This review is written with a view to help someone make an informed choice about a cassette deck that was made by one of these companies. Since this is intended to be a brief guide, I will limit myself to descriptions of ONLY the following decks:

1. Revox : Models B - 710 & B - 215. Also the Studer A -710, and the A 721

2. Tandberg : Model 3014A
   

3. Nakamichi : Dragon and the CR7A
   

Again, I will not be describing each deck in detail, but will focus on their uniqueness and value. I will also list certain sources where more information can be found.

Introduction: The early 1970s, the 80s and the early 1990s saw the development and production of a plethora of cassette tape decks. Every family in the US and elsewhere desired to own one of these. Among the myriad manufacturers, Revox (Switzerland - Germany), Nakamichi (Japan) and Tandberg (Norway) stood out as producers of the best decks in the world. Preceding the entry into cassette decks were years of experience in the production of magnetic tapes seen in Reel to Reel decks. Revox produced the best Reel to Reel decks in the world. In the following paragraphs, I will look at these cassette decks individually.

Revox:  This is a picture of my B 215 and its Heads :

     

The first thing that occurs to you is the ruggedness and tank-like quality of this deck. It is a Swiss design and German engineering. The B215 has a circuit that automatically sets optimum recording levels, a real-time counter with two memory rewind locations, and fast-acting meters that show signal levels as accurately as anything a pro could afford. But what is most impressive is the Revox B215 's tape transport mechanism, mounted on its own heavy alloy chassis. To start with, instead of using one capstan to pull the tape past the heads, the Revox B215 uses two, on each side of the heads. Each capstan is actually the extended shaft of a separate motor, and each reel hub works the same way. The head assembly pivots against a set of hydraulic shock absorbers that appear large enough to support a motorcycle.

The four direct-drive motors provide what is probably the best tape handling of any deck on the market, with amazingly fast tape shuttling in either direction. All this would matter little if the deck could not record and play as well as it handles tape. In tests and subsequent listening sessions, the Revox B215 was unmatched in smooth frequency response, vanishingly low hiss levels and overall clarity of sound.

The B 710 make 1 and 11 (pictured above)  preceded the B 215. The B 215 has better technology in it and is the more desirable of the two. The Studer A 710 is a better version of the B 710 with balanced outputs but is made as a professional recording deck. The A 721 is more advanced than the A 710 but is very rare.

Nakamichi: The Nakamichis are a particular favorite of Ebayers. For those who want to know about Naks, there are the good Naks ( the CR 1, 2 and 3, the BX series etc), the better Naks (the LX series, the RX series, the DR series and the CR 4A) and the best Naks (the Dragon, CR 7A, CR 5A, ZX 5, ZX 7, ZX9). Of these the ZX 5 is not available in the US : they were made only for Japanese markets. The ZX 9 is one of the rarest decks and legend has it that Nakamichi technicians used this deck when they needed to make test recordings. The Dragon, ZX7 and the CR7A are the most desirable of cassette decks on Ebay.

The Dragon (named after Etsuro Nakamichi the founder of Nakamichi Corporation) boasts of Nakamichi's patented NAAC (Nakamichi Automatic Azimuth Correction) which used a special microprocessor controlled azimuth adjustment to implement auto-reverse. Because it optimized the angle of the tape head when switching directions, it did not need to eject the tape and spin it around to maintain proper tape head alignment. This complex system of auto reverse is the first thing to fail after 20 years of use/ disuse/ abuse and therefore great care has to be taken when buying a Dragon.

Nakamichi CR7A:

The CR7A (1985 - 1990) was developed after the Legendary Dragon and is arguably better than the Dragon and vies for the title of "Best Ever" (Dragon owners may not agree) since it uses most of technology used in the Dragon without the compexities of the Dragon’s auto-reverse mechanism. To record using the CR7A , you simply load a blank cassette into the machine, press Auto Calibration and the Deck performs a 15 second Automatic Calibration and Azimuth Procedure and you are then ready to record. The CR models 1 - 3 required the idlers to be changed every 3 years. In the later model CR7As, Nakamichi corrected this to a modified Gear upgrade. It was also Nakamichi's first deck with a cordless remote control. This is the hottest selling cassette deck on Ebay and sells for an average of $650.00. Below is a picture of the CR7A with remote.

Tandberg :  It all began with the TCD 3004 which was and is extreme high end in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The 3014 replaced 3004 and thereafter the 3014A replaced 3014. The 3014A is one of a kind and many in the audiophile world feel that this is the best cassette deck ever made. It's sucessor the 3034 was made in Malaysia. The TCD 910/911 are profesional versions of 3014. Below is a picture of the TCD 3014 A.

Just like the B 215, and the CR7A, this deck did auto calibration, auto azimuth alignment for each cassette. Below is a picture of the Tandberg 3034 A.


Test: A group of Audio engineers and I tested the Revox B 215, Tandberg 3014 A, Nakamichi Dragon and the CR 7A in a Stereo setup that consisted of a Krell Pre amp, Krell Amp, Cardas Neutral Reference interconnects Acoustic Zen Matrix speaker connects and B & W 802 D speakers. Of these, I owned only the Revox. The others belonged to my friends. We tested each cassette deck one by one playing classical music (Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky etc)  Jazz (Nora Jones) , Rock music (Pink Floyd) and Pop music (Peter Gabriel).

Results:

Playback : The engineers and I agreed that the Tandberg was number one in playback with a perfect score of 10/10 closely followed by the others with 9.75/ 10. In all cases, music was full bodied, warm as analog would be.

Recording: The CR7A was in a class by itself and scored a perfect 10 with the others close behind with 9.6/10. There was very little difference between these decks. They are indeed masterpieces of electronic engineering.

Longevity : The audio team were in agreement that the Revoxes were the most likely to last longer than the others and the Dragon being the most likely to have mechanical failure because of Auto reverse. The CR7A was close behind the Revox in this category.

So if you were on the lookout for a monumental classic, some of these pointers may give you a sense of what is in store for you. In my experience, you can get a Revox B 215 in Mint condition for about 750.00, a Dragon for $700.00, a CR7A for $650.00 and a Tandberg 3014A for $900.00.

Final Points:

In buying these eclectic and exquisite decks, the critical information one needs to know are the following:

• History of the deck - Ownership, etc. Some decks like the Studer A 721 which is a marvel of electronic engineering, have been owned by companies like the BBC, In such cases abuses of the deck are very likely. Avoid such decks completely since 95% of its shelf life is over.

• History of Service - These decks are usually over 20 years in age, so it's always safer to buy one that has been serviced by someone credible such as ESL labs. However, ESL service is very expensive costing not less than $300.00 for the simplest of tune-ups.

• Preferably buy from a single person not a company: On Ebay you have single persons and companies such as e.g., Auction_Wizards who refer to themselves as "we" instead of "I". I don't mean to be derogatory when I say that single persons are usually more careful to see that buyers are satisfied than companies -  since they (the companies) do high volume sales and have no time for individuals and their quirky questions.

• You NEED the manual. It is very difficult to use a Tandberg 3014A and the Revoxes without the manual. Even with the manual, many lay folk struggle to fully utilize all the functions such is the sophistication of these decks.

• In many cases, these decks cannot survive shipping. So careful double boxing is always a must, where pick up is not an option.

Below is a picture of my Nakamichi ZX 7. Although I believe that the ZX 7 & ZX 9 are in the same league as the ones mentioned above, I have not included a description of these since this would make this guide longer than what I originally conceived.

I hope I have shed some light on the best cassette decks of the world. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. Good luck and God speed.

 If you have found the information in my Guide helpful , please rate it with a yes! Thank you!