The Dragon only uses the right stereo channel for azimuth alignment so it shouldnt make any difference. Of course, after ingest one channel would need to be reversed. The weakness of the Dragon would be in a recording where the right channel is very poor in the highs but the left OK. Swapping head connections wouldnt work as the special repro head is only designed to sense azimuth angle on the right track/pole piece. I guess azimuth would need to be adjusted manually. Tim. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List" <[log in to unmask]> To:<[log in to unmask]> Cc: Sent:Fri, 26 Jul 2019 11:27:13 +0000 Subject:Re: [ARSCLIST] [EXTERNAL] Re: [ARSCLIST] Cassette pressure pads, Nakamichi Dragon NAAC Azimuth Correction with link Hopefully nothing, because if it did anything, it would indicate that the Dragon could potentially mess up the phase relationships between the two channels in any stereophonic recording. Best, Gary Gary Galo Audio Engineer Emeritus The Crane School of Music SUNY at Potsdam, NY 13676 "Great art presupposes the alert mind of the educated listener." Arnold Schoenberg "A true artist doesn't want to be admired, he wants to be believed." Igor Markevitch "If you design an audio system based on the premise that nothing is audible, on that system nothing will be audible." G. Galo ________________________________ From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of ROBINSON Stuart <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, July 26, 2019 6:37:52 AM To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [ARSCLIST] Cassette pressure pads, Nakamichi Dragon NAAC Azimuth Correction with link Slightly off topic, but I've come across 2 commercial cassettes in my time that were 180 degrees out of phase, presumably a terrible mistake at some point during the duplication process that nobody noticed, I wonder what the Dragon would do under those circumstances? Stuart Robinson Archival Audio-Visual Technician, School of Scottish Studies Archives University of Edinburgh -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martin Fisher Sent: 26 July 2019 01:56 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Cassette pressure pads, Nakamichi Dragon NAAC Azimuth Correction with link Beautiful! Thanks Richard. This tells me exactly what I wanted to know. :-) Martin ________________________________________ From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Richard L. Hess <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2019 4:57 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Cassette pressure pads, Nakamichi Dragon NAAC Azimuth Correction with link Hi, Martin, NAAC (Nakamichi Automatic Azimuth Correction) as implemented on the Dragon is interesting. It adjusts over a more limited range than the wide ranging field (especially oral history) cassettes that I've had to digitize, so it is not a cure-all. I have Nakamichi MR-1s as well. Yes, azimuth drifts along the length of the tape and I often monitor it with Stereotool.com 's display, one for each cassette. I'ave modified my Dragons to be remotely manually adjustable, using an "up/down" spring-loaded toggle switch. NAAC generally does NOT readjust in the middle of a tape in my experience--although I may have caught it doing it once or twice, it doesn't seem to do it when I'd want it. Here is the explainer on how the Dragon's NAAC works (and other things about this interesting machine). https://www.dropbox.com/s/ca8ksp4q6gga35k/Nak_dragon_folder.pdf?dl=0 Cheers, Richard On 2019-07-25 12:42 p.m., Martin Fisher wrote: > I haven't done exhaustive research into Nakamichi decks but if anyone can either point me to something that describes how the azimuth correction works on these decks (not azimuth theory but how the decks actually do the correction) I would be most grateful. I'm very wary of equipment that supposes it can do a better job than a discerning ear and even a modicum of common sense along with (and this is most important) caring enough to do it right. -- Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask] Aurora, Ontario, Canada 647 479 2800 http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes. The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. ------------------------- Email sent using Optus Webmail