I've had my Nak RE-2 for about four years. What a great sounding receiver! The amp is great; the phono section quiet; the remote useful (though favoring other Nak components). FM section isn't too good, though. But so what. For the sound, it was a steal at $525. Running it with Definitive DR-7 SMs. Next stop: an expensive integrated.

I believe the RE-2 is the best mid-power receiver on the market. The amp & pre-amp are outstanding; the tuner is OK.
I have this paired with a Nakamichi CD player and the soundstage is open and clear. I highly recommednd the RE-2!

I've had my RE-2 for about 6 years. Many times I've considered replacing it, but have had a difficult time parting with the RE-2. For the price you can't beat it. It runs my four Klipsch Forte's with no problem. I'm sold on Nak and would only replace it with an AV8 or AV10.

I want to first say that I haven't listened to the Nakamichi RE-2 but I have listen to the AV-500 Nakamichi($425) that Best Buy just recevied as compared to the Technics, Sony, Pioneer, and Aiwa on all thier highest end receviers at Best Buy Ranging from $200-$900 and I found the Tenchics to be muffled compared to the AV-500 and for that matter I found the others to be seriously lacking in sound Quilty. My only complaint is that I wish Nakamichi receiver had an AC-3 decoder included in the unit its self instead of only being AC-3 ready.

A great stereo receiver. It's over 5 years old and still sounds much better than all other receivers in its class. Definitely an excellent value.

reliability, quality music reproduction, no non-sense design (no frills)

weak tuner

I am the original owner of the receiver, bought it as my very first receiver. I am still using it to this day, even though I have upgraded my system to McIntosh amps, etc.
There are absolutely no problems with my unit, and i recall i bought them back in 1990 (or early 1990s). as for the the sound quality, i am not professional enough to use flowery words to describe it, but i can tell you that after listening to krell, pass, audio research and Mc, i have no problems listening to the nakamichi.
what i really like about the R2 is the clean design, without all those buttons and displays which overwhelms from a good music listening experience. if a receiver is well designed, there would be no need for all of those controls which colors the music as well as confuses the user.
since it was my first stereo system, my components were not very exotic. they consist of:
JVC CD player,
Sony ES tape deck,
McIntosh's very first pair of speakers ML-1C from 1970
monster speaker cables 12 gauge
but i do have nice interconnects -- VDH silvers, this was needed due to the englishman characteristics of the speakers, i really needed to brighten up the sound.

Similar Products Used:

McIntosh MX113 tuner/preamp