The Surprising Truth About the Nakamichi BX-300!

Comments · 134

• FO

  @ForeverAnalog · 3 years ago · pinned

  Do you have a favorite Nakamichi deck? And what do you think...do I need to fix the motor or just replace a belt?

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• FE

  @Fela4Ever-26 · 5 months ago

  Thanks for the demo, Still have my BX-300 bought in 1987 from by mail order discounter in NYC for $500! Never been serviced but recently played a couple of tapes recorded back in the 80s and still sounds great just like the source. Favorites tapes were TDK-SA-X90 or Denon HD8 Tapes.

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• NI

  @nicksutton2964 · 2 years ago

  Thanks for the upload.  I bought my first Nakamichi, a BX300 in 1984. It was superb and a few years later I sold it - then very quickly regretted it. Some 8 or so years ago I came across a BX300 on eBay and remembered how sad I was to lose the first one. This example was dirt cheap with an apparently immovable pitch knob but otherwise stated as "plays OK". I hesitated for about 10 seconds and bought it. The unit arrived with its original purchase receipt in the box and everything else was also there. It seemed the pitch knob (cover) had become loose and someone had tried to superglue it in place but the superglue had spread into the pot shaft and froze it. The tell-tale white residue of curing superglue had contaminated the front panel. All was good after a thorough cleaning, including the transport. Only now, 8 years later am I getting idler issues on rewind. A great deck. I am going to keep it this time.

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• AU

  @AudioFileZ · 3 years ago

  I'm a fellow compact cassette lover.  I've always wanted, but have never owned a NAK.  Why NAK?  The Nakamichi company seemed to do everything their own way, making many parts that were unique to the Nakamichi decks.  Starting with the heads.  Nakamichi make their own heads and those heads have unique features starting with the internals and gaps.  The internal windings and the gaps make huge differences even prior to the transport itself.  NAK simply made the best sounding heads in the industry even going as far to introduce the first discrete (physically separate) cassette recording and playback heads.  So as not to waste that goodness they made their own transport mechanisms, largely eschewing the money saving ways of the competition.  As noted they were to my knowledge the first (perhaps only?) company whose transport moved the pressure pad of a cassette shell out of the way in order to achieve a more perfect tape alignment and precision contact of the tape to the heads.  This level of precise contact and tape travel insures that the different cassettes with different pads and tensions would be free of preventable drop-outs (noticeable dips in response and levels).  Getting the most from whatever tape the user was using made the NAKs kings among wanna be 3-head decks which often used sandwiched heads made by various sources for whatever brand.  Definitely the NAK difference.  So, it's a sad world in a way since all of these decks are aging and there is nothing out there now like them.  Some NAK decks even had circuitry, both electrical and mechanical, to adjust playback azimuth automatically or by ear!  In a way that was the last frontier since cassettes made on other machines often introduced small azimuth errors when played on an exacting tape deck like the Nakamichis.   I think your video and my reminiscing has just about got me back in the market even though I have a half dozen or so decks.  Good job!

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• RO

  @robertendsley8312 · 3 years ago

  Proud owner of a Nakamichi RX 202.<br>Got it two months ago. It too fast forward / rewind is working intermittently. <br>The SOUNDSTAGE it creates is breathtaking. Two months in a ten month waiting list to send it to a California to have it completely overhauled.

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• TA

  @tamievertz6747 · 1 year ago (edited)

  I just found one of these NIB while cleaning out a passed family members belongings.

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• MI

  @mikecampbell5856 · 3 years ago

  First! Best of luck with your cassette deck. Nakamichi decks are legendary and need to be treasured. I worked on copiers for 40 years and I can&apos;t tell you how many times I found dead spots in the stepper motors they often used. I had a Harman Kardon cassette deck and I would challenge people to tell the difference in sound from the original source or the tape.

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• PA

  @pauescude7876 · 2 years ago

  I have a BX-300E bought it 10 years ago cheap for what it cost now, from the first owner, had it fully serviced, and has been working perfect since then. The sliders give me a few troubles at first but when they are clean they work perfectly.For the price compared with a Dragon, for what I use it it&apos;s perfect.100% recommendable.

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• JI

  @jimmyBside · 2 years ago

  Hey FA and cassette friends. Ordered a BX-300 from The Turntable Store about 4yrs ago. It had a fresh service and came in the original box. Couldn’t be happier. They were nice to work with. Stupid Cassette Comeback channel got me all psyched up for cassettes again. Jimmy see, Jimmy do- ya know. Just brought my old Technics M218 Into work for a little office system, (hooked up to a Klpsch One). it’s awesome to the younger coworkers eyes light up to see cassettes. She’s gonna need a belt soon. I think I can handle it. Thanks FA your my inspiration for the fix…🍻

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• SI

  @SiincereARC · 2 years ago

  Excited to watch this. BX-300E owner.

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• GR

  @greenlanternseven · 3 years ago

  Also consider recapping the power supply in the unit and even maybe the transistor voltage regulator ..only a couple dollars in parts but recommended for a precision deck

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• PE

  @peterfable · 3 months ago (edited)

  Whenever I&apos;d wear my Sennheiser headphones to monitor the recording of newly purchased records on Maxell or TDK metal tapes back when my BX-300 was new, my young fresh ears found the recording indistinguishable from any source material when going back and forth. &nbsp;Amazing deck that was a worthy upgrade from my previous deck, a Harmon Kardon HK300XM (with Dolby HX) I bought as a senior in high school. &nbsp;That HK was easily the equal of any 2-head deck (20-20,000K frequency response on metal), available at that or any other time that wasn&apos;t named Nakamichi. &nbsp;BTW, since then I&apos;ve discovered Nakamichi actually made transports for HK and others as an OEM until the mid-70&apos;s. &nbsp;Mitsumi actually made the one in my HK.