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Nakamichi Dragon

Decatur Greg

Decatur Greg

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
How much would you offer for a Nakamichi Dragon that "the door opens and the tape loads but doesn't turn"

I will definitely send this to PerryInVa for restoration if I end up getting it. :music:

EDIT: I haven't seen this unit yet other than a photo. Another question not related to the value... what tests would you perform given that the tape "doesn't turn" to try to find out if it's a motor or belt or what?
 
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I assume this is the Dragon cassette?

There were two fully functional Dragon Cassette sold on Ebay in past two weeks for about 500-600. For a non-working one, I will say less than 400 is fair.

Decatur Greg said:
How much would you offer for a Nakamichi Dragon that "the door opens and the tape loads but doesn't turn"

I will definitely send this to PerryInVa for restoration if I end up getting it. :music:

EDIT: I haven't seen this unit yet other than a photo. Another question not related to the value... what tests would you perform given that the tape "doesn't turn" to try to find out if it's a motor or belt or what?
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Could be anything but if it's in good cosmetic shape and the heads aren't worn out it's worth around $400 or so.
 
The problem is most likely something made of rubber. Either belt or idler. Agree with price above although these things were touchy even when new.
 
ggregg said:
The problem is most likely something made of rubber. Either belt or idler. Agree with price above although these things were touchy even when new.
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I'll have to disagree. I ran service for Nak in the early 90's out in Torrence and Dragons weren't particularly fussy and had a very low return rate. Most of the ones we worked on were fairly old versions or had been "serviced" elsewhere. Once we did our thing they almost never came back.
 
I didn't mean servicing. I sold them new. The automatic functions on them are great, but to get the most out of them it does take some "fiddling" with some of the many controls to tweak them. At least that's been my experience. Bad word choice. Dragons were a little over the top for me. I was in love with the flip fronts. RX-505 was my favorite.

Some guys bash Naks as breaking easily and often, but that's not been my experience. Other than rubber issues that all decks have, they seem to be as reliable as anything else.
 
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I've owned mine since new. It's never been moved from where it now sits. If I ever had a problem I'd be glad Perry's just over an hour away!

I still marvel at seeing units in good shape bringing $1200 when I paid less than that new. It's a cassette deck, for goodness sake! I use it primarily to playback tapes of live recordings done on my Nak 550 with the Nakamichi tri-microphone system so I can digitize those memories.
 
That's good to know!

Thanks for the elaboration ggreg & audiomagnate... I was getting a bit nervous there. I recently had to abandon a Teac X-1000R as it was just too finicky to get reverse working on it.

Twiddling with knobs and learning functionality is cool with me. I'm sure I can get lots of good advice here if I get stuck.

BMWCCA... thanks for the input... when did you buy your Dragon? This one was purchased in 1984, the seller is the original owner.
 
Bought it!

I bought a few items so hard to say exactly what I paid for it but it was around 375-400. It did light up and I could hear a motor turning. Hoping it only needs the usual restoration from Perryinva.

Perry already replied to my PM and I'm in the queue!! :music:
 
Decatur Greg said:
BMWCCA... thanks for the input... when did you buy your Dragon?
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I'd have to rummage for the receipt. I'd had the 550 for while and CDs were just becoming popular so I'd have to guess mid-80's. The store is still in existence though ownership changed about a year ago. I'm still friends with the original owner who negotiates his car purchases the same way I negotiated the Dragon purchase! ;)
 
This one was purchased in 84-85 in Japan when the guy was stationed there.

He's the original owner!

Got a few other goodies in this deal:

Onkyo M506RS power amp (150W)
Onkyo P3090 pre-amp - he had the servo cable too!
dbx 400X - route selector
dbx 224X - noise reduction
dbx 120X - subharmonic synthesizer
dbx 3BX - dynamic range expander
Yammy T-80 tuner
Sony SEQ-333es equalizer (looks very interesting, has something called auto EQ using mic input) :scratch2:
Sansui timer - one button on/off!!!
 
ggregg said:
Don't think so. I remember $1800 to around $2k.
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No, I'm pretty certain the list price was $1200. Now you'll have me looking for the receipt!

A Guttenberg review from 2012 shows $2,499 but I know that's not right.

A 1987 British review listed 1750-pounds
 
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