wjm@whuxj.UUCP (MITCHELL) (06/05/84)
<munch, munch, munch, CHOMP> Unfortunately, the myth about Nakamichi cassette decks using non-standard recording equalization (and the corresponding EQ on playback) dies hard. Nak decks are compatable with any other standard high quality cassette deck - in fact, the Nak curves *ARE* the proper ones for cassette EQ. One problem in the past has been that tapes made on Nak machines sometimes sound "bright" on other machines due to the fact that the Nak machine has a better high end response on recording than the other machine does. However, the Nak tape is the correct one. While we're on the subject ... a little anecdote about the quality of Nak tape decks. During my recent speaker hunting, I had dubbed some test tracks onto a TDK MA (metal cassette) with my Nak 680ZX. When I visited one audio dealer, we did an A/B comparison between the tape - played back on a Dragon and the same records I had dubbed on the tape (several Sheffield Lab direct-to-disk ones) played back on a Denon turntable with a reasonably good Grado cartridge and a Mac preamp's phono stage - both signal sources went into a Hafler 220 power amp and then to a pair of KEF 105.4 or JSE1 speakers (I was auditioning both those speakers). The sound quality from the tape was far superior to that from a decent mid-priced turntable system. Admittedly, there was some tape hiss since I was only using Dolby B (my 680 doesn't have Dolby C and the store didn't have dbx, which is what I normally use for noise reduction), and the record playing equipment wasn't high end as the Nak decks are, but it says something about Nak quality. Regards. Bill Mitchell (whuxj!wjm)