Nakamichi MB-70

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I saw this review and it sounded so identical to my experiences I just thought I would chime in to say that I owned the same setup: CD-45z + MB-400. How would I rate my experience with the Nak? The first year was great. I had no skipping or any other problems. The audio was excellent. About 1 year 8 months into usage, the problems started happening. At first it was just the occassional fussiness about ejecting a CD. Then, suddenly one day it just decided it was time to stop responding to me. My disc was inside the head unit and it refused to do anything with the disc. Unfortunately unlike other head units there is no particuarly convenient/easy way to get a unit that has decided its head unit is dead to respond and give you the disc back. I ended up disassembling the top cover of the unit and manually moving the gears that drove the slot mechanism to free my disc. Whew, glad that worked. ;)

Moving on, the radio still worked--as if that was any solace. So, I muddled on with the MusicBank playing all of my CDs for a while until it started exhibiting weirdness as well. Needless to say, it eventually gave up the ghost.

The real problems came when dealing with Nakamichi service--the lack thereof being the most important part. The company clearly makes some stellar products for sound quality, but I have never seen such awful response times--okay, until recent experiences with Mark Levinson. The takeaway for all purchasers should be not only to avoid Nakamichi, but in general it is wise to look at the current financial state of a business. If they are close to filing either chapter 11/13 and/or looking to be bought out, that is not likely a time to be purchasing a product from that company--no matter how good the product might be. It is somewhat tragic to have to say things like this as once you have the wisdom to avoid companies with financial problems, it (of course) only makes their financial problems worsen--rapidly. Nonetheless, this could be seen as a good thing as it will remove a competitor from the market who is clearly unable to build a product that combines sonic quality with reliability.

Strengths:
Great sound--while it lasts.

Weaknesses:
Terrible quality control. Terrible service. Nakamichi has essentially left the North American market entirely. Avoiding them would be a wise decision.

If there were ratings lower than zero, the Nak would deserve them. The value proposition for a product that causes as many headaches as this product does is just awful. I likely spent 50 hours dealing with problems with the Nak. I don't know about you, but I make a lot of money in 50 hours and would gladly have used them in a more productive manner than being hassled by Nakamichi products.

Similar Products Used:
Eclipse, Alpine CDA-9805 (replaced the Nak)

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $325.00 from eBay (but orginally

Year / Model Reviewed:
2002 MB-70 6-disc in-dash changer

Summary:
Nak's Music Banks...bad enough in a stable home environment, really poor engineering for the road. Shame I had to find it out the hard way. But at the time I had reasonably good experiences with my earlier Nak gear like my Dragon tape deck and my even better CR-7A. On the mobile side my old TD-700 tape deck was a pretty steady unit, with only some occasional fussiness with the spring mechanism controlling the tape slot door, and a horribly slow clock. Even my MB-2 home CD player was still working strong (at the time). So loaded with those pleasant experiences, and Nak's rep for solid SQ performance, I went with the MB-70 in conjunction w/ their CD-45z H/U. Additionally, I added their external 20-bit DAC-101 D/A converter to handle the digital out from the MB-70 before being routed into the 45z for distribution to the amps. Purchased on eBay, the item was brand new and had never been installed (fact is, it never even looked liked it had been out of the box when I inspected it after I picked it up from the seller in-person). It was from the same audio store where I had originally purchased my 45z from. This MB-70 was part of an insurance settlement, but the victim ended up buying a new car with a decent factory audio setup instead, so off to eBay this MB-70 went, where I was the "lucky" winning bidder. Or so I thought. The MB-70 went in about a year after the 45z. Easy to install; with not much adjustment for the end user/installer to make. Sonically, a feast for the ears when used with the DAC-101. But from the very start the mechanical bugaboos existed. Particular disc slots (#2 and #4, specifically) were more prone to mistracking and skipping. Lane dots were enough to cause the MB-70 to skip (usually backwards 10-30 seconds), and this on a factory suspension and 70-series tires! After about a year, the MB-70 froze altogether, basically sealing in the 5 discs loaded in it at the time. Nak supposedly had a local shop signed up to do the repair (est. $200), but this was during the time when the company was in bankruptcy protection and was about to change owners. The local shop gave up because Nakamichi USA would not send the necessary parts. Subsequently, the only way to get the unit repaired was to send it direct to Nak. After 6 months and $400(!) later, the unit was supposedly fixed. But now all the middle fours disc slots skipped easily (where it was only #2 and #4 before). Lousy repair, expensive repair; more than what I originally paid for the unit itself. Pure mediocrity with its construction quality. In-dash changers have had a tough time of it. Pioneer gave up with theirs, and I've heard about numerous problems with the MBs from other Nak owners. But the current in-dash unit I'm using, Eclipse's last unit (5962, I believe) has so far been solid, though I hope I didn't just jinx it by saying so. Shame it doesn't have a digital out, however. But back to the subject at hand...the Nak's glaring transport problems simply don't merit comparison to ANY of their competitions' past or present units. Great SQ doesn't mean a thing if the bloody thing won't play. And then to add insult to injury, my home MB-2 went on the fritz (bad transport). I wish someone had warned me a long time ago...STAY AWAY from this Music Bank garbage of Nak's, used AND even the NEW ones, until they can PROVE that they've FINALLY GOT THEIR ACT TOGETHER.

Strengths:
Easy question: none. At least none that can even come close to overcoming the tremendous deficiencies.

Weaknesses:
Transport, transport, TRANSPORT. Lousy, EXPENSIVE Nakamichi service, customer support; hopefully it's better NOW, now that a more stable ownership group is in place(?).

Similar Products Used:
Sony 10-disc, Kenwood 6-disc (both non in-dash units); Eclipse in-dash.