[Terry[_3_]]

I just bought a Nakamichi RX-505 and it sounds amazing thru my cheap
system.
I'm not a pickey listener, I just want to make sure I'm operating the
thing correctly.
I just played some of my 120 minute home made recorded cassettes on
it, and it does not like them.
When I was playing 120 minute tapes the audio would fade.
I would stop and start the tape and it sounded good for a minute and
start to fade again.
It seems to play best with commercial cassette albums.
With regular commercial tapes it works great.

I'd like to hear from other owners of this great piece of equipment.
I never heard of Nakamichi until about two months ago.
I guess when I was growing up they were always out of my price range.
I just bought this one for $250 plus $50 shipping.

Thanks,
Terry in Texas

[Richard Crowley]

"Terry" wrote ...
I just bought a Nakamichi RX-505 and it sounds amazing thru
my cheap system.
I'm not a pickey listener, I just want to make sure I'm operating
the thing correctly.
I just played some of my 120 minute home made recorded
cassettes on it, and it does not like them.
When I was playing 120 minute tapes the audio would fade.
I would stop and start the tape and it sounded good for a minute
and start to fade again.
It seems to play best with commercial cassette albums.
With regular commercial tapes it works great.

So can you see what is happening when this "fading"
occurs? Is the tape wandering from the proper path?
Does the supply and take-up spindle torque seem right?
Hopefully the tape isn't stretching or something?

[William Sommerwerck]

The Nakamichi Dragon manual states: "C-120 cassettes ... contain extremely
thin tape which breaks or snarls easily, is sometimes subject to stretching
and also is of low sensitivity. Therefore, C-120 cassettes are not
recommended for high-fidelity recording."

Nothing is said about poor tracking. But one should not expect C-120s to
give the best performance.

[Chris Hornbeck]

On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:46:13 -0700, Terry
wrote:

I just bought a Nakamichi RX-505 and it sounds amazing thru my cheap
system.
I'm not a pickey listener, I just want to make sure I'm operating the
thing correctly.
I just played some of my 120 minute home made recorded cassettes on
it, and it does not like them.
When I was playing 120 minute tapes the audio would fade.
I would stop and start the tape and it sounded good for a minute and
start to fade again.
It seems to play best with commercial cassette albums.
With regular commercial tapes it works great.

How fresh are its pinch rollers and capstan belt?
Are you needing to clean the tape path when stop-
and-starting?
How old are your 120 minute tapes?

Pinch rollers must be matte and slightly springy
to the touch. The capstan belt must have no
visible sag, good tension, and have left no obvious
deposits on the flywheels.

All good fortune,

Chris Hornbeck
"The camera is an instrument that teachs one how to see
without a camera" -Dorothea Lange

[Scott Dorsey]

Terry wrote:
I just bought a Nakamichi RX-505 and it sounds amazing thru my cheap
system.
I'm not a pickey listener, I just want to make sure I'm operating the
thing correctly.

Do you have the manual?

I just played some of my 120 minute home made recorded cassettes on
it, and it does not like them.
When I was playing 120 minute tapes the audio would fade.
I would stop and start the tape and it sounded good for a minute and
start to fade again.

What is the tape doing when it fades? Do you see it losing contact with
the head?

It seems to play best with commercial cassette albums.
With regular commercial tapes it works great.

For the most part, 120 minute cassettes are bad news and not reliable.
Don't use them. They are MUCH thinner than standard 60 minute ones
and have poorer S/N as well as a lot more print-through. They are only
acceptable for logging applications.

I'd like to hear from other owners of this great piece of equipment.
I never heard of Nakamichi until about two months ago.
I guess when I was growing up they were always out of my price range.
I just bought this one for $250 plus $50 shipping.

It's not one of the better Nak machines, but it's fine. I don't recall
any particular reliability issues with them, but call Steven Sank and ask.
He's really the Nak expert still.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."