Miles: It could be that the Dragon has auto azimuth adjustment, but so do a lot of other Nakamichis. Getting the best on playback from an old tape might require something of that order. It's possible the original mix was recorded on a Dragon. I have never had issues with Nak recorded tapes not playing back well in many of my cassette decks.
i have all the means to do an excellent digitization and cleanup. i've a mere PIONEER CT-S800 deck, the STANDARD LINE version of the ELITE CT-91,
both are functionally identical, so i essentially have a CT-91, and both have LaserAmophous PB heads...