Nakamichi 500 (1971–1976)

Name: Nakamichi 500
Brand: Nakamichi

The Nakamichi 500 was the company's first cassette deck and, by most accounts, one of the very first three-head cassette recorders ever made. It was portable. It ran on batteries or a 12-volt DC source and had built-in microphones and speakers. Three heads in a carry-around machine was unusual for the early 1970s.

The 500 was a three-head design. Record and playback heads were separate, so you could monitor the recording as it was being made, which was almost unheard of in portable cassette gear of the era. It also used a stable transport. The deck had microphone and line inputs (0.5 mV and 60 mV respectively), a line output of 350 mV, and a headphone jack. Distortion was rated at less than 2%, with a signal-to-noise ratio of 50 dB. Wow and flutter was a respectable ±0.15%.

There is some disagreement in the surviving documentation about the frequency response. Several sources list it as 70 Hz–15 kHz ±3 dB, while others quote figures of 40–18,000 Hz for the recorder section and 40–15,000 Hz for playback. The discrepancy likely reflects different tape formulations or measurement standards, but without a definitive original spec sheet it's hard to say which is correct. Production years are similarly muddled — most sources place the introduction in 1972, though one database lists production from 1971 to 1976.

What's clear is that the 500 was a landmark product. High Fidelity (January 1975, p.85) ran an advertisement describing Nakamichi's "Tri-Tracer" three-head cassette system as a "revolution in recording technology" that achieved performance "previously regarded as, all but, impossible in the cassette format."

Collectors today take the 500 seriously. Recent listings show asking prices around $795–$800 USD, and a Yahoo Auctions listing in Japan drew a bid of ¥66,000.

Known specifications: