This is a fine sounding, sturdly built machine.
As usual, there's always one fly in the ointment and it's a minor one. In this case, you must reselect your choice of Dolby noise reduction each time you power up. If you don't, you have neither Dolby B or C working for you. The default is NO noise reduction, except maybe for HX.

It's nice that all controls are done with a pushbutton, but that has it's drawdacks here. In some cases, old fashioned mechanical switches do have an advantage. Aside from this minor quibble, it's a fine unit.

A very well built machine. Simple controls. Neat Play Trim feature for poor recordings made on other decks or old recordings. Saturday Audio sold it to me for $319 with an amp purchase.
P.S. Do not buy from Stereo ABC.com. I could tell you of my trail of tears another time.

Very good as tape decks go, it is not as refined as some the NAK stuff, but very good for the price

I owned a Nakamichi system for the past ten years. recently, I decided on an overhaul of some components ( the cd player and the tape deck). For the tape deck I wanted a high quality double tape deck which the Nakamichi dealer did not have. The only qaulity double deck that I found in my city was the NAD 616, retailing at $699 CDN ($450 US at current exchange - Aug 31, 98).The store where I found it even had a ninety day program at no interest charged. So I went for the NAD 616.
It has the English philosophy of beauty ("less is more"), it feels very strong in makesmanship and parts. The first task was to copy my old favourite types. Please believe me that the copy from NAD 616 dubbing was better than the original I used. (I used TDK SA 90 CD for taping and they are $2.99 each - about $1.89 U.S.). The mechanisms are very precise, and the continuous playback, choice of noise reduction, displays, etc. are first class. It has the strength of an armored personnel carrier (i.e., not sleezy or hesitant) when you are pushing the different buttons and operating the recording functions. This is the tape deck that I had in mind.

Advice to pals on this site: always keep the wrapping items (box, manuals, plastics, etc.) in good storage.

This tape deck is a really great little unit. The sound is remarkably good. My tapes, which are not in such great condition, never sounded better. They sound very fresh and alive; quite impressive.
The deck does a good job with dubbing, and thanks to NAD link with my new T770 receiver from NAD I can control both decks with the T770's remote control (very slick).

Well built, clean appearance, appropriate displays, no nonsense... a good value for a dual deck unit.

--Ev