Nakamichi MB-1 Info

[gto127]

A guy on ebay has a MB-1 which he claims has a world class chip that Nak was sued by McIntosh over. Anyone have any knowledge of this? I always thought MB-1 was just a cosmetic redo of their year earlier CD Player 1. There is almost no info of either unit on web other than just DAC's used.

 

[stephensank]

Absolute nonsense. The MB1/CDPlayer1 does use a then-innovative use of staggered 18bit r2r dacs to create allegedly 20bit performance, using a PCM1700 dual dac per channel, but the exotic-ness ends there. The McIntosh connection is ONLY that they adopted the CDPlayer2/MB2(same as the 1, but with opamp output stages instead of discrete) as their MCD7008 model, with the fancy Mac chassis/cosmetics being the only change from the Nak model. There was never any controversy between Mac & Nak. A really mint MB1, with three new belts installed, is worth these days only about 300-400usd. That ebay seller is dreaming with his price. It is a great sounding player, and, with new belts, my pick for best cd changer ever, but it ain't worth all that much.

 

[gto127]

Thanks Stephen, I did think it was a bit pricey. Are you saying MB1 sounds better than CDPlayer 1 or are they pretty much the same?

 

[stephensank]

No, the MB-1 & CDPlayer1 are exactly the same player, just different cosmetics. The MB-1s/2s/3s/4s that came after were wholly different & not as good players, but the MB-1/2/3 were just cosmetically changed CDPlayer1/2/3. Just for the sake of avoiding confusion.

 

[gto127]

That's kinda what I thought. I had a MB1s and still have a 10s. Both seem much cheaper made than earlier models with 10s appearing to have a car mechanism. Guess they cut costs in late 90's except for Dragons which INMO were overpriced.

 

[stephensank]

The 10s was pretty bad, and was, indeed, the same mech as their indash car changer. The 1s series was at least marginally respectable.