Nakamichi Dragon
The Nakamichi Dragon is an audio cassette deck that was introduced by Nakamichi in 1982 and marketed until 1994. The Dragon was the first Nakamichi model with bidirectional replay capability and the world's first production tape recorder with an automatic azimuth correction system; this feature, which was invented by Philips engineers and improved by Niro Nakamichi, continuously adjusts the azimuth of the replay head to minimize apparent head skew and correctly reproduce the treble signal present on the tape. The system allows the correct reproduction of mechanically skewed cassettes and recordings made on misaligned decks. Apart from the Dragon, similar systems have only been used in the Nakamichi TD-1200 car cassette player and the Marantz SD-930 cassette deck.

At the time of its introduction, the Dragon had the lowest-ever wow and flutter and the highest-ever dynamic range, losing marginally to the former Nakamichi flagship the 1000ZXL in frequency response. Competing models by Sony, Studer, Tandberg and TEAC that were introduced later in the 1980s sometimes surpassed the Dragon in mechanical quality and feature set but none could deliver the same mix of sound quality, flexibility and technological advancement. The Dragon, despite inherent issues with long-term reliability, remained the highest point of compact cassette technology.
Q510176
cassette deck
Concept
Q1963952
Nakamichi
ORG
Q124274
azimuth
Concept
Q170416
Philips
ORG
Q1454950
replay head
Concept
Q2827865
treble
UNK
Q1892327
Marantz
ORG
Q1995434
wow and flutter
UNK
Q1161699
dynamic range
Concept
Q1054694
frequency response
UNK
Q41187
Sony
ORG
Q3500925
Studer
ORG
Q1769702
Tandberg
ORG
Q1549408
TEAC
ORG
Q149757
compact cassette
Concept
Q64031545
Nakamichi Dragon
MISC
1982-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1982
DATE
1994-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1994
DATE
1000-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1000
DATE
1980-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1980
DATE
-1200^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-1200
NUMBER
-930^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-930
NUMBER
instance of
manufacturer
inception