burris (11/02/82)
#N:ihlpb:4000013: 0:1898 ihlpb!burris Nov 1 12:45:00 1982 I picked up a Harmon-Kardon hk400m last week. It is last year's top-of-the-line HK deck so I got a good deal on it. For anyone who wants a great deck but doesn't want to drop the bucks on a Nakamichi, I highly recommend it. Here's a few point about the machine: 1) The two motor transport works very smooth and rewind/fast-forward are VERY fast. 2) Has seperate EQ and BIAS settings for LN, FeCr, Cr and Metal tapes and a bias trim control with a bias calibration tone. 3) Comes with Dolby B(tm) and Dolby HX(tm). 4) Can be used with the Nakamichi remote control. 5) Electronic auto search. 6) Auto replay or rewind. NOT REVERSIBLE, but this is only slightly inconvenient. 7) MPX filter. 8) LED metering & headroom indicators. Selectable slow or fast response. 9) Three head machine. 10) Frequency response rated at 15 Hz. to 23 Khz. 11) The record level is adjustible and a Dolby(tm) calibration tone is supplied. The level adjustment is a little clumsy because a small screwdriver is required and is slightly difficult. This becomes a trivial problem if you mostly use one type of tape for recording. 12) Signal-to-noise 76db.(metal tape w/Dolby(tm)). I just recorded a couple of Return to Forever albums on my first metal tape and WOW. I used the combination of Dolby B and HX and, of course, calibrated the deck for that tape. The signal-to-noise and frequency response were excellent. I suspect that I will only use metal tape on albums with a relatively high dynamic range and live recording. I have used Maxell UD-XL II(tm) and there is only a slight noticable difference from the metal tape. The main difference was a few db. of extra headroom. The signal-to-noise improvement of metal tape is only around 3-4 db. over the Maxell. The 400 and this year's 401 are the only decks I would even attempt to compare with the Nakamichis. Dave Burris ihlpb!burris BTL - Naperville