Whats a Nak PA-304 worth these days?

[Swankmotee]

Hopefully this will get some folks attention! I'm new to this forum but have many years of experience with Nak gear both at home and in my car and am in the process of buying one of these beloved, old school amps. I was positionong myself to offer $200.00 to the owner since he is not using this amp in his system ( He has an ADS 850 MX Power Plate running all his speakers) and seems to be wanting to let it go cheap and was just wondering if that is a fair price to offer. Sadly, I used to have this amp and almost all the other Nak car pieces from that year installed in my beloved Acura Integra but it was all stolen from the lot of my friends body shop before I could get it all wired up!*headache* His insurance went on to pay for all of it and I rebuilt the system with a McIntosh MC404 amp,Focal speakers,and my beloved TD-560 which I still own. Now I'm starting over AGAIN after having the aformentioned gear stolen a second time *eyepop* and have a Soundstream Reference 644S,Focal 33V2 12" sub,MB Quart PV1216 seperates (Hoping to replace these with some higher end Focals when I can find a deal on them price wise!), and a Premier DEH-P730 head unit. I'm wondering if this head unit is worthy of keeping in the system or should I hunt down a Nak CDC-101 or Musicbank changer to go with my TD-560 and start over rebuilding the original system? I have never really figured out which years were the best for Nak cd technology so maybe some of you will enlighten me as to what I should be searching for. I sure wish I could afford a TP-1200 but hopefully there is a poorboy route that will get me back to my greatly missed sonic bliss!*fit* Any tips or wisdom would be greatly apprecited especially from my ole friend......the venerable NAKDOC!

[giant haystacks]

hi welcome to tapeheads i am very interested in car audio also ,i am not an expert opinion but an enthusiast who has tryed and owned most of the better equiptment so il write a little to help advise
first the tp1200 is a waste of money and i owned the limited edition also
the pa304 i havent heard it would be more recient but the older pa300mk2 comes up here in uk and sells for very little and is a very good performer
i also have 3 soundstreams a brute called continuum,and a 3.0, a 5.0 both class a around 7 to 10 watts they are old now but still good but the best amp i have is a nakamichi 100pa this you will see for sale on e bay in thailand quite often this amp is a clear winner i tested all amps with a set of klipsch horn
i found the rd units and tuner deck models were more congested than the older td400-500-700 models but they have no cd input and are old ,i use the td 1200mk2 which has a great freedom in its sound
i put some photos up 6-8 months ago on a nakamichi tread in mobile audio
you will see my cd the 100 cdc and 100dac they are other parts of the 100 pa amp mentioned above there was also a 100td which was the tape tuner (a modern day td700 with cd changer controls) these 4 items sold as a systeym for $7000 in its day and they were also available in black 1000 td ,1000cdc,1000dac,1000 pa ,some say the black version was better i have got the 1000td tape tuner which i swapped for the tp1200 le ,this has a worn ribbon cable as it has cd controls directly under the tape controls and constant moving has left the cable worn.
dont dwell to much on what i have wrote above but it is some things to aim for the most important thing is a uncongested deck and the td1200mk2 is the best i have got ,by congested i mean the amplification runs with more freedom some of the other decks it would be like trying to get information through a computer with a bad virus.
my advise buy cheap for now eg td35z or rd or tuner decks and say the old mb7 changer or something similar ,and a pa300 mk2 amp dont waste any money buy really cheap for now thats my piece for now good luck on tapeheads

[Swankmotee]

I agree with you about the older Nak cassette decks but I can truly say that the TD-560 is an excellent unit sonically (After Nakdoc locked the azimuth adjusters on the tape head with nail polish to keep them from drifting!) and mates exceptionally well with the musicbank changers. I really miss the glorious sonics that I used to enjoy so I truly hope to reinstall that head unit again if I'm lucky and can find a Nak changer. I'll post back up once it's coming together and thanx for the reply!

[Nakdoc]

I think the price is a bit high, but the old Nak amps were worth it. I agree too about the PA 300II. Nakamichi went out of their way to design a good amp. In later generations, I think they gave in to the temptation to take shortcuts. Perhaps a bit of patience and you can get a better price. BTW, the company that presently owns the Nak name is still making car amps. I have no experience with the new designs.
The early blue Soundstreams were based on Nakamichi designs, so it is no wonder you like their sound as well.

[Swankmotee]

I think the price is a bit high, but the old Nak amps were worth it. I agree too about the PA 300II. Nakamichi went out of their way to design a good amp. In later generations, I think they gave in to the temptation to take shortcuts. Perhaps a bit of patience and you can get a better price. BTW, the company that presently owns the Nak name is still making car amps. I have no experience with the new designs.
The early blue Soundstreams were based on Nakamichi designs, so it is no wonder you like their sound as well.

Well, ya know since I fell in love with my original 304 that was stolen I'm going to pay the bux to get back to that glorious, tonal bliss again and it should blend really well with that 644S and some Focal seperates. Thanx again to you for all your bench tweakin' badness on my behalf!

[giant haystacks]

i have 2 pure class a soundstreams one is a 3.0 it is plainer blue and had another model a 6.0
the other one i have is a chrome one a 5.0 and it had another model a very sought after a 10.0 at least a few years back they were sought after
these sort of amps occasinally come up for sale in italy in europe
these were pure class a which i think there were very few of
the company genesis made 2
luxman made 1
soundstream made 4
i think that was all that i know of
but the real test on the set of klipsch horn the 2 soundstreams sounded buzzey
the soundstream continuum sounded lean and bright
the nakamichi 100pa was run away winner you will see photos of this amp on e bay for sale in thailand as car audio goes it has as much musicality that i have come across in a car amp
i really would like one of the first car amps which were in heavily sprung american cars a record changer and single ended valve amplification using
a 6v wet battery valve-tube called el95 these they are a great sounding valve they were used in siemens cinema amps called klangfilm there was also a el34 version these were something like old marantz build quality i have heard both these amps.
and new old stock valves from siemens and telefunkten
there is a man in auckland n zealand who has built these battery valve amplifiers . so i think this would be the ultimate treble midrange and maybe add i a pa 400 nakamichi on the bass side of things