Enter the DRAGON!!!

nooshinjohn

I can grab a mint condition Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck. I do not know much about cassette decks and nothing about the dragon in particular. What are the opinions about this animal? Any and all opinions are welcome.:cool:

heiney9

Probably the best tape deck ever made. I had one back in the '80's and it retailed then for $2995. Even well kept examples due to age need some attention and that attention isn;t cheap and parts are scarce. If it hasn't been gone thru recently plan on having it gone thru shortly. It's like an old auto even if it just sits with no miles it needs attention.

Is this just a toy or are you seriously thinking about getting into recording. I enjoyed mine immensely when I owned it and even if I could pick one up today for really, really cheap I have no idea what I'd use it for.

FWIW--H9

debussyj

I recently sold my Dragon. The guy was from Canada and paid me $800.00 plus shipping, customs, whatever. Mine was mint. It's a really nice machine, was the "bees knees" back in the 80's when I originally bought it. Never gave me any mechanical problems. I had it tuned up, heads cleaned and aligned, lubricated, etc. before I sold it. If you're into making tapes, it's lots of fun.

vc69

Definitely worth having if nothing else but to have it. The Dragon was the top of the top of the line for the cassette format. Only problem with it could be the cassette flipping mechanism. Nakamichi heads were pretty good about not wearing too fast. Look carefully at the heads and inspect for wear. Pretty neat to have one, though I'm not sure what you would actually do with it.

AudioGenics

I have several cassette decks that are nice quality (past)
but not much use for them anymore.

heiney9

vc69 wrote: »

Definitely worth having if nothing else but to have it. The Dragon was the top of the top of the line for the cassette format. Only problem with it could be the cassette flipping mechanism. Nakamichi heads were pretty good about not wearing too fast. Look carefully at the heads and inspect for wear. Pretty neat to have one, though I'm not sure what you would actually do with it.

The Dragon never flipped cassettes your thinking of the RX202 and RX505 completely different animals.

The Dragon was auto-reverse but it flipped the tape heads and then had a computer controlled azimuth alignment to optimize playback for either side.

H9

nooshinjohn

Thanks guys... Well I decided to go for it and brought home the Dragon! It was a pawnshop score for 150.00. It is now at a repair shop here in town getting a cleaning and new belts installed. Here are a few pictures.:)

dorokusai

Did you play a tape in it? You can replace rollers and belts easy, capstans aren't that hard either. It's cool but you should just sell it. I thought it would be cool to get into tape again....and it wasn't.

vc69

heiney9 wrote: »

The Dragon never flipped cassettes your thinking of the RX202 and RX505 completely different animals.

The Dragon was auto-reverse but it flipped the tape heads and then had a computer controlled azimuth alignment to optimize playback for either side.

H9

Lol! I stand corrected. I'm getting old and the last time I saw any cassette deck was at least 15 years ago.:o

nooshinjohn

I got this thing up and running today, and all I can say is WOW. It makes the few tapes I have sound fantastic. I do plan on recording some of my vinyl over to tapes that I can listen to them in my car, but first need to figure out how to get a signal pass-through to the Dragon as I have no tape monitor feature on my Yami.