Not all Nakamichis were high end, fire-breathing Dragons. David Price looks at one of the company's classic 'budget' babies, the 480.

It's easy to think of Nakamichi as purveyors of frighteningly expensive, telephone number price tag esoterica. Thanks to its much vaunted Dragon and MusicLink ranges, the company has achieved legendary status. Like Luxman, MacIntosh, Revox or Goldmund, its brand name enjoys guilt-edged, 24 carat gold-plated surety. The chances of Nakamichi doing anything even remotely affordable are less than seeing flying pigs, right?        
 
Wrong. In truth, the 480 is not a budget product by normal standards - when launched in 1978 it cost more than most companiesí all-singing, all-dancing range toppers. But selling for just £220 - mere Linn Sondek money! 
 
Purists may decry it for being 'just' a two head design (and therefore lacking the all-important split record/play head so beloved by serious tape worms), but this is to misunderstand the Nakamichi tradition. Some ten years earlier, the company wasn't building unfeasibly expensive audio esoterica, but learning its craft doing a vast range of OEM gear for others.        
 
How does a Fischer Nakamichi (1969's RC-70) sound - or a Marlux (1972's 5000), or a Motorola (1970's NR-147), or a Sansui (1973's SC-700), a Sylvania (1971's SY-32) or a Concord (1971's MK-1X)? Then there was a Harman Kardon (1967's CAD-4a), a Saba (1974's CR835), a Norelco (1971's 2100), a Sonab (1977's C-500) and a Leak (1973's 2001) - yes really! 

Add Goodmans, Philips and Elac to the list of names Nakamichi designed and manufactured cassette decks for in its early years, and you soon see that there's more to this company than a few eighties Yuppie fashion accessories.        
 
All this work gave Nakamichi the resources to develop its own components. Where other cassette deck manufacturers bought in motors and tape heads off the shelf from OEM manufacturers, Nakamichi developed their own bespoke designs at great expense. In practice, this meant quieter, torquier motors and heads with higher MOLs and lower distortion. The result was clear to hear, as well as resulting in some pretty impressive measured specifications.        
 
The 480 then, despite its relatively modest feature set, was packed with only the finest ingredients - a Nakamichi RP-9E record/ replay head and E-8L erase head, plus 3 bespoke Nakamichi motors that ran silent and smoothly. 

No variable bias was offered - it came preset for the company's own brand of EX, SX, ZX tapes - that's Ferric, Ferrichrome and Chrome to you and me - but could of course be re-set by your friendly local Nakamichi dealer. Tape counter, record level sliders and fast acting meters aside, that was your lot. 

Compared to equivalently priced high end Jap designs, it was a model of simplicity and ergonomic purity - you put the tape in, waited for a second as the auto tensioner took up the slack, and then pressed record. No setting up, fiddly adjustments or tape calibration - it just got on with the job. And being a Nakamichi, who needed a third head anyway, because you just knew the recording would turn out perfect.?        
 
Sound is superb even by today's standards. It's clean and crisp, with powerful, well articulated and tuneful bass, a wide and expansive midband with bold imaging and a clear, bell-like treble. Wow, flutter, crackle, hiss, break-up, distortion? Of course not - this isn't an Aiwa, Sony or JVC we're talking about here! 

The major drawback is that being a late seventies design, there was no metal tape facility - at a stroke limiting tape choice today. Still, if you can live with TDK SA, you'll be amazed by the results.        
 
In 1980, the 480z arrived with the addition of a fine bias adjuster, and the 482 appeared with a discrete 3-head transport. These are equally desirable second-hand acquisitions, but somehow dilute Nakamichi's pure, bare-bones, 'less is more' concept that the 480 so eloquently espoused. Today, all are available for between £150 and £200 in mint condition. 

They're all beautiful bits of kit, showing a crispness of design and ergonomic brilliance that today's CD recorder manufacturers could do well to emulate. The fact that they're built so well makes them a safe used bet, too - which is something you can't say about cassette decks very often. Like a classic 1970s Mercedes, the quality remains after the fashion has gone.