Worth the risk on a Dragon?

[hamsterdam]

i have seen a Nak Dragon for sale recently, under $500— its a repair/as is. The symptoms are:
it loads tape and plays fine for a while but then stops and unloads cassette. The autoreverse works
FF and FR work pretty well. Seller suspects a heat related issue with the ICs that control the capstans, but is not sure... Also, either both capstans work or neither does.

Obviously, if repairable, This would be an amazing find. i know i have been away for a couple of years, with a number of matters on my shoulders, but i remember in 2016 buying an NAD Cassette Deck at the recommendation of a member, and another was gracious enough to send me a lower end NAD cassette for the cost of shipping while i was shopping around. i gave the freebie to my Oldest Son after i got the higher end NAD. The freebie died within a year, but hey, what can one ask for free? Probably repairable, but not priority. Anyway, i say that cuz i know there are seriously knowledgeable people here. i bought 2 Turntables, and 3 carts from members as well...i've just been spinning too many plates to be around recently.

Thanks, and i hope all are well, and some buddies are still around

—hamsterdam

 

[blhagstrom]

I sold a busted up dragon for $500 a couple years ago.

Restored they are stupid expensive.

I heard there was an expert restore guy that would rebuild one for $500.

I think once restored they were hitting $2500.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[Vinylcafe]

Here's what little I know ....
Very few people know what they are doing around these decks, if you want peak performance.
Willy Hermann out in CA, Perry Esposito in VA are a couple.
This is not a deck you take to your local shop.
Rebuilds can equal the cost of the deck, and then some.
Transports need rebuilding, the NAAC is finicky.
Once you rebuild the transport, you're likely in for a total recallibration, if the pinch roller arms need to be removed and relubricated.
Some serial numbers are more desirable than others, some you plain want to avoid all together.
Go over to Tapeheads, there's a ton of knowlege there.

 

[macster]

i have seen a Nak Dragon for sale recently, under $500— its a repair/as is. The symptoms are:
it loads tape and plays fine for a while but then stops and unloads cassette. The autoreverse works
FF and FR work pretty well. Seller suspects a heat related issue with the ICs that control the capstans, but is not sure... Also, either both capstans work or neither does.

Obviously, if repairable, This would be an amazing find. i know i have been away for a couple of years, with a number of matters on my shoulders, but i remember in 2016 buying an NAD Cassette Deck at the recommendation of a member, and another was gracious enough to send me a lower end NAD cassette for the cost of shipping while i was shopping around. i gave the freebie to my Oldest Son after i got the higher end NAD. The freebie died within a year, but hey, what can one ask for free? Probably repairable, but not priority. Anyway, i say that cuz i know there are seriously knowledgeable people here. i bought 2 Turntables, and 3 carts from members as well...i've just been spinning too many plates to be around recently.

Thanks, and i hope all are well, and some buddies are still around

—hamsterdam

Yup! If you can't fix it, you can piece it out and get your money back. For example I paid $100.00 for the door. The blue NAAC cable is unobtainable, you got the knobs and the motors and transport etc, etc, and blah, blah. Willy will overhaul it for ~$800.00, but you have to get in line. My turn for my Dragon is in June.

M~

 

[kmulkey]

But if you want to get back into cassette, in a serious way, the Dragon may be the best deck out there. I got mine from Perry about 5 years ago and it's quite fantastic.

 

[Max77]

I own a few Nak decks, the Dragon is great, certainly lives up to its reputation. Everyone of course talks about the NAAC for playback, which is great, but the manual calibration options for recording are no slouch either. I have a couple cheapo pre-recorded tapes in junk shells that the NAAC can't adjust for. $2500 restored would be an insane price, even with a full rebuild by ESL who are pretty much the masters that strip the deck down and fully rebuild it.

And yeah--you will pay to get it fixed up. Many of the techs who know how to properly do this are backed up at least 6 months. But a fully restored Nak is a thing of beauty.

 

[ssmith3046]

Love my Dragon.

 

[DerKomisar]

Not sure if this is a dead thread... recently was lucky enough to inherit a Nakamichi Dragon but not sure if it’s working properly.
Is there anyone these days that I can call or work with offline to see if it’s a minor or major issue?
Thanks!

 

[MRL_Audio]

Double posting in multiple old threads isn’t going to help.