Follow up to 3 head deck question

[gonzo]

I can get a nak LX 5 (non working) but visually in good condition with "low" mileage or a working CR-1A working. I know the latter is a 2 head deck. Is the LX-5 worth getting and fixing? I am told that Naks are often expensive to fix and maintain and you need someone really good at Nak repair to fix it. Or should I look for a non-nakamichi 3 head deck, probably overall less $$. Thanks Norm

[Scorpion8]

It depends on you, your wallet, and your patience. A nice Nak is always a joy to have, but some of them can be real biyatches to get and keep working right. And spendy. And is there a reason it has yto be 3-head? There are few true pluses in 3-head decks over 2-head decks, and to make a point even Nak made 2-head decks and sold lots of them. You could find a nice simple Nak 480 fairly cheap, and they are simple Sankyo-mechanism dual capstan decks that are easy to work on with only a few drawbacks (dreaded orange cap disease, amongst them).

But there are lots of superb 2-head decks out there. I also have an LX-3 and it's a good deck, but not my favorite. And a 581 2-head deck but it has issues and will be very pricey to fix right.

[Battlesnoopy]

I have an LX-5 that I like a great deal. It takes full advantage of being 3-head by having instant off the tape monitoring - this allows you to hear the tape play as it's being recorded, so you can adjust bias by ear and any and all problems with the tape such as distortion and dropout are immediately apparent. This feature alone has spoiled me during serious music recording, I haven't made a tape for personal listening on another deck since then. Add that to the fact that the transport is so rock solid and flutter free that they were able to put a pad lifter on the head to save wear and get rid of scrape flutter... Big-> HOWEVER, this is with fresh belts, proper tape speed and properly aligned heads... I believe the LX-5 is on the list for orange cap, and I'm not sure yet how available new belts are, since mine came with new ones I haven't looked yet. And yes, just getting them isn't always too cheap and if it needs professional servicing, also not cheap. IMO, it's worth getting and fixing if you like the features and are audiophile enough to appreciate the subtle differences you can give your recordings with the bias/tape monitoring, and once you've had it serviced (including any caps that could go bad...) you shouldn't need to have it done again for quite a while down the road. I use mine daily, often for many hours at a time, and all I've had to do yet is clean the heads. In my experiece this particular deck is solid.

Sorry if this post was a tad wordy but I tend to gush about this deck *nerd*

[Scorpion8]

... Add that to the fact that the transport is so rock solid and flutter free that they were able to put a pad lifter on the head to save wear and get rid of scrape flutter...

ACtually, head wear was not the issue that Nak was correcting (in their engineer's minds) but that a separate topic.

[Mr. Lin]

Good info, the LX-5 is a Nak I've considered getting.