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NAK 1000 ZXL in Da' house

stoutblock

stoutblock

"If it sounds good, it is good." Duke Ellington
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(I decided to move this conversation from general audio to tape)

Well I did it. Scored a nice one too. :D

It wasn't cheap but no where near the prices we see on that auction site. Original owner is local but he bought it in Hong Kong. Man is it a beauty! Nicest old Nak I have ever seen. Per the original owner it has hardly been used. He said he has never had it serviced, not even the heads cleaned. I was afraid to even look at the heads and transport but when I did, they look factory fresh. No dust or lint of any kind.

Seems to look and function perfect.

Only issue I hear is when you hit stop there is the faintest short squeak.

Also have the owners manual, all 67 pages!

Nak1000ZXLnet.jpg


The inside is very clean with just a little dust (I see orange...)

Nak1000ZXLanet.jpg


I can't believe these heads have not been cleaned. He said he would not know how to do it but knew better than to use a cleaning tape.

Nak1000ZXLbnet.jpg
 
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goldear said:
Wow! I've always wanted one of those.
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I use to say that :D

dragonhead00 said:
That thing is a monster! Very, very nice.
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Yes, a 43lb monster! Its about the size of a microwave.

It is starting to show the signs of the dreaded "orange cap disease". Anyone have a capacitor data base built for one of these? My guess is about 50 of those little orange devels and about 50 more electrolytes...
 
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wow, im in love. right now you are the luckiest man in the world in my eyes (as far as audio goes) that is an incredible find and in even non working condition i saw one go for like 1400 i believe. tell me you at least paid above $$1k. i am so jealous, i had my own nak find recently, and i love mine, but this trumps almost ANY find.

too bad about the caps possibly going, message perryinva, he can help im sure.
 
Yeah, I'm stoked!

Now I am trying to find all the replacement caps to replace the orange polypropylene caps. Both Digikey and Mouser have some of them but not all of them. According to my research a few can be substituted with Polyester.

What about using different specs?

Anyone know if I can use a 330p 63v in place of a 50v? What about a 3300p 63v in place of a 3000p 50v? A 680p 100v in place of a 620p 100v? A 680p 100v in place of a 560p 100v?

Ramifications?

Any other good sources for these caps?
 
The only negative ramifications of using caps spec'd for higher voltages is that they tend to be a bit larger (and therefore harder to fit in a tight space). Otherwise all is well.

For those smaller caps, I would not deliberately change their values, since these are likely used for precision applications such as EQ. If you can't find the correct value, you can always parallel smaller value caps to achieve the correct nominal values. Changing any of these values could have some serious repercussions on your frequency response.

A source that will probably have a better selection of caps is partsconnexion. And I would not rule-out polystyrene or silver-mica caps in place of polyprops. Mylar is not a good choice for anything precision.
 
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goldear said:
The only negative ramifications of using caps spec'd for higher voltages is that they tend to be a bit larger (and therefore harder to fit in a tight space). Otherwise all is well.

For those smaller caps, I would not deliberately change their values, since these are likely used for precision applications such as EQ. If you can't find the correct value, you can always parallel smaller value caps to achieve the correct nominal values. Changing any of these values could have some serious repercussions on your frequency response.

A source that will probably have a better selection of caps is partsconnexion. And I would not rule-out polystyrene or silver-mica caps in place of polyprops. Mylar is not a good choice for anything precision.
Click to expand...

So it is OK to go up in voltage a little but not value?
 
stoutblock said:
So it is OK to go up in voltage a little but not value?
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You can go up in voltage significantly, and it won't hurt you. For power-supply caps increasing in value can actually be beneficial. But tiny (picofarad value) caps like those you listed are almost certainly being used in some kind of precision application, and I would not alter the nominal value of any of these unless you don't care about your performance suffering.
 
You will most likely have to use polystyrene caps in place of the hard to find audio polypropylene values. Any higher voltage is acceptable up to 100V. Much higher and they become bridge caps for transient filtering, and way too physically large. In fact, in most of the cases in the Naks, 63V is a fine substitute for the 100V ones. The voltages are nowhere near 63V, it is just the size they used. Mouser, Digikey, Newark and the more common electronics houses have been out of Nak specific sizes (mostly smaller) polypropylene for years now, so I doubt you will find them easily in the US. They are supposedly still available in Japan, though. For any not directly in the audio circuit (which is very few, like the bias oscillator) polyester is fine, so get what you can in Wima or Panasonic Polypro, the rest of the audio ones in polystyrene. Nice find in that shape, for sure! If I could just sell 15 or so decks, I wouldn't mind one. Likely needs belts and idler tire too, at that age. A note about orange caps. In my limited experience of replacing orange caps (maybe 20 decks) the VAST majority of the bad ones are greater than 1200pF and smaller than 3000pF in size. I've yet to find more than one or two oddball bad ones in the sizes outside that range. Of course, the majority ARE in that range, but in this case I'd replace just the ones in that range, and see where you are. This is in contrast to the 100% of idler tires and capstan belts that are bad at that age.
 
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Thanks everyone. The input really helps!

This is what I have so far that I can find stocked at Mouser, Digikey and Parts connection.

(2).011u/100v - Panasonic ECW-F6113JL polypropylene (.011uf/630v)
(1) .015u/100v - WIMA MKP2D021501B00JSSD Polypropylene
(6) .022u/100v - WIMA MKP2D022201B00JSSD Polypropylene
(2) .033u/100v - WIMA MKP2D023301B00JSSD Polypropylene
(1) .15u/100v - WIMA MKP2D031501H00JSSD Polypropylene
(4) 330p/100v - WIMA FKP2D003301D00HSSD Polypropylene
(2) 470p/100v - Kemet PFR5471J100J11L4BULK Polypropylene
(1) 560p/100v - Kemet PFR5561J63J11L4BULK Polypropylene (560p/63V)
(4) 620p/100v - Cornell Dubilier CD15FC621JO3F Silver Mica (620P/300v)
(4) 680p/100v - KIMA FKP2D006801D00HSSD Polypropylene
(4) 1000p/100v - WIMA FKP2D011001D00HSSD Polypropylene
(1) 1800p/100v - Amstrans 73847 polypropylene
(4) 2200p/100v - WIMA FKP2D012201D00HSSD Polypropylene
(3) 3300p/100v - Kemet PHE426DJ4330JR05 Polypropylene
(2) 4700p/100v - WIMA FKP2D014701G00HSSD Polypropylene
(2) 5600p/100v - Kemet PHE426DJ4560JR05 Polypropylene
(2) .033u/50v -WIMA FKP2C023301L00HSSD Polypropylene (63V)
(1) 330p/50v - Kemet PFR5331J63J11L4BULK Polypropylene (330p/63V)
(2) 470p/50v - Kemet PFR5471J63J11L4BULK Polypropylene (470p/63V)
(1) 1000p/50v - Kemet PFR5102J63J11L4BULK Polypropylene (1000p/63v)
(2) 3000p/50v - Vishay BFC241913002 Polypropylene (3000p/400v)
(2) 4700p/50v - WIMA FKP2C014701D00HSSD Polypropylene (4700p/63v)
 
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perryinva said:
In fact, in most of the cases in the Naks, 63V is a fine substitute for the 100V ones. The voltages are nowhere near 63V, it is just the size they used.
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So a Kemet PFR5561J63J11L4BULK 560p 63v may work fine for the 560p 100v replacement?
 
Yes, it will. I'm surprised there is only 1 1800pF. They are almost always in pairs. That is a great list, I didn't think they would even have that many. Are all those actually in stock, or just listed? some that I have wanted have been on backorder forever, or required a 1000 piece min.
 
perryinva said:
Yes, it will. I'm surprised there is only 1 1800pF. They are almost always in pairs. That is a great list, I didn't think they would even have that many. Are all those actually in stock, or just listed? some that I have wanted have been on backorder forever, or required a 1000 piece min.
Click to expand...

All in stock. this took several hours as I could not find a list already created.

I think the quantity is right. I will buy a few extras just in case.

I better push the button before the hoarders come...

I did update the list above.

Any ideas on the last few ?
 
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Well I've spent about a week with this deck and I have to say I can find absolutely nothing wrong with it. I was getting a little feedback and I thought the dreaded "orange cap" disease was present but the source of the noise was in a few pre-recorded tapes I was listening to. As long as there is good tape in there, all is fine. I recorded some needle drops on some old Maxell UDXL II tapes I have using the auto azimuth and the results are startling good. With Dolby B the background noise is a hair less than recordings on my AKAI 635D R2R at 7.5ipm (no NR) but I can only tell with headphones.

Only fault I can find is a slight squeak when you stop a tape so I assume I need to look at the belts and rollers.

With all this said, I still decided to replace the pp film caps.

I'm still looking for a few:

(2) .011uf/100v on the record equalizer board

(4) 620pf/100v on the record equalizer board

(2) 3000pf/50v on the main board

Any input or ideas would be appreciated. I will post over at DIY to see if those bunch of solder sniffing guys have any ideas.

There was an error in Mouser's database (I corrected my list) so I am still waiting for 4 of 1000pf/100v (WIMA FKP2D011001D00HSSD).

I am sleeping better now with these little devils replaced!

IMG_6197.jpg
 
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Installed the deck into my main system this morning. Very impressive! This tape sounds much, much better than it should?

IMG_6204nak1000net.jpg


IMG_6203nakmod.jpg
 
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