was fortunate enough to spend time with a Nakamichi expert who services and rebuilds the decks. So I heard a CR-7, ZX-7, ZX-9, Dragon, my 682ZX, 1000 ZXL and 700 ZXL side by side. And yes, it absolutely depends on your preference, but for me the 1000 ZXL was the real winner. But it's VERY expensive (and big). The ZX-9 and ZX-7 were about equal sound wise for me and about as good as a 700 ZXL (the ZXL's are VERY hard to set up, but when they fire on all cilinders, WOW!). The CR-7 is technically perhaps better than the ZX, but it sounded more like a CD. Which is... boring? But still VERY good! My 682ZX was technically the least impressive (still top 15 of all time I think), but it's slightly warmer and looks really nice. I love it! The one I liked the least was the Dragon. More like the CR-7 but really not as good. And when the Dragon head wears out, that's it, no more replacements. But for the others, much less of an issue.. Also, the ZX-9 is very much like the 682ZX of a year before, but it adds the azimuth (very cool), and on the 682ZX the bias is automatic, the 400 Hz manual with screws on the front. The knobs on the ZX-9 are definitely an improvement! My dream would be a 1000 ZXL, 700 ZXL or ZX-9/7, but I'd have to win the lottery ;) Still, I recorded Blank & Jones - Relax (Edition One) which is ever so slightly bright on top on a Sony Metal-XR (used) cassette and played both the CD via my dCS Delius DAC and the 682ZX for a bunch of people, and most of them preferred the cassette! They just didn't believe it WAS a cassette. Couldn't have been, they said... I love cassettes! And I still love this channel!
I agree that the 1000 ZXL is in a league of its own. I have a serviced 700 ZXL and it is very close. The friend I bought mine from also has an overhauled 1000 ZXL and he could not tell a difference between their recordings. I worked on his ZX-9 and it is a special machine. Very tough to find a supply capstan slave belt with the right tolerances to work properly on it though, mainly due to the crowned brass pulley on the supply capstan.
Note that the 682ZX also has record azimuth adjustment, although it is automatic rather than manual like the ZX-7/9.
@@reeltorock Funny that. We experience the same thing. How close the 700ZXL got to the 1000ZXL. And I personally like the look of the 700 better.. It’s I remember correctly, the 700 did 8 measurements to auto calibrate, but the 1000 supposedly did over 30. That’s why they are so hard to set up the expert said. We couldn’t hear a difference on type iv, but with type i, we sure did. The crappier the tape, the more the 1000ZXL seemed to shine!
@@erwindewit4073the 1000 ZXL did auto tape type recognition, whereas the 700 ZXL was manual. AFAIK the calibration process besides that was almost identical. I agree that both decks can do magic with mediocre tape. I ran duplicator SA through my 700 ZXL recently and the results were astounding. When these machines are restored to factory operation, they are truly incredible. That is a part of the opinion of high end Naks that is not always well understood. They have to be properly overhauled to make the objective opinion actually like-for-like.
Thanks for this! I think your classification is rather correct. We must keep in mind that the condition of a deck is always different. So for example your first audition of a Dragon was nothing special becasue of a worn out head or capacitors etc. For a true idea (which I don't have eaither) you really need to listen to various decks of teh same model. This is just a suggestion. Thanks for you interesting input. I would have loved a pic of the faces of the guys when you revealed it was a cassette! ;-)
@@reeltorock Yep, the expert told me it cost 1500 euros to recap and setup (including cleaning the mechanism of course) as it takes him a full month of work (part time, he’s a database man during the day). The 682ZX ‘only’ took him 1,5 weeks..
I never had ZX-9 , have ZX-7 , but my technician , who deals with Nakamichis all the time does not see any difference, performance wise , yes ZX-9 Super Tuned , has direct drive and on a paper has better Wow Flutter & Distortion by 0.000 something ( if I remember right) , it is more for Super demanding fellows ) with big buck)
ZX-7 to me has clear analog curly sound , CR-7 has indeed CD like beautiful closer to 90ies sound , 🐉 🐲 Dragon to me is a Referee , it sounds something on the middle between ZX-7 and CR-7, both three decks , different sounding, I love them three , can not choose my favourite )
660zx/670zx/680zx another Beautiful machines, identical sounding , Very powerful HIgh /Low frequencies, Very detailed very Beautiful as well
682ZX and little bro 681ZX is another 💎 gem , Dolby C added along with 15kHz Calibration Tone . Sound to me bit different from 6×0 ZX series,
682 ZX to me very musical and sounds like something between ZX-7 and 6x0ZX series Excellent both Recorder & Player , and think 🤔 this is 682 ZX Superior Nakamichi deck in my possession .
Does it mean that I don't like my other Nakamichi decks?
No . I like them all )
I totally agree with your comment nicely said
I have always dreamed of owning one of these ZX-9's. I cannot afford one to add to my fleet of tape decks, yet.... anyway. Someday maybe. Hopefully they are not $10,000 by then. I do worry about finding one in the future that has low head wear. I really wish someone had a huge stock of NOS Nak heads for these. They could last forever if you had a couple of spare head sets to put in them. Anyway thanks for close up look at this wonderful instrument. It truly is a treasure. Thanks.
the result is very good, if you have an opportunity to do it for other music genre it will be nice. thanks for this video
I need a better job because in my universe paying 3 grand for a cassette recorder is crazy.
The best deck is Cr-4! Because it's mine! :-)))
Hello from Brazil!!! Could you tell me, why does nakamichi use different names for types of cassettes and the correspondence with standers types? Thank you!!!!
Just a different way to call them also because they used their own cassettes that had those names.
i bought a Ferrograh Logic 7 Reel to Reel Deck in 1978 over the Revox B77 because of the sonics the Ferrograph just sounded better in hiendsite i should have bought the Revox because 2 years later Ferrograph went bust and when the heads wore out i could not get them replaced but you can always get spares for Revox because they made so many, i also have the Revox B215 Cassett and it is also a 4 motor Direct Drive and it sounds great
I would love to see a comparison between multiple Nakamichi decks. I have been tempted by the dragon, zx9 and the RX 505 .
While the RX-505 does have the "cool factor" of the unidirectional auto reverse, it is otherwise basically an upside-down LX-5. A good performer in its own right, but the ZX-7/9 are on another level for recording. The Dragon is tough to beat for playback versatility.
@@reeltorock You are re-enforcing my point, which is:
It would be great to have a vid comparing multiple Nakamichi decks(instead of the usual vids covering only one deck at a time). It would be a great resource for analogue fans.
@@MrAustrokiwi it will take a long time as many of my decks need recapping and general service, but I own most of the top Naks and will make that comparison one day.
Taking notes!
@@reeltorock of all the Dragon is the worst , i had two ,the first was badly built ,cheap materials then the 90´s arrive i´m buying a new system and a friends says ,did you tried the dragon?yes it´s a very bad cassette deck but then he says try a new one and so i tried and they do work perfect when new and he tells me that in all this years they were improved but again after 3 years of heavy use i sold it before it stoped working and with some money more i went to the Pioneer CT-959 ,perfect .
Returning to nakamichi i do prefer the ZX-9 or the RX-505 or even maybe the best CR-7a ,what surprised the most was the minimal(this regarding cassette decks was the Cassette Deck 1,this last 3 the ones i own but last week a friend of mine knowing that i was restoring old decks and using again cassettes he ofered me a BX-2, it works but i still never heard it ,simple maybe a good deck ,not comparable with the others except the Dragon ,for sure it´s better because of it´s simplicity
I got a 680zx
I like the independent left / right level control... Much better the a single balance control... Very nice deck indeed...
Merci pour cette superbe vidéo explicative comme toujours, j'ai encore appris beaucoup de chose !!!!😊😊😊
Grazie molto grazie !!
Luxman 5K50 my current deck,
@27:35 I hear no fluttering? Does it have the motor directly into the flywheel without any belts?
From what I understand, yes, direct drive.
Just for fun, i would try a blind test with you! I'd bring a good quality pro DAC (like an RME ADI2DACFS) and record one of your reference record! You would then use this very beautiful NAK tape deck (i love it!) and record the same reference record. We would do a blind A/B comparison between the NAC and the DAC: There would probably be a slight difference but i'm really not sure what signal you would choose! And maybe you wouldn't ear the difference between the 2!
Just to be clear, i'm not here to say that you're wrong or right using analog equipment. In my case, i'm a long time audiophile, DJ and Electrical Engineer. I've done live sound mixing, analog conversion of majority of my best vinyl records. I've done pro and audiophile speaker design. I've design pro and audiophile electronic crossovers. I've listened to many very high end soundsystem (at the Montreal Audiofest!). We're all here for the same: Pleasure! Analog has definitely a "fingerprint" that you can like... or not! In my case, analog sources are out of my life since at least 15 years. I still have my Dual CS-5000 turntable. I sold my Harman/Kardon TD4600 long time ago (when i started to record my vinyls with my pro soundcard). The digital format is much better technically speaking and the resulting sound quality is a function of the quality of the DAC you use to bring the digital information into the analog domain (like they've done for vinyl). But digital (as analog!) can be done right or wrong. As imperfect vinyl / analog can be, you can obviously prefer this type of sound and it's perfectly OK, it doesn't prove/disprove anything!
People are most of the time misunderstanding the way digital works and often have in their minds "the staircase loosing information" idea, which is not true! The vinyl, for example, is an analog / physical storage media. Channel separation is much lower than with digital, dynamic is much lesser, noise and distortion is much higher, there is RIAA circuit error and distortion and you put on top of that degradation which is inevitable. I still love the big 12" physical jacket you can take in your hand and see the artwork, but i use a server containing all my music (terabyte of flac!) : It is so convenient and quality is always the same whatever the number of time i listen to a track! But, as with analog, i have very high quality digital files and very low ones too.
Conclusion: I'm not questioning your analog preference, i'm just curious what you would think of a properly done digital recording session and playback! Analog is a bit of a "cult" and i hear so many false claims and plain wrong explanations on the net, all i'm saying is you could be surprised and "reconciliate" with digital! Majority or recordings in studio are done in digital and transfer to analog for vinyl at the end of the mixing process. So majority of time, the vinyls you like has been on the digital domain at its origin! So the idea is to use high quality DAC when listening. And for very high end soundsystem (as for analog), matching components for your preferences and your listening room. Don't forget that from source, every components has its own transfer function that accumulate along the signal path until it reach your ears! And the room is a big transfer function by itself! Think of it as a cascade of equalizers in series with different curves, each one attenuate/boost certain frequencies in the signal.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_function
So, in a perfect world, every components wouldn't add anything to the signal and we would listen to the original unaltered studio mixing.
Happy listening to everybody and thanks for this good video!
I love properly masterd digital, which unfortunately it's 10% of all released music. I have thousands of cds and other digital hogh-res media. You probably don't know my channel but I am probably the most open person in this sense. No cult. BUT, at the top of my experience and the high-end analog AND digital gear that I have owned during time, analog almost always the winner. The engagement is so intense that I can't ignore it. This happens also with digital, but only vary rarely.
@@anadialog I get you. You prefer analog and you see something in it. You say 10% digital is mastered properly, i'd say it's really not better on the analog side!!! And we know that at the source, 95%+ of the recording / mastering / mixing is done in digital domain. Phrases like "it deserves analog" is sounding a bit like a cult, do you agree? I'd say more simply "it deserves competency, knowledge and quality hardware". Very easy to end up with bad recordings, analog or digital!
Great video really enjoyed this one I have an Akai GX-R88 which is also quite a lovely deck for recording and playback. The difference between the source and the tape is very close so this is obviously a quality tape deck congratulations man.😁🎧👍
Thanks! With a metal tape it's indistinguishable. Notice that I did not use simple electronic music, that's easy. A piano, is always revealing.
@@anadialog absolutely!!!!! and I did notice your music selection.🎧👍🙂
Akai 3 heads 3 motors direct drive dual capstan and GX heads
Very good recording
Auto selection of type of cassette
Best frequency response
Thanks for the video. I love Sony tc-k 970 es especially in recording it develops fantastic quality of sound. For playback I use TEAC-V7000.
Nice!!
Another great demo. I like you cover the ZX-9 & what it has to offer to those who are using cassettes as playback & recording, & those who would be interested in getting into the format. I recalled be station in Germany & the Nakamichi products were in the Base Exchange BX & even then they were expensive. My dream Cassette deck was the Dragon, boy I would salivate over that thing; nevertheless, @ $1,500.00 that was a bunch to spend on a cassette deck in the 1980’s. I settle with the Harman Kardon CD 491 which was half the price & a fairly nice deck. Fast forward to today to your post & I’m pretty upset with you, now you have me wondering, what if? 🤣😂 I be pondering 🤔 my dreams of the Nakamichi Dragon all over again. Thanks Buddy
Keep the reviews coming. 👍🏽
After you calibrate the side A tape, do you calibrate and adjust the azimuth again when you flip the cassette on side B to do more recordings?
Good question. You should recalibrate azimuth. Not the rest.
@@anadialogThank you!
ZX was also the metal version of their blank cassettes
👋 HELLO GUIDO…GREAT REVIEW 👍🤗😍😍😍
this was my prefered deck when new ,but when i tried the CR-7 i saw it as a evolution of it .Both good decks
If I wanted what I call a "big" Nak, this would be it! I've learned over the years and have concluded that I'll deal with ONLY DD decks. I've gone through HELLA Naks, they're 💰 pits and have settled for an LX 3, sendust head, and a hotrodded power supply.....I'M 😎!
They ask more then 3000 euro for second hand ones.
I bought my ZX-9 in Japan back in the mid-eighties. I believe I only paid $800 then, mainly because the Yen was 250 to the dollar. I pretty much stopped using it when cds came out. It's now in the shop getting a tuneup. I'm looking forward to getting it back and listening to the tapes I made almost 40 years ago.
I’ve owned Nakamichi products and never really impressed by their cassette decks. The only cassette deck I have now is the Denon DN 790R. Outside of it’s stellar specs (20-20khz, 90 db / Dolby S, 3 head, XLR), sound wise it sounds great.
Saludos desde Lambayeque Perú
Years ago. a company.made a cassette deck which pulled many inches of tape, clear out of the cassette shell before playing it, in order to avoid any sound degradation caused by the cassette shell itself. The company was Luxman, and there is disagreement whether the cassette deck was just a prototype or released to the public. The shell of things can alter, improve or degrade the sound; it has been proven with phono cartridges. Even headshells, if you've ever tried a wooden one. I wouldn't think of playing a record with the turntables dust cover attatched. As far as cassettes, who knows, as the Luxman was the only player to remove the tape from its shell.
A good video would be to do one about what are the holy grails of prerecorded cassettes? We know what many of the LP holy grails are, what about cassette? M&K Real time years ago came out with a series of prerecorded audiophile cassettes. They are as rare in the U.S. as the goose that laid the golden egg. More famous for their direct to disc lps, namely For Duke and Fatha, which currently for minty lp copies, usually get $40 to $75 at auction. There is another vintage M&K direct to disc LP which commonly gets 10 times more than either of those 2 lp's. Does anyone know which LP it is? It's very surprising.
I did a video on audiophile prerecorded cassette. Right here: ua-cam.com/video/MpL6zeDbss4/v-deo.html
Excellent video ! ZX9 is very sexy but ZX7 sounds better - more coloured than ZX9 but also more analog. For recording both beat a Dragon 😄
i also think the same and i had still recorded cassettes that at the time were already very good and the ZX-9 sound was more dynaimic than the dragon sound recordings this in 83 or 84
I would very much like to hear one of these machines before I buy hey ok top of the range NAKAMICHI zx9 cassette deck what about choosing headphones and record deck and stylus amplifier to match the NAKAMICHI cassette deck would cost a lot of money to get the very best sound qaulity from you're album collection I'm use Sony headphones to listen to this download cost me just £20.00
As soon as it's about cassettes or RtR, in short about things with mahnetic tape, I put a thumb up. I love that so much!
🙂
Hey guys, I have a question. All my tape players are callibrated, on/by/from the same reference tape. Last week I've got.them back from the repair shop. Now, allot of tapes from my collection are recorded on several unknown players, since I've bought them second hand.. On some of them, even If I whippe them, ( I record nothing ), still I can hear some old recordings. So I want to ask you guys, are there devices ( old time ), which were designed exclusively for this job? I don' care if I delete both channels, I want only my recordings on those tapes. "Original Hiss, but I have Dolby S, still is more pleasant then two, sometimes 3 different songs concomitant/in the same time, to listen.. Thanks for advices.
I had a Denon cassette recorder with Hx pro, if I recorded with Dolby C I basically heard no difference from the original sound on the CD. I probably want as low a noise level as possible. Note I used TDK Chrome tape. worked very well for my Denon
Great review and video, thank you!
I own a Dragon and a CR-7 but have always wanted a ZX-9 exactly for this recording azimuth.
Now, some people prefer the Nakamichi 1000ZXL, and some also prefer Tandberg 3014 -or even better, the studio versions 910 and 911 (the latter is playback only and has a very robust playback azimuth mechanism). Unfortunately I’ve never heard 1000ZXL or any of those massive Tandbergs..
Any comments or experience would be so much appreciated!
The 1000 ZXL is probably the best deck in the world for recording, mainly due to the extent of the calibration system. I have heard one, and own a 700 ZXL which has essentially the same abilities. The ZX-7/9 are not far off. The wow and flutter of the ZX-9 is better than the ZXLs, in fact. A Dragon transport in a 1000 ZXL would be impossible to beat. The Tandberg 3014A is definitely up there in the same league. There was no perfect deck that did it all for recording AND playback. The Dragon is one of the most well-rounded decks out there, with the NAAC for playback and excellent manual calibration facilities for recording.
@@reeltorock I agree. But after hearing 2 1000 ZXL’s, they will ALWAYS be my favourites. Also the colour of the sound it produces.. But playback of cassette recorded with different decks, the Dragon is in a league of its own!
In an all-out comparison ANADIALOG, how would you rate the Z9 and the Dragon vs the Revox b215? The Revox B215 is a deck I also always wanted as well, which is why I asked. I use to own a Dragon. How do these rate against your Pioneer D-107. I don't think we will ever again see this era of cassette recording ever again. I loved going to hunt down the different types of tapes, which are now on their own very expensive to exploit these great decks. I own a Nakamichi RX-505 and a Sony TC-K690.
Naks where good-trouble is there bias was so off compared to car cassette they were a poor choice // for Home use was finr-I had 1000-nak and had adjust admis all the time
If the cassette revival gets big enough they will start making advanced cassette decks and tapes again like the Techniques series 1200 turntables.
SL series, or not ,1200 was only the reference for the professional record player on the SL series ,there´s the better SP on technics 70´s turntables
How much trouble we need to take to listen to a music? Nakamachis were only in my dreams. But now, I don't want to touch any of those old formats. I still do love those.
i notice something that might not be the same reason others also do it is recording any cassette in the ZX-9 till 0 point only wich diminish the quality of the recording ,in the manual is explained why to do not use less recording volume than what nakamichi says in it´s manual, regards
Hola, tengo technics con ATC y soluciona todo tipo de calibraciones. Saludos
I had many cassette including a Nakamichi not as good as this one the problem is the machines are much better than the format I used to record live classical and pop music BBC broadcasts mainly which listening to the replay head when recording was indeed was very close to the original but play it back some weeks or months later lost level and high frequency out put I tried a Sony ELcassete machine and that a totally different world more like a reel machine
the way they refer to do not chase good specifications it´s true but when having two decks with good sound and recording perfect one would choose the better built over the best specications being both good allthough the poorly built as better ones but not enough to notice the diference this talking about the frequency response mainly and other specifications, i stoped using dolby because a good deck delivers no hiss no matter the type of the cassette ,only some original recordings come with hiss those can be recorded with dolby c or s, regards
when it came out the price of the dragon in 82 was around 800 dollars ,i bought one and was the worse experience i had with a cassette deck ,i remenber almost buying the ZX-9 or the ZX-7 but i failed and there were so much better decks at the time but a litle expensier, the mid 70´s model that i don´t remenber the reference ,my father had one and was very good ,well built delivering good recordings and output sound i remenber he send it to repair but already with a lot of years of use and it came new again ,i was using a pioneer and it delivered a very good sound also, i´m not sure but i think it was a ct-1000
CT-F1000 ,to be acurate
I was wondering something. You have out of this world equipment, so maybe you would know. Is it really possible using just 2 front speakers to hear sounds coming from behind you. I kind of doubt that, although on rare occasion it sounded like some instruments were not far from being off to the side of me; but not quite. They say if you play something like Hotline Bling, a track by Drake (whoever he is), that you can distinctly hear sounds way behind you, using only 2 stereo speakers in front of you.. Is this true?
As used prices go up and R2R becomes more popular, cassette tape deck mfgr's will more likely add sophistication. I love cassettes, currently own a Marantz PMD510 purchased new in 2003.
Have I missed something. A source from your phone....ummm!
Well, Nakamichi CR-7 is a two level higher then zx 9, i can tell for sure
How’s the playback sound vs the 680 series?
I ask myself, why with the current technology brands don't put themselves at the service of new cassette decks, there is such a fervent demand… I bought a pioneer ct979 and I already missed the cassette is a ritual like the turntable. And by the way I like the way you present and explain things, very natural good work and keep going.
João Marques ,eu tenho o modelo anterior que só difere no tipo de calibração de resto são idênticos ,o CT-959 que tive parado desde 1995 até 2017 quando instalei novas correias, ficou a trabalhar como novo , gravei a primeira cassette uma tdk ma-xg porque no manual diz que o deck vem calibrado para essas cassetes e sem calibrar gravei umas musicas de cd e o som era idêntico ao som de um minidisc que gravei ao mesmo tempo no modelo topo de gama da pioneer(MD-J707 ou parecido) e do cd(um PD-S802) de onde gravei ,isto com um amigo a ouvir que me disse não notar diferença entre as três fontes de som ,a primeira coisa que fez foi comprar um deck de cassetes que não usava desde 1984, pois achava que o som das cassetes era mau, usando um deck que o pai dele comprou anos antes mas com as correias gastas com muita folga. Acerca do gira-discos tenho um SL-1000 MKII da technics com uma agulha nova a MP-300 da nagaoka e um PLC-580 da Pioneer que também mudei recentemente a cartridge e agulha para uma grado gold III prestige pois ambas as antigas agulhas já não se encontram disponíveis para venda e têm um som na minha opinião melhor que maior parte dos cds isto devido ao som das guitarras de albúms antigos convertidos para cd que soam muito abafadas no som do cd normalmente nas frequências médias agudas e médias graves, cumprimentos e um bom ano
João Marques ,era excelente que isso fosse posto na práctica mas temos os decks antigos que já eram muito bons, ainda experimentei um deck pioneer o CT-07 que foi dos últimos que sairam e já tinha um DAC interno que gravava cassetes normais com um tipo de gravação misto pois dizia AD-DA converter na tampa frontal do deck de cassetes.
Absolutely loved this video from start to finish!
Thx!
I'm 77 yrs & I truly miss the pencil ✏️ and thr Cassette. I'm a Dolby fan.
Dolby B was designed for the KLH reel to reel recorder to reduce hiss. Then used in the Advent Nakimichi, Advent Wollensak, and HK Nakimichi cassette decks. These first NAK decks were mechanically poor. Dolby C and S were later added to further reduce cassette deck tape hiss. Most duplicated commercial tapes were with B. And Advent Chrome tape (III) was really replaced by Type IV. Today, as new tape factory had to be made, as they ran out of tape, it is Type 1 (Maybe Tascam is II). Most IV tapes are new old stock from years ago.
New independent music tapes sparking the cassette boom have no noise reduction. New mass produced single roller decks cannot record Dolby tapes. So, your use to record new tapes is unusual. And only IV tapes make audiophile quality recordings. For the Revox/Studer multi motor decks, an Australian company has produced new pinch rollers (Also reel to reel and turntable parts.) Last repair on a regular Nak deck, the small rollers to drive the reels were getting in short supply 5 or more years ago. What about pinch rollers for the Nak decks? Is anyone making Dolby B, C and S calibration tapes? Parts is the big issue when buying these decks at premium prices. Maybe someone is making new Nak parts. But all three companies are long out of the deck business. (Tandberg out of business.) It is unlikely that Dolby decks and IV tapes will revive like vinyl. So, most people need to get a good A to D unit and a good digital recorder to be practical and not waste a couple of $1000 on obsolete decks.
Hey dear Guido i think you know me .. i'm a cassette & cassette deck lover how could i not to love this cassette deck ,,, Great video as always :-)
Nick! Of course I know who you are. You are a long time subscriber! THX for all your input and comments!
@@anadialog My pleasure dear Guido you deserve it anyway :-)
Excelente video, increíble no hay diferencia entre la fuente y la cinta. Tengo un TASCAM 122 MK3, no lo has probado ???? que te parece este Deck. Nakamichi siempre será el mejor entre todos.
Great vid as always but it should be noted ALL Nakamichi 3 head decks have discrete heads and all pre-Sankyo (later era) transports have asymmetrical capstans. Even their cheap decks were very good quality where it counted, sacrificing only features. The 481/482/581/581 then LX-3/LX-5 are among the best recording decks of their day and had the exact same transport as the big boys. They were still expensive, but cheap for a Nakamichi.
Wow!... I can only dream of a deck like this. I am actually impressed with my Kenwood KX-W6020 recording ability though. Happiness is about managing expectations, right? I should have bought a high end deck before they made a comeback. 😂
Nice! Absolutely yes!👍🏻
Dear presenter of the Ana(dia)log, may I ask for your advice ?
Do you know the DENON DR-M710 (92-93) and the DENON DR-M24HX (87-88) ? Which one would you choose to buy nowerdays, as they are at least 30 years old ? --- In hifi-wiki you can read, that the 710 is the 3. evolution, which followed the 24HX.
The price of the newer 710 was back then 450 DM, half of the 24HX, 900 DM.🙏
The former has better frequency response!
Got a Cassette deck 1 and CR7 (when they were unpopular), the CR7 doesn't sound like a typical cassette deck as I knew it, despite having had an Aiwa 770 and an Akai GX95. I think the replay electronics are very well-designed in the CR7. Worth the money if you have enough decent recordings, especially of vinyl. The Cassette deck 1 is more ordinary sounding apart from the azimuth correction.
Throughly enjoyed the post. Wow amazing peace of Equipment.
When we are talking about cassette tape used to record and cassette decks themselves, shouldn't we be saying something about what brand of tape to use and what brand of machine to use if you listen to rock music, or if you happen to listen to classical for instance. For instance people who listen to rock music might be very happy with JBL or Klipsch speakers. I don't think those would be my first choice for classical though. People like myself who listen to both are not that common, and even I listen to one type of music much more than the other. I only used premium recording tape to record; Maxell chrome tape and TDK SA. I never got into using metal tape. There is no less difference between how the 2 different brands of tape sound than the difference between different brands of speakers. On the many cassette decks I've used them with, Maxell definitely has a sound that is obviously centered around a full and meaty/gutsy midrange. TDK is more laid back and the treble is more its forte. Great(est) for Jazz and classical, although its no slouch on anything. Some rock music which has a very accentuated forward midrange, actually takes a welcome step back, recorded on TDK. They both have a very different sound, and the favorite vintage recording tape of some people is actually the type 1 tape Maxell UDXL I. The transparency of the sound on that tape is very special. I usually used type II tapes however. The sound of the tapes will differ somewhat depending on what type deck is used, but I believe its basic character remains. So it's very important that you choose the right tape for what kind of music you listen to.
Same thing goes for cassettes decks. For instance if I were a rock music famatic, I would look for a tape deck which best serves that type of music. For instance I would not be looking for a used Aiwa for rock music. A classic Sony model or if you can afford it, a used Tandberg might be more ideal to your liking. I once put a Mercury Living Presence title re-released on cassette on my Aiwa. It didn't sound very much like Living Presence recordings sound. When the Aiwa quit working and I put in a Sony deck, that Living Presence sound that I know from many LP examples I had, was instantly back. The former editor of TAS wrote that the Mercury Living Presence series of LPs were the best examples of recorded sound. All those years I just figured that sound wasn't captured on tape. It was after all, but you have to find the right deck to play it on. Cassette decks can sound very different, just like speakers or anything else. More suited to one kind of music than another.
I can agree for tapes but for decks I actually don't notice this issue.
I have 15 decks...mostly Onkyo and Denon. All of them erases metal tape just fine....strange rumour....
The problem is the tape, some metal formulas are extreme coercivity. For instance my TDK MA-R is very hard to erase.
@@anadialog I have that one too...but mostly TDK, BASF and Maxell...quite a few metal tapes. Never any issues. But thanks for a nice video.
I actually have a friend that will sell me the ZX-9 for about 700 euros.
But then it needs restoring 🙃👀
But still sound like a good deal compared to the prices you mention 😊
Thanks for this another excellent video! Are you using any fancy interconnects with this deck? Thanks again. Kind regards
My always, occ copper with teflon insulation, regardless the brand. I did several videos on this topic. ;-)
@@anadialog Thank you! Will search for those videos.
Zed X 9 not zee X 9 ,lol , awesome deck however, one of the best.
I am mainly Italian so I make several mistakes but I think you can pronounce the Z letter in both ways…