Nakamichi 1000- the deck to die for

How about the quality of Indian Cassettes? Most of my collection are cassettes released by Echo, AVM, Magnasound, HMV, Sargam, Johny Sagariga and few Sony. Which make tapes they used? Is they are safe to play such high end decks? Any comments on quality of Chennai based 'Meltrack' tapes?

Magnasound, while they were alive, were bearable quality-wise.

Meltrack blanks degraded very fast and were not comparable to the TDKs and Sony blanks I used to use for my mix tapes.
 
Someday, when you're gonna do this, can you convert some of mine too?;)
Don't hold your breath waiting :D

I actually was thinking of offering my whole collection to anyone on one condition - that they digitize them all and let me have the files. Preferably someone with a Nak :p
 
Is it true that the best playback quality is when the tape is recorded on the same deck? I have heard a lot of guys saying that. Moreover, my brother was gifted a Nak DR 10 cassette deck with tapes recorded on that deck. The guy who gifted him had only one condition, the tapes should not be used on another deck. According to him, the alignment of the cassette changes if used in other decks.
 
I just got a new belt for the NAK 1000. It's connected to a Nak Amplifier 1 and through AR 925 E speakers. The deck is sounding better after the belt change. The wow & flutter is lower. I also learnt how to clean the capstans. Is spirit ok to clean the capstans and tape head? Also, Nak amplifiers are reputed to have dedicated tape circuit. It's an amazing deck and I am coming to love it the more I listen to it. My mechanic told me to use it daily till all the circuits get some current flowing through it.
 
Is it true that the best playback quality is when the tape is recorded on the same deck? I have heard a lot of guys saying that. Moreover, my brother was gifted a Nak DR 10 cassette deck with tapes recorded on that deck. The guy who gifted him had only one condition, the tapes should not be used on another deck. According to him, the alignment of the cassette changes if used in other decks.

This is true for the NAKs built before 1988 (I read this somewhere). The general consensus was that tapes recorded on NAKs sounded good only on NAKs. Guess the azimuth alignment of NAKs may have been a tad different from the mass market decks.
 
Guess the azimuth alignment of NAKs may have been a tad different from the mass market decks.

that could have been taken care of by using NAK calibration tapes on a regular deck.

My best guess is a combination of their using finer head gaps and a different re eq curve. Essentially they used a different implementation of the standard.
 
Nakamichi did not adhere to IEC1981 recording standard because their heads were superior and were quite narrorow, resulting in higher frequency response, upto 18 KHz. To meet the standard, they did some modifications to their studio decks.

this explains it. Scott's Nakamichi FAQ Page

I happen to have this very rare MR-1B and MR-2B, along with 582z :)
 
congratulations Jacob....another toy to your collection...you seem to have collected the best of all formats of music players....a studer reel to reel should complete the collection...check out some you tube videos on the Studer A820.....absolutely incredible.....
 
Im still looking to repair my Nak Cr-1. Bangalore is the worst place to have a tape deck as there is not one single person qualified to repair here! I guess I will be forced to make a trip to another city, if I can find someone to help me repair it!
 
Im still looking to repair my Nak Cr-1. Bangalore is the worst place to have a tape deck as there is not one single person qualified to repair here! I guess I will be forced to make a trip to another city, if I can find someone to help me repair it!

Come to mumbai :)
 
Im still looking to repair my Nak Cr-1. Bangalore is the worst place to have a tape deck as there is not one single person qualified to repair here! I guess I will be forced to make a trip to another city, if I can find someone to help me repair it!

What problem do you have with your CR 1. I also have a CR 1 right now. I know a guy in Kottayam who restored my NAK 1000. It may not be much of a problem for him.
 
Where in Mumbai can I get it repaired Denom?

Shivaji park, dadar @ Sanjay Raut of AVC incorporated. He is an ace as far as Naks are concerned.

Will share his contact details via PM if you intend to come to mumbai.
 
I was at Mr. Kuruvila's place on Friday afternoon and heard the NAK 1000 playing first hand. I must confess that I have never heard any cassette deck sound so good. My DR3 is by no means, even any where near the alley where the 1000 resides.
 
What problem do you have with your CR 1. I also have a CR 1 right now. I know a guy in Kottayam who restored my NAK 1000. It may not be much of a problem for him.

Sandesh, I think you should give Mr. Kuruvila a try. I was completely amazed at how his NAK 1000 was restored, from such a beat-up mess. It was sounding fantastic and running almost perfectly (had extremely low wow and flutter that even my experienced cassette listening ears had to struggle to find). After my turntable builds, I will be sending my Akai GX630D over to Mr. Kuruvila for a full service. It runs but with wow and flutter and drags. Also, I've noticed a bit of powersupply hum so the filter caps need a good look.
 
What problem do you have with your CR 1. I also have a CR 1 right now. I know a guy in Kottayam who restored my NAK 1000. It may not be much of a problem for him.
Hi Mr. Kuruvila, I actually picked up a player from a guy from Mumbai 2nd hand and it worked fine for a few hours and after that when ever I tried playing the tape, the player would stop before the spool could get caught in the player (Nak has that facility). On taking it to a couple of repair guys here, one of them said it might be a faulty transporter system, because the belts etc look fine. However most of these technicians refused to service it as they dont know how to work with a tape player and so it hasnt been repaired till now.

It seems like I have a problem with my Denon deck too! The deck seems to be stopping between playing a tape and then resuming again...I'm feeling terrible because I got a lot of new tapes and I cant play anyone of them.

Do you have anyone coming from Bangalore to your place?
 
Hi Mr. Kuruvila, I actually picked up a player from a guy from Mumbai 2nd hand and it worked fine for a few hours and after that when ever I tried playing the tape, the player would stop before the spool could get caught in the player (Nak has that facility). On taking it to a couple of repair guys here, one of them said it might be a faulty transporter system, because the belts etc look fine. However most of these technicians refused to service it as they dont know how to work with a tape player and so it hasn't been repaired till now.

It seems like I have a problem with my Denon deck too! The deck seems to be stopping between playing a tape and then resuming again...I'm feeling terrible because I got a lot of new tapes and I cant play anyone of them.

Do you have anyone coming from Bangalore to your place?

Naks usually have multiple motors, you may have a blown motor. It can also be a sensor problem or it may even be a transport problem. Unless physical damage or wear occurs, transport problems usually come down to alignment and lubing, hence should not be too difficult to fix. Having said all this, Naks are not like the everyday cassette deck. They are more complex machines and would need experienced hands to look them up in such scenarios. An accurate diagnosis can be made only once the deck's internals are looked at.

The Denon deck can have anything from a dry-solder based loose contact to a sensor problem. Again, does not seem to be a major issue but that's for the technician to decide.

After seeing Mr. Kuruvila's Nak 1000, I am sure that if its the same technican that sees your deck, he should definitely be able to give it a good shot. I am also in the process or sending my Akai GX630D reel deck to him for servicing after my turntable builds.
 
Sandesh,
You may PM GeorgeO who knows a reliable technician in Bangalore. If he can do it, you can avoid the trouble of getting it all the way to Kottayam
 
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