Nakamichi 600 tape deck7/30/2023 The 600 cost £350, no small sum for any piece of hi-fi, let alone a cassette deck. It was available in a choice of silver or black finished brushed aluminium, and had an optional perspex dust cover. A stylish new ‘ski-slope’ fascia – surely inspired by Mario Bellini’s stunning Yamaha TC-800GL from 1974 – completed the picture. The 500 was relatively short lived, for it was soon replaced by the 600 you see before you, which ushered in near-1000 levels of build and performance from a redesigned 2 head transport. First was the 500 Dual Tracer, bringing a two head transport for the first time, and the accompanying 550 ‘Versatile Cassette System’ which was essentially a portable version and some say the first real ‘walkman’. In 1974, two new machines joined the fray. This stunning bit of kit was partnered with the 700 Tri-Tracer, a downsized but only slightly sonically inferior machine offering Nakamichi sound to a few more buyers. The motors, transport and heads were all bespoke items that you simply couldn’t find anywhere else – even an Aiwa OEM parts catalogue. The answer was the machine’s supreme engineering depth – everything had been designed up to a performance level, rather than down to a price. This was impressive, but it didn’t explain the stunning sound. The 1000 was a three head, dual capstan, two motor machine running Dolby B noise reduction and DNL (Dynamic Noise Limiting). The fact that it used tiny tape running at a measly one and seven eighth inches per second was mind boggling – how could Nakamichi squeeze a quart out of the proverbial pint pot? Accepted audio wisdom just couldn’t have predicted it… Suddenly cassette was a credible, high fidelity music carrier, capable of mixing it with the top reel-to-reel decks of the day. It’s hard to understate the importance of this company to audio’s great pantheon – the 1000 went in and ‘scorched the earth’, changing everything. ![]() But then Nakamichi launched the 1000 Tri Tracer and the world would never be the same again… Serious tape users had Revoxes – specifically the A77 – or one of a growing number of top notch Japanese decks from the likes of Sony, Akai or Technics. The idea that it could offer real hi-fi performance was laughable. Back in 1973, Compact Cassette was still viewed as a mere convenience medium, designed by Philips a decade previous for dictation purposes only.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |