A DECADE HAS GONE BY since Nakarnichi-which had been building cassette equipment for other companies-offcrcd thc first deck under its own name. And what a dcck it was: At $1,000. the I000 cost more than twice as much as any other deck on the tnarket ($350 was the going rate for a top niodel) and incorporated a degree of technical sophistication undreamed of by home recordists. Over the intervening ycars, the top Nakamichis have become even more sophisticated (and expensive), and some much more affordable models have appeared. Our present subject, thc BX-I, is Nakamichi’s least expensive deck ever (by a small margin) and its best value ever (by a large one).
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