Since its introduction, Nakamichi 1000 cassette deck is a very special; In the 1970s Nakamichi created stereo cassette deck that eventually made tape recorders obsolete for consumers. Their cassette recorder was the finest cassette recorder made in the mid-1970s. It had three heads, high quality motors that reduced wow and flutter to new low levels, and had Dolby noise reduction to increase signal to noise ratios. Most audiophiles wanted, but few could afford the Nakamichi 1000, so Nakamichi came out with lesser models such as the Nakamichi 700, a silver instead of black version of the 1000ZXL, and the silver wedge-shaped 600. Nakamichi pushed live recording with their Nakamichi 550, a portable cassette recorder that had three microphone inputs: one for left channel, one for right channel, and one for a center blend channel. This recorder could run from batteries or AC and was used to make very high quality recordings in the field. All of these products were all known for top-notch engineering and sound quality.

Nakamichi 1000 cassette deck

In the late 1970s Nakamichi updated their machines with the Nakamichi 1000 II, the 700 II, and other midrange and low-end models, but overall they became more complex and less reliable, and prices were raised as well. They branched out into other audio components such as amplifiers and eventually speakers, but these products were never as highly regarded by the audio community as their cassette decks were. In the early 1980s Nakamichi came out with further refinements in a successor top-of-the-line machine, the Nakamichi 1000 ZXL. Prices pushed upward again, with this machine being $3,800 at the time. The updated 700ZXL was a mere $3,000. Low-end cassette decks sold new for under $200, with the Nakamichi name on them. This time period stands as the pinnacle for cassette recorders, as from that time forward digital recording methods began to make inroads. 3-Head Cassette Decks - Nakamichi was the first to use a 3 head recording technique. Separate tape heads were used for playback, recording, and erase, whereas prior methods combined the playback/recording function into a single tape head. The three-head mechanism optimized each head and was used on higher end decks from Nakamichi 1000.