Nakamichi BX-1 Cassette Deck -

Introduced in 1982 the Nakamichi BX-1 and the BX-2 were the first Nakamichi cassette decks to use an outsourced transport, in this case from Sankyo instead of using the built in-house Asuka transports by Nakamichi.

The Asuka transports were extremely well made and robust and tested to cycle tens of thousands of times. The Sankyo transports, though well made often developed issues with belts, idler tires and weak plastic gearing.  Nakamichi designed these decks with the Sankyo transport to cut cost and increase profits.  While that certainly did work for a time, I believe this is what eventually let them into bankruptcy as these cheap transports were used from here on out in the majority of their machines.  

That said, the Nakamchi BX-1 was a really nice sounding deck.  Being a two head design, there was no off the tape monitoring, never a big deal for me.  It was well biased for Nakamichi brand cassettes, essentially private label clones of TDK’s excellent MX, SA and AD cassette tapes, so it also matched well when using Maxell UDXL II and UD tapes which are my personal favorites.

I used the Nakamchi for a couple of years and sold it to a friend for what I paid for it, which was full retail price.  About a year later I learned that the deck had transport failure.  I was surprised, because I never made more than maybe ten or fifteen cassettes with the deck and I know my friend never made any.  He would play the occasional store bought tape, but had a very small collection, so the machine didn't have many miles on it at all.

I replaced the Nakamichi with an Advent 201, and then later a Pioneer CT-F 1250, which I replaced with a Nakamichi 600.  I must have owned nearly 40 cassettes decks over the years and found that the Nakamichi 500 and the Advent 201/201A were my favorites.  I also found that I really loved the smooth, mechanical built in-house Asuka transport, all of which lift the cassette shell pressure pad away from the tape.

The Nakamichi designed and built Asuka transports are so well made that the engineers considered the crude cassette shell pressure pad inadequate for consistent tape to head contact.

If you’re looking for a good basic Nakamichi, the BX-1 should not be overlooked.  It’s easy to service, parts are plentiful for the Sankyo transport and the machine runs smoothly and sounds very good.  Many feel that these are not “real” Nakamichi’s due to the third party transports.  I kind of feel like that too.  But the final assembly and the electronics are all Nakamichi.  So say what you will.  

These are good machines, easy to service and sound great.  If you’re looking for a machine to use day in and day out for years to come, then I would choose something a bit more robust.  More to come!