Discrete 3-Head Technology
Nakamichi invented the concept and introduced the world’s first three-head cassette recorder in 1973.
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Other brands have followed, and now three-head technology is synonymous with quality. Yet all three-head recorders are not the same. Most use “sandwich” heads that combine the record and play sections in a single housing. While these certainly offer advantages over “combination” record/play heads, they do not afford the full benefits of three discrete heads. Nakamichi came to the conclusion that sandwiching two heads into a single housing does not assure that the effective magnetic gaps are precisely parallel, even if they are mechanically parallel, and that such a configuration does not eliminate changes in performance due to the vagaries of cassette housings (the purported advantage of the “sandwich” head.) These differences are not so apparent if 15 KHz response is all that is to be expected from a standard cassette deck.
3 Heads
