Tandberg 3014 Deck

[braxus]

Ok. Its been said some don't think this deck is all its said to be as the best deck ever made. If you think so I'd like to know why. Alternatives would be a Nak ZX-9 or Revox B215. Who else has had one of these and what can you say about it?

[Nak_novice]

Like you BRAXUS, this deck is also on my wish list one day or perhaps the similar but enigmatic TCD-910. I would be very interested in the opinions of any owners out there who may share with us their experiences.

My Wish List has just been reshuffled though as a good R2R deck has acquired the top spot.

[itzmike]

When I get mine tweaked just right I cant tell a difference. Yes it does take time. Bulk erase, clean and demagnetize and listen-- adjust--listen--adjust until I get it deadon or close to deadon. Last several nights been using a Sony SR and it was so close to the original. So close it dont matter to me. With Maxell MX-S and Vertex It is hard for me to tell if at all. The reason I dont own a NAK is the playability on other decks. Naks have a strong following but I have heard they color the sound. Something else about Naks. They made different price range decks. Just because a Dragon is good does not mean all are as good. To me NAKs dont look like esoteric stereo equipment. Tandberg, with the exception of the 3034 concentrated only on their best effort. OK, the 910 and 911 were A+ with prices $10,000 I have read. But very short runs. Just giving you my opinion. Yeah I know Tandberg parts are hard to get. I'll take my chances. Lets hear from you.!!!!!

[Nak_novice]

When I get mine tweaked just right I cant tell a difference. Yes it does take time. Bulk erase, clean and demagnetize and listen-- adjust--listen--adjust until I get it deadon or close to deadon. Last several nights been using a Sony SR and it was so close to the original. So close it dont matter to me. With Maxell MX-S and Vertex It is hard for me to tell if at all. The reason I dont own a NAK is the playability on other decks. Naks have a strong following but I have heard they color the sound. Something else about Naks. They made different price range decks. Just because a Dragon is good does not mean all are as good. To me NAKs dont look like esoteric stereo equipment. Tandberg, with the exception of the 3034 concentrated only on their best effort. OK, the 910 and 911 were A+ with prices $10,000 I have read. But very short runs. Just giving you my opinion. Yeah I know Tandberg parts are hard to get. I'll take my chances. Lets hear from you.!!!!!

How does the 3014A calibrate itself to the tape, or is it a manual operation to set the bias and level or what? They really do look like they have quality parts and seem fairly indestuctable. Parts are a concern, anything critical that are not available?

Nakamichi decks in my opinion are all very good. The discrete 3 head decks are very very good. I will accept that some are not particularly attractive, but they can sound amazing. The later decks do tend to sound more digital than the earlier classic transport decks that do favourably colour the sound. The Dragon sounds very different to me from all the other Naks. You need not worry about playability on other decks. If you get a well set up deck, you won't want to listen to other decks very often. If you do, just play the tapes on the decks that recorded them. This ensures that they all get turned over once in a while.

Spares for Naks: All rubber is available, 99% of electronic parts are available (or a workable substitute). Cosmetic parts only from donor decks.

My Personal List of the 3 best sounding Nak decks:

1. 1000ZXL
2. ZX-9
3. 682ZX

[niklasthedolphin]

I find my TCD 910 better sounding and better recording than the Nakamichi's ZX-9, CR7, Dragon, 1000ZXL, The Teac Z-line and The Revox B710/215.

I wish I had the TCD 911 to play my tapes but I guess it would be on very thin margins that I should hear the difference.

But any of these machines do a very good job being close to the best all of them.

I don't think any other machines deserves to get into this high end category.

Adjusting for each tape on the TCD 910 is an important thing to do and if you get it right, you get it better than any automatic adjustment can do.
It is time consuming and demanding for your ears and your equipment, though.

"dolph"