[Les Cargill[_4_]]

(Scott Dorsey) wrote:
Tom McCreadie wrote:

Back in the late '70's and early '80's, Nakamichi was under fire from many
people who'd observed that Dolby B cassettes made on a Nakamichi deck generally
sounded dull when played back on the decks of other manufacturers. An
explanation for this apparent dullness, gaining rapid traction in audio circles,
was that all Nak decks employed an equalization deviating from standard.

These problems were due to the head configuration, not the equalization. It
was a matter of edge effect.

Nakamichi vigorously protested that 'bum rap', insisting that they - and not the
other manufacturers - were the guys who were diligently interpreting and
adhering to the standard. To underpin their case and re-educate the misguided
:-), they had their research dept. punp out some 'White Papers ' and Technical
Bulletins, for example:
- "Nakamichi Cassette Equalization: The Standard View"
- Nakamichi Technical Bulletin 2. "Playback Equalization"

Nak did in fact meet the head configuration and EQ standards better than anyone
else, but a standard that nobody follows is no standard.

The cassette world was just so horrible in so many ways....
--scott


It was either use that or go without. Not so horrible in the final
analysis. And it all got a lot better.

--
Les Cargill