Nakamichi

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Nakamichi

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1948
Seat Tokyo , Japan
Branch Consumer electronics
Website www.nakamichi.com

Nakamichi KK ( Japanese ナ カ ミ チ 株式会社 , Nakamichi Kabushiki kaisha ) is a Japanese manufacturer of consumer electronics and was a pioneer in the development of high-quality cassette decks .

Beginnings

It was founded in 1948 by Etsuro Nakamichi in Tokyo as the research institute Nakamichi Research. The focus was on electromagnetism, magnetic recording technology, acoustics and communication. Initially, contract research was carried out for government, universities and industry. Reel tape recorders developed by Nakamichi were sold under other major trade names . With the development of the music cassette , Nakamichi also produced high-quality cassette devices, in some cases for other large companies.

Pioneer in cassette deck technology

The top model Nakamichi Dragon was considered one of the best high-end cassette decks in the 1980s , the price was around 4,000  DM .

In 1973 Nakamichi was one of the first manufacturers to introduce recorders with three tape heads , the Nakamichi 1000 and the Nakamichi 700. This made direct rear tape control possible, i.e. listening to or checking the recorded music signal while the recording was still in progress. This also improves the sound quality, because different air gap dimensions are ideal for recording heads than for playback heads. In the USA , these two recorders were given the tri-tracer suffix to draw attention to the new technology.

In the 1980s, Nakamichi's best-known device was the Dragon cassette deck , which combined three tape heads with an automatic azimuth adjustment of the playback head. This means that recordings with an azimuth error, for example from third-party devices, can be reproduced in high quality. This technology was originally developed by Marantz , but in contrast to their piezo-controlled system, Nakamichi used conventional electric servomotors .

Nakamichi RX 505 cassette deck with auto reverse, in which the cassette was automatically mechanically turned at the end of the tape

Another exclusive feature in Nakamichi were the so-called UDAR cassette deck ( U ni D irectional A uto R everse) of the RX series. In contrast to conventional autoreverse devices, the tape head was not turned at the end of the tape or at the push of a button and the direction of the tape was reversed at the same time, but instead the cassette in the device was rotated using a special mechanism . This happened just as quickly as changing the belt direction in conventional devices. The advantage of this technology is, on the one hand, that the capstans can continue to run, which benefits the synchronization especially in the first few seconds, and, on the other hand, that the tape head is permanently mounted, which helps the azimuth accuracy.

Other types of devices

SCSI 5-way CD changer

In the 1980s, Nakamichi also manufactured all the other components of a typical stereo system at the time, but despite their high quality, they did not even come close to being as well known and widely used as the cassette decks. One explanation for the rather low market success is the futuristic -looking , rather sober design with partly angular geometric shapes, whereby the devices were almost entirely black. Other manufacturers of high-priced hi-fi products such as Luxman would have better met customer tastes with their products. In addition, Nakamichi would never have offered a wide range of devices in different price ranges like other manufacturers.

The program included approximately 20,000 DM (in today's money value 20,000 euros ) expensive high-end - Turntable TX-1000 with computer-controlled compensation of synchronization errors , receiver , tuner , CD player , amplifier , speakers and amplifier combinations of separate preamp and power amp . Many of these devices are still in demand today, such as the 27 kg PA-7e power amplifier from the late 1980s with 330 watts of sine output into 4  ohms , for which a license from Threshold was used. The final stage cost around 4,500  DM , according to today's purchasing power around 4,100 euros. The associated pre-amplifier CA-7e cost 7,000 DM, today around 6,400 euros. Both devices are still used today at prices well over 1,000 euros each.

Nakamichi also built CD changers for CD-ROMs in the 1990s . These devices held up to 7 CDs and were addressed via the SCSI interface.

Economic difficulties from the 1990s

Nakamichi Titan , LED TV with 3D capability from 2011.

In the 1990s, cassette decks were gradually completely displaced from the market by other digital recording media, initially by recordable CDs and later also by MP3 technology. With the cassette decks, the strongest sales driver also disappeared.

The company was also represented on the European market until 1993, but then withdrew due to sales and marketing problems. In 1997 the company was acquired by Hong Kong- based The Grande Holdings Ltd. acquired, which also holds the Akai and Sansui brands .

On February 19, 2002, the company filed for bankruptcy under the Civil Reactivation Act ( 民事 再生 法 , minji-saisei-hō ) with a debt of 20 billion yen (€ 170 million). The sales subsidiary Nakamichi Hambai KK ( ナ カ ミ チ 販 売 株式会社 ) was excluded from this . In June 2006, Nakamichi built its first portable DVD player with a built-in Lumos LCD screen .

Nakamichi Kimono 3D LED TV with a housing made of brushed aluminum

On May 31, 2008, Nakamichi Hambai stopped selling Nakamichi products and turned to after-sales management , while Nakamichi himself developed plasma and LCD televisions exclusively for the foreign market.

In the meantime, Nakamichi has become a well-known manufacturer of car hi-fi, which is mainly used by Japanese car manufacturers.

In 2014 Nakamichi presented a 7.1 pre / power amplifier combination , the AV1 / AVP1 .

Web links

Commons : Category: Nakamichi  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ HiFi Classics, Nakamichi , (archive link), accessed on August 8, 2020.
  2. ↑ Stereoplay 03/1983: "Spitzenklasse II" (best rating for cassette decks 1984, for tape machines "Spitzenklasse I"), was used as a reference device.
  3. ↑ a b This cassette deck has its own article in the English Wikipedia: Nakamichi Dragon , which also mentions evidence of azimuth tracking.
  4. ↑ thevintageknob.org, Nakamichi Dragon (English), accessed August 8, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Overview of Nakamichi / HiFi Classics - Directory of classic HiFi devices (archive), accessed January 21, 2014
  6. ↑ Audio 9/1985, Presentation and test of the Nakamichi PA-7.
  7. ↑ Nakamichi CA-7e / HiFi Classics - Directory of classic HiFi devices ( memento of April 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on September 20, 2019.
  8. ↑ Corporate Information. The Grande Holdings Limited, accessed January 19, 2011 .
  9. ↑ ナ カ ミ チ 、 民事 再生 法 を 申請 . In: AV Watch. impress, February 20, 2002, accessed January 19, 2011 (Japanese).
  10. ↑ Nakamichi Lumos Portable DVD Player ( English ) 2007. Accessed April 13, 2020.
  11. ↑ ナ カ ミ チ ブ ラ ン ド 製品 の 国内 販 売 が 5 月 31 日 で 終了 . In: AV Watch. impress, May 12, 2008, accessed January 19, 2011 (Japanese).
  12. ↑ https://nakamichicaraudio.com/ , accessed August 8, 2020.
  13. ↑ whathifi.com from May 15, 2014, Nakamichi AV1 / AVP1 review , accessed April 13, 2020.