13 February 2018

Nakamichi - Anatomy of a Dragon.

Nakamichi Dragon

The Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck was an exciting combination of innovative design, convenience features and outstanding performance. It was first introduced at $2,499 and it was targeted at serious high-end clientele until it was discontinued in 1993 after an 11-year production run.

Here are the highlights of the technologies used in the Nakamichi Dragon:

Because of Azimuth misalignment in tape reproduction high frequency response can be severely restricted. Nakamichi equipped this deck with a NAAC (Nakamichi Auto Azimuth Correction) system capable of extracting every bit of information stored on a cassette. NAAC automatically determines the actual recorded azimuth on the tape, aligns the playback head to it, and continues to track it throughout the program. It works on comercially recorded tapes, tapes borrowed from a friend and even if the tape has been recorded with improper azimuth. 

To exploit to the maximum tape performance, the Nakamichi Dragon was the world's first Dual-Capstan, Double-Direct-Drive, Auto-Reverse cassette deck. For speed stability this model uses two Super-Linear-Torque Quartz controlled direct drive capstan motors. 

For optimum recordings the Nakamichi Dragon is provided with separate sets of bias and record-level (sensitivity) controls for each channel and tape type. Self-contained test oscillators generates a 400 Hz signal for setting record level and a 15 kHz tone for adjusting bias. Technical specifications: 3+2 motor mechanism, Wow-and-Flutter is less than 0.019 WTD RMS, Frequency response 20 Hz-22,000 Hz (+/-3 dB, -20dB level) and Signal-to-Noise Ratio better than 72 dB with Dolby C and better than 66 dB with Dolby B.

Nakamichi Dragon
3 Head - NAAC

Nakamichi Dragon
Control Panel

Nakamichi Dragon
Direct Drive motor

Nakamichi Dragon
Tape pad lifter - 4 track head

Nakamichi Dragon
Nakamichi Dragon mechanism detail

Nakamichi Dragon