Please remember that we HAVE to talk about these pieces of equipment as they are today, not what they were like when new. Argueably, many decks can be brought to better than new specs, with new electronics, better rubbers, etc, so everything is variable. I may think my deck works perfect, and is ok and it may be way out, but I try ;-)...so it really depends on what you are comparing.
The lowest 2 head Nak is no contest against a TOTL Teac. The 681ZX was a TOTL in its time, like $1600 when new, so OF COURSE, if it's up to snuff it would eat it up and spit $600 Teac out. And to anyone who's listened to high quality music it's painfully obvious, like, "I better put this on ebay with a $20 BIN ASAP" kind of obvious. Apples to apples, Nak only had competition from other very high end consumer electronics (Akai, B&O, Tandberg, Revox, a few others) . But were ALWAYS WAY more expensive for the features and published specs of it's competitors (except maybe Revox, who published worse specs and higher prices), yet they STILL sold well, better than similarly priced, high end decks, IIRC. Even discounted they were still higher than most others list prices! IMHO, (and I am by no means a Nak expert in any sense, just a user) their strengths were that they brought a very high level of synergy to their products, great controls, great heads, great electronics, great adjustability, etc, etc. so compared to the average deck of the time, they had very few equals. They pushed what they saw as the envelope. When I play a high quality pre-recorded tape on either of the Naks, I have to A-B to the CD to tell the difference..not so with any of my other decks. I can tell it's a tape on them. Naturally, I've not heard every high quality deck, but I've heard a lot of them, both when they were new and my ears were young, and now, when I KNOW I can't be hearing as well as back then, and no other deck I ever heard compared to a TOTL Nak of the same era. They are normally colorless, whereas almost every other deck seems to add (or subtract) something to music, though it may not show up when you do a frequency sweep. When I play something new and still get that sh1t eating grin when the music plays, vs thinking "hmm, that bass ,( cymbal, what ever,) doesn't sound quite right," I know Nak did something right. Luckily they built so friggin many of them, that they can still be maintained.
That said, the Revox B710 & B215 are built better, (which I agree with), but don't sound as sweet. Supposedly Tandberg 3014s (when they work) sound better. I had a friend (still do) in the 70's & 80's that swore by Tandberg, and he had a few pieces, and they sounded great. But every single one just stopped working, at different times and always for no reason..no abuse, no lightning, nothing. I've seen more non-working Tandberg than any high end brand that I can think of. He still owns them, in hopes of someday deciding they are worth getting fixed.
Nak never had Dolby S or dbx, and never went to the later tape standards. WTF? I've read (both when it happened and here on AK) that Nak stated that they didn't NEED to change, as the changes were necessary for lesser manufacturers to achieve better sound. I'd love to hear a Teac V-8000. That would tell me a lot. Can you imagine if Nak had pushed the wider record path to the limit that they took the old standard to? Naks were already the most expensive decks inthe world, don't you think they could afford to license dolby S or dbx as well? I remember in the 80's thinking that if Nak wasn't making the effort, then tapes were truly dead.
THE best?? I can't say that, there are very few really THE bests that I can think of. Consistently one of the best? You bet.
