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The Nakamichi Dragon was the answer to the dominance of the Revox reel recorders in the sixties and seventies.
Designed as the Nakamichi DR1, it was affectionately called THE DRAGON by its designers.
It became an instant icon of the eighties and owning a Dragon was the same as having a Ferrari or Porsche.
Still, the Dragon was bred as a Professional Audio studio deck and it started the era of the demo tape.
Demo tapes were a practical way for young musicians to become known.
A demo (demonstration) tape was made and sent to record companies or DJs in an effort to become known and popular. Usually these tapes were made on a Nakamichi Dragon and artists like Prince and Bono from U2 probably
started their careers on a Nakamichi Dragon.

Recording a tape on a Dragon is not as easy as recording a MP3 on your computer.
First you had to select your tape: Normal, Chrome or Metal;
You had to select 120 or 70us;
Dolby noise reduction on or off;
Dolby B or C;
Then you start to record a test tone.
By selecting bias adjust you adjusted the factory settings of the tape to that of the Dragon, making it sound exactly like the source.
Finally you used level adjust to make the factory setting of the tape just as loud as that of the Dragon.
Of course you still had to fine tune your input level (left and right and master level), but the Dragon was famous for its low levels of distortion, so you could easily record very high input.

Some critics said that the Dragon wasn't as unbiased in its sound quality as Nakamichi said.
Which is true, the Dragon does have its own distinct sound, affectionately known as "The Dragon's Roar".
Those who have been so lucky to have ever heard a Dragon roar know that it is insanely dynamic and warm, true analog magic which puts all the hairs on your body on edge and gives you instant goose bumps.

In my high school days a Dragon was a rare sight, during the days that Nakamichi made this deck an estimate thirty Dragons were sold in The Netherlands, only three in Leiden.
One day my friend Oliver came running up to me during my break and said: "They have one"!
No need to explain, I forgot about school, we jumped on our bikes and through the wind and rain we raced to CAC Leiden. With our noses pressed to the glass we stood there looking through the store window at the Dragon and we agreed that we had never seen anything so impressingly beautiful.

This is a picture of my Nakamichi DR1 Dragon, six head, auto reverse, professional audio, master reference cassette deck.
She was born in 1983.
She is 29 years old.
She outlived reel recorders, DAT recorders, Mini Disc and the DCC tape.
She is a hell of a girl

The Spirit of Gaudi

Antoni Gaudi, born in 1852, became one of the most famous Modernist architects in the world. This pen and its case are Pelikan's tribute to Gaudi and one of his best-known structures, "La Pedrera," the Casa Milà in Barcelona. The sterling silver overlay on the pen is a representation of the grillworks in the Casa and the case is modeled after one of the fantastical chimneys on the roof.

(Pelikan)

Seeing the Gaudi in The Netherlands is a rare treat, not many of the 1000 Limited Editions made it to this country. So when my fountain pen dealer said he had one I jumped for joy. He let me hold the pen and write with it like he usually does and of course I found it hard to let go of this sublime beauty. Then he made me an offer I couldn't refuse, he said that at least one of these pens should go to someone who doesn't put it on display or in a vault, but actually writes with it
And what do you know, the price he asked for it was the exact same amount as the content of my savings account, ha, ha, ha!
Who could say no to that?

This is No 0543 of a 1000 Limited Editions.

For Anne Miek:

Right, opera, how should I explain.....

Well, we got opera.
Mainly Italian, as that is the source of all human emotion.
We have CDs, LPs and cassettes, this picture is just 20% of what we got.

What we like best is; Madam Butterfly.
Our favorite opera singer is: Maria Callas (figures).
What we don't like is the German nazi who wrote something called a Ring (that isn't opera, it's misery).

This was the fasted way I could explain :)