View Full Version : Technics to re-issue Dragon-CT
Well, I stumped on this info today, it seems that Matsushita will be re-issuing the Dragon-CT turntable, initially designed by Nakamichi.
Niro Nakamichi will be supervising the implementation, which will be based on the SL-1200 magnetic DD mechanism, although the off-center calculating engine will be based on the initial Nak model.
The new turntable will be commercialized under the brand Technics and model SL-Dragon.
The older Nak Dragon-CT had, as you know an off-center correction mechanism:
Off-center records are a pain and there isn't much one can do if the record is pressed that way! Well, there is something one can do: search for the real center of the record and adjust the turntable platter to budge so that the off-centered record can be read as if it were not off-centered. No small feat on a cassette recorder (for proper head azimuth) but imagine that on a record player !
So, the little arm at the back scans the record groove, decides where the "absolute" center is and the whole turntable assembly then moves accordingly - the cart is no more pushed around left and right and just reads the groove.
Here is a pic:
http://k-nisi.hp.infoseek.co.jp/dragon-ct.jpg
And a picture of the old Dragon-CT:
http://www.allegrosound.com/Nakamichi_Dragon-CT_4.jpg
EDIT: Ooops, perhaps I posted on the wrong section ? :scratch: :o
You know there'll be a few rich audio enthusiasts who'll jump at the chance to own one, no matter how expensive it is..
I wonder how many thousands it'll cost?
The Vinyl Adventure
01-04-2010, 17:10
I ain't buying nothing without links today sorry dimitri...
The Grand Wazoo
01-04-2010, 17:21
Anyone know what date it is today?
Anyone know what date it is today?:lol:
It's after 12 noon, so doesn't count....... :(
What is this "noon" story ? :scratch:
It's only a joke before 12 noon.........
Aaaah.... I see ! :lol:
:cool:
Pass me that Guiness you're drinking will ya? :D
:D I'll get you another one, it's finished !!
My joke was not good, it has a time lag... it's like the forum: you post it in the morning it takes hours to come to life !!! :lolsign:
Nice try Dimitri, nice try!
Beechwoods
01-04-2010, 21:06
Anyone know what date it is today?
:doh: Had me there. I'd already started saving my pennies!
The Grand Wazoo
01-04-2010, 22:33
I could see there were a few folks begining to dribble & go green eyed, so I thought their misery should be terminated. Sorry to spoil yer fun Dimitri!
The Nak' one was a bit of a thing to behold, though. I made my acquaintence with them years ago when an old school friend who worked as an engineer for a certain company that owned one (well two or three, actually!) showed me around his 'office' late one evening! He works in Japan now, but I feel I still need to protect his identity!
Rare Bird
01-04-2010, 22:46
I never liked the Nak to be honest, i'm not one for Dark looking decks..What i always wanted was one of these below. Never got one, i eventually did get a 'PD300' tho was actually one of the best TT i ever had!
http://digilander.libero.it/bellocaddo/turntables/luxman_pd555.jpg
Sorry to spoil yer fun Dimitri!
You didn't spoil anything, Chris !!! Half of the fun was in writing the article and the other half is in your reading it and -eventually- silently smiling. :)
The Nak' one was a bit of a thing to behold, though. I made my acquaintence with them years ago when an old school friend who worked as an engineer for a certain company that owned one (well two or three, actually!) showed me around his 'office' late one evening! He works in Japan now, but I feel I still need to protect his identity!
There's some history with this turntable on thevintageknob.org :
If the TX-1000 was designed by Etsuro Nakamichi (but quite probably built by Micro Seiki), the Dragon CT was "sourced" elsewhere : Nakamichi commissioned Junichi Okumura, then at Fujiya Audio Ltd, to design the CT after the basic goal outlined by Etsuro ! This explains the large differences in approach and engineering between the TX and the CT.
Fujiya was later in the 1980s absorbed by NEC and units such as the Dragon CT were scrapped from the books. And when NEC shut down its own audio/video activities in the mid 1990s, well, the Dragon CT definitively vanished from the landscape.
The TX 1000 and the Dragon CT used two completely different means to accomplish the same end. The whole turntable assembly moves is true of the TX 1000 but not the Dragon CT. On the Dragon CT, a small piston pushes a glass platter (and rubber mat) into alignment. This glass "superplatter" rests above the main platter/drive assembly, which does not move.
The Dragon CT is a much simpler, more elegant (I use the term "elegant" in the way a physicist would) solution
These turntable cannot be repaired anymore, it seems (no more parts), so, it's hard to use them on an everyday basis... :cool:
Rare Bird
02-04-2010, 11:02
Heres a proper machine..
http://www.niji.or.jp/home/k-nisi/px-100m-h.jpg
We Linnies couldn't see the point of the PD300 after the fantastic Colloms review(s) and it wasn't until several months later when a client bought in his PD300 with Mission 774 and AT95E that the penny finally dropped. This combo with cheapo cartridge sounded superb and at least as good as the top Linn setup we had, with Ittok and possibly Troika as well (and I did used to care very much about the LP12 setup back then).
Rare Bird
02-04-2010, 11:24
We Linnies couldn't see the point of the PD300 after the fantastic Colloms review(s) and it wasn't until several months later when a client bought in his PD300 with Mission 774 and AT95E that the penny finally dropped. This combo with cheapo cartridge sounded superb and at least as good as the top Linn setup we had, with Ittok and possibly Troika as well (and I did used to care very much about the LP12 setup back then).
Aye
http://luxman.fotopic.net/p387460.html
Fantastic quality dust covers aswell to be expected from Micro Seiki
Beechwoods
02-04-2010, 13:46
What I wonder is why some of these innovations, the off-centre compensation on a TT, automatic playback azimuth control on a cassette deck, weren't adopted by subsequent developers? Were these ideas the victims of restrictive patents that meant the ideas couldn't be developed by anyone else? It's a bloody shame. Unless these ideas didn't actually make a difference to overall performance.
Because they were bloody expensive to implemate and in the case of the Dragon cassette deck, not always reliable, being terminally beaten by some tapes.
Actually, as years went on, the tolerances for head alignment etc was tightened up (had to be with Dolby C and especially S) and IMO the head azimuth was more constant. Although the Dragon cassette deck lasted a long time and had tweaks done to keep it at or very near the top of the tree, the CR7 was where Naks were at back then.
Beechwoods
02-04-2010, 20:19
What did the CR-7 have over the Dragon, Dave? The obvious thing to me would be human control of the variable azimuth, or was there something else?
At the time IIRC, the CR7 was regarded as one of the finest cassette decks made, if not the finest of them all, according to some reviews anyway. The Dragon was introduced many years previously and was more like the excellent ZX9 IMO, the next small step down but still good.
A mate bought a late Dragon and although mine had long gone, I remember his meters were "faster" in response and when I made enquiries, I was told the Dragon hadn't stood still in the intervening years, although I never looked inside any of them with a critical eye. Certainly the obvious "improvements" to Naks was the gradual reduction in excess wiring and less discrete components as IC's improved.
When I moved into the little house I had, I had a CR7 in a two tier rack underneath the Mentor, which dominated it. I never used it and when my mate bought it and was cleaning it prior to packing, I remember being impressed for the first time just how good it looked (the beer may have had a bit to do with it as well...).
I have a Denon DRM34HX in the loft and haven't used it for two years now. I suspect the head-block springs are shagged though disuse... I have a small collection of precious cassettes, but don't know when or of they'll be played again.
Rare Bird
03-04-2010, 11:18
The most amusing thing i ever owned although i did hate it was the Nak RX505..The loading drawer would pop out & the whole cassete would flip itself around..All these fancy gadget bullshit is asking for trouble in the long run..
At a show once, they had an RX machine turning a cassette over and over and over and over and over and over.............
Beechwoods
03-04-2010, 22:01
I wonder if it ended up sold as 'ex-dem' :)
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