Understanding Nakamichi - May 2026

I have had the pleasure of meeting many talented people through our YouTube Channel.  When given their permission, I like to post their responses when they are expertly done from experience.  This gentleman did a superb job of understanding the complexity of Nakamichi cassette decks.  I will let his words stand without comment:

"Having used a lot of cassette decks, including Nakamichi, I definitely formed my own impressions of all of them.

My impression of Nakamichi decks is that there is no question that they sound great.....when they work.  It is well-known that the original capacitors in the decks become faulty after several years.  There's talk of the "orange cap disease".  The same transport is used by virtually all models.  There is a swinging rubber idler (toggles between hubs for REW, FF and PLAY modes) that needs replacement.  After-market mods replace the original capacitors with Nichicon capacitors while the rubber idler can be replaced with a longer-wearing gear.  The grease in the pinch roller hinges harden and seize over time as well.  Finally, the cam belt is a thin belt that also stretches over time and causes the pinch roller and head engagement to stall.  All but the last issue requires complicated and pricey maintenance and repair.

On paper, the decks are consistently among the best and old technical reviews (those with measurements) clearly show that you can record at much higher levels on metal tapes than on most other brands of decks but this doesn't necessarily mean you should.  This is because the headroom/distortion and signal-to-noise measurements are made in the midrange.  So if your source is loaded with highs and you set your recording levels until the peak level display shows "+10dB" (really about +8dB DIN - absolute value) your midrange will be clean BUT the highs may saturate and sound mushy even with metal tape.  A good part of the headroom should be reserved as a cushion or "fudge factor" to prevent peak levels from being squashed or compressed.

Then there's the little-known difference in playback EQ between Nakamichi and other brands.  It's been well-documented in professional research that during playback there is a slight loss of high treble due to the inability of all playback heads to reproduce extreme high frequencies perfectly.  Nakamichi, Revox and Tandberg as well as several models of Pioneer and Dual implemented a slight high-end EQ boost (reduced de-emphasis) during playback known as "head gap loss compensation".  Other high-end models from Teac, Sony and JVC, etc. compensated through recording EQ (pre-emphasis).  The rest of the decks made ignored the issue completely, particularly lower-end models, because these decks were not designed to reproduce the most extended high end.  This resulted in noticeably dull-sounding treble when playing Nakamichi recordings on most other brands.  Revox and Tandberg didn't implement as much head gap loss compensation so the issue wasn't as pronounced with their recordings.  Of course, playing other decks' recordings on a Nakamichi resulted in overly exaggerated treble.  Yet so many Nakamichi hardcore devotees were convinced that the difference was due to Nakamichi's "more efficient" or "vastly superior heads".  The company's heads were excellent but they weren't the reason for the treble discrepancy.  If there needs to be any convincing, a company named "Audible Images" (no relation to Audible Elegance) issued real-time pre-recorded cassettes back in '81 and its order forms requested that the buyer specify the brand of deck being used at home so that the company can record for either Nakamichi or "standard" playback EQ.

So my biggest reluctance for using my Nakamichi decks for building a cassette collection years ago was the maintenance and repair costs and the compatibility issue.  My Teac Z-6000 and Z-7000 decks have a more reliable transport and can make tapes that are often indistinguisable (or at least nearly so) from their sources.  Even my old $375 Technics RS-B905 that I purchased new in '89 and used heavily hasn't necessitated any repairs.  I do have the Sony WM-D6C and its quality is audibly almost as good as the Teac decks." - @f100cream