Very good sound quality, lots of features, unidirectional autoreverse

no remote, no Dolby HX

My system:

Harman Kardon AVR 500
Harman Kardon 670 (Used as phono pre-amp and to power two speakers as a subwoofer)
Harman Kardon ST8 turntable with Ortofon MM15E cartridge
Nakamichi RX505 cassette deck
Tascam 202 Mk III dual well cassette deck
Magnavox CDB650 CD player
Pioneer DV-333 DVD player (soon to be replaced with a DVD audio player)
1 pair Koss CM/1030 (main speakers)
6 Koss CM/1020s (one for center channel, two as rear surrounds, two as subwoofer and which is used as a computer printer stand)

As an audiophile friend said, I have a lot of nice old equipment. Price is an object! Thank you ebay.

I have never much liked the cassette medium. The frequency response was limited and there is too much noise. It is a limitation of the medium. My dislike was such that I never even owned one in a car. Then I leased a new truck. It came with one instead of a CD player. So, I bought a used Tascam 202 mk III dual well two head deck. (I paid $125 for it, which beats the heck out of the $600 retail) I figured Teac’s professional studio brand would be pretty good. And I was right. It did a credible job of reproducing CDs and vinyl records for use in the truck. And for most sources, it was good enough for home use. But, I started purchasing (from a local used record store) half speed vinyl masters pressed by Mobile High Fidelity Labs and some Sheffield direct to disc albums. The Tascam was lost.

I explained the problem to an audiophile friend. He owned an RX-505 which he never used. In fact, he never played his audiophile system. So, I borrowed the Nak for a year. I refused to give it back to him until I purchased one Why? BECAUSE IT SOUNDS REALLY GOOD. The only use the Tascam gets now is to duplicate tapes for other people.

So, I bought an RX-505 for $400.00, which I considered a reasonable price for the combination of the cool unidirectional auto-reverse mechanism and electronics lifted from the Nak Dragon (which is considered by some to be the best home deck ever built). The deck I purchased was an older production model (i.e., from the mid ‘80s) and had some problems. The tape heads were out of alignment, the tape head lifter mechanism squealed every time the tape heads were lifted to play or reverse the tape, and the tape bias was off (even though I used the tapes Nakamichi recommended). I took it to Nakamichi’s factory authorized repair location in Long Beach, CA. For $200, (and several return trips because they use electronic gizmos instead of ears to see if it sounds right) they rebuilt the tape transport, reset the bias, and made the deck work and sound like new.

Sonically, the Nak blows away the Tascam. Three (tape) heads are better than two. It is like sunshine breaking through clouds. Although the Tascam records the high end exceedingly well, its playback loses much of the top octive. In contrast, the Nak’s high end is marvelous and its mid-range is clean and musical. The only musical problem I have with the Nak’s sound reproduction is that the bass is a little bit heavy and not quite as tight as the original. That problem is minor and may be unit specific. For most audio sources, I am hard pressed to hear a difference between the RX-505 and the original. The only stereo sources the Nak has problems reproducing are those with extremely large dynamic headroom requirements such as the Sheffield Track Album or very detailed, crisp high ends such as the half speed master of Cat Stevens Teaser and the Firecat. In those cases, some of the quieter sections and/or high frequency detail gets lost in the tape hiss inherent in the medium. This is not a problem for most sound sources.

The deck has lots of nice features such as program seek, auto record standby, manually selectable tape types, master fade up and down, multiplex filter, subsonic filter, fine bias tune, and so forth. Given the cost of over $1,500 new, it should! I rarely use them.

This leaves the question of whether it was worth $600 for this deck in perfect working condition. The answer is a resounding and enthusiastic probably. It was definitely worth the $400. I get to protect my vinyl, I don’t have to flip the album to play both sides, and I get to take convenient compact cassettes on the road. I also get to show people the neat way the tape gets flipped. And it sounds really good doing it. I use the RX 505 almost daily. Right now, I am playing a copy of the half speed master of the Alan Parsons Project’s album entitled “I Robot” – the symbols and snare drums sound like the original, the voices are warm and the synthesizers sound like electronic synthesizers. I’ll probably play a tape of some quiet new age guitar while I go to sleep. I’m very happy with the unit.

Similar Products Used:

Tascam 202 mk III

Best deck I've ever heard. Highest recommendation. The ultimate deck for those on a budget of sorts, if I had the money, I'b probably go for a Dragon, but this, IMHO, is the best all around NAK ever made.

Nakamichi RX-505 es mejor deck que nunca antes ha producido Nakamichi.

Excellent recordings and playback. Smooth mechanics and quiet operation.

None

I picked up my Nak RX-505 in 1989 while stationed in Spain. I have had no problems with the unit. Owning one is like a dream come true. Outstanding recordings! Friends are always facinated by the auto reverse tape rotation. All in all, an excellent tape deck if you can get your hands on one. I would not trade this deck for anything!! It's simply the bomb.

Everything

none

The best tape deck on the planet. Better than the dragon.
This deck does everything you need in a tape deck and more.
If you see one some where or on ebay, BUY IT!!!!

Similar Products Used:

none

Flawless performance, built for professional grade recording and playback, fun to use.

Nothing of significance.

My favorite Nakamichi deck! Considering the exemplary technical specifications, durability, and convenience factors of the delightful unidirectional autoreverese transport system design, one cannot find another comparable analog deck. I possess another classic Nak (ZX-9), which has fantastic capabilities, but the RX-505 is the cassette deck that is used continuously in my studios.

In my opinion, this deck, even considering its outdated pedigree, is the finest autoreverse analog cassette deck ever manufactured for commercial use.

For full specifications on the Nak RX-505, refer to my Nak CyberSpot website:

http://www.angelfire.com/wi/blueswapper/bluesnak99.html

Similar Products Used:

Nak 500 Tri-Tracer, RX-202, ZX-9

sound, build quality.

not avaliable anymore, kind of worry about the spare parts.

I am a surgeon from taiwan, will stay here for 1 year, i never used a cassette deck after i graduated from the medical school since 15 years ago. i preferred turntable(i got a micro 8000, sme 3012r, koetsu black system). I thought cassette is out of date and just not as good as other media anyway. after i arrived in the US, i started to use tape deck again, at first it's just for the kids(so i bought the tascam from ebay, some guys said it's tough), after a while, my high-end habbit started again, so i pruchased this unit for fun. i was quite amazed, it sound warm and clear, much better than most of the ordinary CD players. Of course, you can get better sound quality from a truly high end turntable and CD player, but it gonna cost you a lot of money. and in my opinion, most of the high end CD players are cheat and the analog turntables price is rediculosly high today. consider the built quality of RX 505, it's beautiful and sophisticated! but nowaday many cartridges are several times its price! it's a pity that cassette is dying, it's a shame that no one build this kind of products anymore!

Similar Products Used:

tascam 112.

Incredible looks and the most fantastic auto reverse system one has ever seen. Plus she delivers superb recording/pb quality as well.

Well, in fact none, or it must be that you'll even get better sound when spending yr money's worth on a Nak with Silent Mechanism I. But that's no real weakness, as the WOW-factor on the auto-rev. System is really something else ! Other than that, I kinda miss the extensive calibration settings from other topline Naks. It would have been relatively easy to install the calibration unit of the Dragon on this one, since the decks are very much alike from a technical standpoint.

Well, what's there to say about this deck other than the incredible unidirectional auto reverse system in this machine, which cuts out the azimuth problems of regular AR-decks ? Let's start with a comment on the reproduction of Nak-recorded tapes on other decks: that is surely an azimuth problem of the other brand's playback deck, or the lack of sufficient bias-currents.
Magnetizing a cassette tape is like powering real sensible speakers: you don't have the dough, you won't get the best out of it. It's as simple as that.
But now to the specifics of the RX-505. The auto fader makes it dead easy to record a tape in full without having to worry about the annoying 'click'-sound at the end of the tape, when your music is brutally. In terms of sound quality: YES, this is a real Nak, so it'll beat any other deck out there and stamps on its graves. Still, when looking for a Nakamichi, one should take into consideration that you can get a better sounding Nak for that money (ZX-9, CR-7, 700ZXE, maybe even ZX-7) but if design and auto reverse is one of your key decisionmakers, there is only one to choose. This is the very best auto reverse tapedeck ever manufactured. For more info about any topline Nak, drop me a line. I am preparing an extensive FULL LINE review, comparing all the Topnaks into 1 big review.

Similar Products Used:

All top line Naks: 1000ZXL, 700ZXL, 700ZXE, ZX-9, CR-7, ZX-7, Dragon

Excellent playback sound. WOW factor when you show the autoreverse feature to someone.

Noise in transport mechanism. Starting to fall apart?

I purchased a Dragon in 1991 and after about a week a squealing sound surfaced when the transport mechanism was activated. I returned it and was told that it would be sent to "the factory" for repairs since no other model was available. I accepted this since I was in Japan and was told I would have it back within a week. Got the unit back and it still produced the noise. I got the store to ship a "new" model over and asked them to set it up for me so I could test it. The new unit made the same noise and gave up on the Dragon. I opted for an RX-505 instead. After I left Japan it began making the same noises. Wonder if anyone else has this same problem.

After switching to second side of tape, head alignment is off and audibly noticable. Stoping and starting corrects the problem. The Dolby ON/OFF switch died. Opened it up but it's hiden to far back for me to keep playing with it. It's been 16 months and have not bothered to send it in for repairs.

Everything

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In use since 4/28/85 it has never been in the shop for anything. Its still makes outstanding recordings and you probably couldn't tell the difference between one made on this machine and the Dragon. Its quality is phenominal and just check Naks line today and you won't see anything like these machines. Its because manufacturers are headed away from cassette decks because the cassette is headed the way of the Laser Disc. Would pick one up on Ebay for 300 to 500 without hesitation.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Nakamichi 350