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Category: Cassette Decks
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Title: Nakamichi CR-2 - A Bargain Cassette Deck... 
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views:393
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 I purchased a Nakamichi CR2 cassette deck in 1990: it wasn’t intentional, honest - I actually went to an established dealer in southeast London to buy an analogue/vinyl based system. I had a preconceived ‘agenda’ believing that it would be fronted by a Rega Planar 3, having owned an original with an ‘s’ shaped Acos Lustre arm in the eighties, however on audition a Linn Basik won out! (such is life) along with a Creek 3030 and Linn Index speakers.
I told the salesman that I also wanted a cheap cassette deck to make tapes for the car: and that I did not envisage spending more than about £100 for such a purchase/use. Whilst he was sympathetic to my idea he enthusiastically suggested that I at least listened to a Nak and so I did. I could not believe my ears, having been used to fairly mediocre cassette decks up to that point. The CR2 made incredibly believable, faithful and involving copies of LP’s (CD was out of my price sphere and desire) and what was more it played back pre-recorded tapes even more realistically. The rub was that the Nakamichi was nearly £400, more than the record deck and much much more than I would ever have considered spending on such an inferior format! But, I couldn’t resist the great sounds and went home with what I found to be a killer ‘budget’ system, lead (ironically) by the CR2.
As I owned then a large collection of cassettes (and still do now) this approach was extremely attractive, as it opened up another world of potential music that I could explore – I’m an avid collector of all sorts of styles. I had already started to ‘suffer’ from the invasion of CD in that a number of artists that I liked were no longer releasing new material on vinyl (which was and still is my preferred format) only cassette and silver disc. The Nak meant I could enjoy thoroughly music that I had thought would be unavailable to me. And I owned a piece of audio history, having read over the years about the famous Nakamichi brand, but always believing that:
a) it was perhaps ‘over-hyped’
b) I would need one of the top (Dragon?) models to enjoy a real leap in performance (cheap and Nakamichi did not seem to go together and
c) I could not afford or justify such extravagance.
Less is more? Well the CR2 is a very basic deck in many ways and in 1990 was seen to be up against Japanese models that sported all sorts of extras (auto-reverse, automatic tape calibration, lots of flashing lights/bells/whistles). Virtually nothing is automatic on it, but it gives nothing away in terms of performance and in my view adds a great deal and of course there is less to break or go wrong. This is obviously down to it receiving detailed attention where it is really needed in engineering terms, speed stability for example is spot-on all the time and it will handle even quite badly stretched tapes without problem – quite a feat.
Less is more? Cassettes are now very cheap in many stores - especially charity shops - and in America (amongst other countries I have visited recently) new ones are being sold off at prices as low as £0.25p. This means I can exercise my particular vice of wishing to explore every musical area, but inexpensively, thus constantly broadening my horizons. Whatever the calibre of the music, the CR2 really makes the most of the material, which is surely all you really want and should expect? When set up accurately for metal or chrome tapes (which are themselves very affordable these days, if you can track them down) the CR2 really shines in capturing the feel of each and every performance, when I indulge in a little home recording.
Less is more? I now use a £3000 CD transport/DAC combination within an active/tri-amped system: it’s at times very satisfying, but I often return to the CR2, at a fraction of the price, for musical enjoyment of pre-recorded tapes and also to preserve certain radio broadcasts for ‘posterity’). Solo piano (like George Winston) is well reproduced, other acoustic instruments equally sound real and believable and electronic/electric music really bounces along with no detail-killing hiss or extra compression. Pitch is always beautifully stable and vocals ‘sing’ just as they should.
Less is more? I lashed out on a DR10 3 head Nak last year at much more than the CR2 cost me: it should - in theory - have given me far more enjoyment, but I am still disappointed. Perhaps it’s been manufactured down to a price and is now competing rather unfairly in a market and industry where digital systems and software code have the advantage of being cheap to produce (if not to initially develop)? The CR2 seemed to come from an era where good old-fashioned physical engineering skills allowed it’s strengths to shine through. In so many ways the DR10 lacks the depth, warmth and overall ‘rightness’ of it’s little brother. It also misses nice little touches like the cassette door that lifts out completely for easier head cleaning and a volume level control to allow matching of the output with other sources. I hope it proves as reliable: with one exception when the CR2 inexplicably ‘lost it’s way’ in 1995 for a few days and would not respond logically to the logic controls (we never found out why, but thanks Graham for trying!) it has never let me down. That’s very good value for money for 13 years very hard usage: and I understand that spares/servicing are still available.
Many products and manufacturers are renowned for being unbeatable, but are they always justified? In my opinion Nakamichi’s reputation for excellent sound, reliability and build quality is fully supported by my experience of the CR2. Don’t get me wrong - it is by no means perfect and I would not want to give such an impression (when competing with the ultra quiet digital possibilities of CDR, Minidisc and DAT) however for the outlay it is quite simply superb, especially for the playback of pre-recorded material, much of which many of us already own or can obtain very economically. It might not possess the awesome abilities of the legendary ‘professional’ machines that Nakamichi once produced; nevertheless it is lovely piece of kit to use, with a silky smooth transport mechanism and large controls that fall to hand easily. The display is attractive and easy to read and the light behind the cassette window allows the amount of tape that is left to be viewed. The manual controls permit fine-tuning of different makes and types of tapes and it consequently responds well to all sorts, making the most of each formulation – as long as you remember to set it in the first place! |
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| Review submitted: 2004/2/16
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