Akai AA-1050 Receiver

akai AA-1175 clean up in progress

cleaning this has been a labour of love...:D.. inside and out.. i let her run for 4 hours non-stop today and she sounded excellent after all these years.. will finish cleaning the input phono sockets tomorrow as they had a fair bit of surface oxidisation/rust
... a brief test of the sound quality after i let her 'warm up' ..and i'm quite impressed..

i don't think she has been used in years judging by the layer of dirt and grime on the outside when i first bought her a couple of weeks ago..
anyway.. here she is..minus cover and knobs..

will add another pic once she's fully dressed...:D
 
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more pics..

at last..all cleaned up..and it sounds amazing..

i think this might form the centrepiece of a third (and final :D ) system...
 
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I just found an AA-1050 at the electronics recycling centre. It's god a dead led or two, and the volume meters aren't working. (EDIT: Those weren't actually volume meters when I looked more carefully.)

The headphone socket and the radio works fine. I'm not sure what to think of it yet. It sure sounds a bit different from the ROTEL RX-402.
 
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Haven't seen the specifications of it posted yet so here it is.

akai-17.jpg

akai-66.jpg
 
I picked an AA-1050 up at a thrift store for $20 in about 1993. Loved the sound and the Yamaha-ish looks! I think one channel was slightly weaker in output than the other, though. I wish I still had it- I can't even remember now what I did with it.
 
It sounds nice too, at a first listen. It makes me think of tube sound, for some reason (It doesnt have any tubes in it of course).

It's got a balance knob, but as far as I hear, there is no imbalance in this unit.
 
Thanks OT, for the brochure and specs. Got one a month ago for $10 and just put it on the shelf.
Guess I need to get it down and do it up.
This site is the greatest.
 
info on aa-1050

Bought this one knowing nothing about it, but upon lifting it at the thrift store, I realized it might be a decent unit. Couldnt see the insides through the case, but it powered up, the relay clicked, and it locked stations in.

I havent seen any definitive specs, but it seems that it is around 50 wpc.

The scary thing is, that it sounds as good as anything else I have. Sounds nearly identical to my Kenwood KA-8100 (and my old KA-9100), and better than my SX-980. Can't believe it actually. Tuner is pretty nice too.

Build quality is top notch inside, has a large heat sink for the power supply transistors, something I have only seen on my NAD 3080. The knobs are thin and the faceplate is clearly a Yamaha ripoff.

Was this Akai's TOTL for this series? Is the 50 wpc rating correct?

Iwas in high end audio biz from 74-86, and this was a GREAT receiver. It was a conservative 50 a side, their best STEREO receiver. It was also one of the few that could accommodate 3 pairs of speakers although only 2 pairs could be played at once. It also had dynamite fm reception., and inputs for a lot of other components.It was every bit as good as the Yamaha cr1000 (their top receiver at the time)
 
Bumping an old thread here, but I've just put an offer down on an AA-1050. The owner says he's had it since new and it's in top condition and comes with owners and service manuals. It's part of a package deal with a set of SW-157 speakers and a 150D reel to reel. I want the speakers, but I'm not overly interested in the reel to reel.
My current system is an AA-R21 at 26 watts per channel trying to power a couple of SR-A331's rated at 70 watts with a 120 watt peak and I feel the AA-R21 just can't drive the woofers as well as I would like. Or maybe the SR-A331's just don't crank out the bass frequencies too well.
I'm hoping if I score the AA-1050 with the SW-157's that I'll get that big vintage sound I'm going for.
The 1050 will probably have a better chance of powering the A331's too. Maybe.
I'm crossing my fingers.
 
Bumping an old thread here, but I've just put an offer down on an AA-1050. The owner says he's had it since new and it's in top condition and comes with owners and service manuals. It's part of a package deal with a set of SW-157 speakers and a 150D reel to reel. I want the speakers, but I'm not overly interested in the reel to reel.
My current system is an AA-R21 at 26 watts per channel trying to power a couple of SR-A331's rated at 70 watts with a 120 watt peak and I feel the AA-R21 just can't drive the woofers as well as I would like. Or maybe the SR-A331's just don't crank out the bass frequencies too well.
I'm hoping if I score the AA-1050 with the SW-157's that I'll get that big vintage sound I'm going for.
The 1050 will probably have a better chance of powering the A331's too. Maybe.
I'm crossing my fingers.

Hi, l think l replied to your post about your new speakers. The Akai AA-1050 and the SW-157's will provide a better sound than your current setup, no doubt at all, l would say go for it. The Akai amps and receivers of this period are great units and WAY under appreciated as already discussed here. I haven't heard the SW-157's but they should have decent bottom end. I know little about reel to reels but l do know that Akai were renowned for making some of the higher quality units in the late 60's to 70's.
 
Hi Oldsansui441. Yeah, I think we were talking about the SR-A331's I recently bought.
They are pretty nice, crisp sounding speakers. They just lack a bit of bottom end. That could be due to trying to power them with the low wattage AA-R21.
I got the AA-1050, SW-157's, and the 150D reel to reel today. I haven't had time to have a play with it all yet, as I got it home and had to rush off to work.
There was time for a quick pic though.20170822_200351.jpg
 
They are pretty nice, crisp sounding speakers. They just lack a bit of bottom end. That could be due to trying to power them with the low wattage AA-R21.
I got the AA-1050, SW-157's, and the 150D reel to reel today. I haven't had time to have a play with it all yet, as I got it home and had to rush off to work.

Yeah it could be because of powering them with your AA-R21 or it could just be the way they are as you stated earlier. Nice work on picking up that new setup, looks great, you must do your vintage hifi deals very early, haha :thumbsup:.

Let us know your impressions when you get a chance to have a listen. Don't think you will be disappointed with the receiver.
 
Haha!! Good old graveyard shift. I have all day to blow my money on stuff I don't really need...lol ;)
The new set-up is sounding great. Heaps of bassy low end and I've got the bass dial set on 75%, so there's still a bit of room to move, which is what I wanted.
The volume knob was a bit crackly so I pulled the lid off and sprayed a bit of contact cleaner on the pot and it seems pretty good now.
The right-hand light on the tuner display is out. No big deal, though. I'll replace that at some point.
Yeah, this is exactly what I wanted. Plus I've got the other gear as a backup.
:)
 
Haha!! Good old graveyard shift. I have all day to blow my money on stuff I don't really need...lol ;)
The new set-up is sounding great. Heaps of bassy low end and I've got the bass dial set on 75%, so there's still a bit of room to move, which is what I wanted.
The volume knob was a bit crackly so I pulled the lid off and sprayed a bit of contact cleaner on the pot and it seems pretty good now.
The right-hand light on the tuner display is out. No big deal, though. I'll replace that at some point.
Yeah, this is exactly what I wanted. Plus I've got the other gear as a backup.
:)

Haha, l see. Glad to hear it is sounding great and producing just the sound you were looking for :thumbsup:. One of my mates has a AA-1050 also and I had a little AA-1020 a while back and that little receiver sounded great. I have also had 3 Akai integrated amps from the 70's and l liked them all.
 
scored one fine piece of Akai aa 1030 and jaw dropped together with Kef´s reference 101 when I finally sat down. It is ON PAR with my english Tubeamp (Audion Sterling mk2 plus, 2000:- gringo dollares) The tubeamp is equipped with TOTL Genalex Golden Lion´s KT88 (Another 300:- smackers) . I have now ordered a AA-1050 because there is no reason to keep the tube amp anymore. The Gentleman earlier in this thread is spot on.Akai´s AA-10xx line is as tubey as they get. I am now converted to ss recievers again, and saving serious cash on electricity bills.

FM receiver pulls in station, without antenna in stereo, something i never experienced, and I have a lot of receivers from that era to compare with. It is so well made , so sonically mature. Akai second hand prices are just recently sharply climbing in price. Get yours before the 200 $ mark for a 1030. Ive seen 1050 going for 300 and more.
 
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The AA-1050 finally arrived (Savely shipped from the Netherlands ,never seen that much bubblewrap.It was an insane amount) A bit larger then my (for sale) AA-1030 and clearly capable of extended headroom for the KEF´s 101.
Hooked it up immediately without measuring DC going out from the speaker terminals, took a chance.Went fine ( But not advisable)
Very curious how things look under the hood. I have no idea yet. Dusty ? Bulging Caps ? High temp areas ? I dont know yet. Sound is impeccable and I already got use for the left/right tone controls for the bass and treble. Left channel´s bass is dialed down a notch because a slight unfavourable placement that would blow a bit more bass than the right channel.
Not a fan of the dial illumination,that is the only flaw i could think of. Akai wanted to invent the wheel again and placed 2 small bulbs on either end of the plastic front , theory is that each of the bulbs would travel light along the entire lenght with the help of small reflector housing aimed at the plastic shell. But, it doesent. Only 1/10 of the entire plastic strip is adequatley lit, the rest is darkness. Same as my 1030. From what understand the entire 10xx line is same fashion. I suspect this arrangement would have put a lot of byers off back in the days, the illumination contest was pretty fierce then. Remember HK old 330-430-630-730, the pioneers with blue lights, The Marantz´es, all gorgeous illumination arrays with 4-5 lightbulbs (And more)
Tempted to give it a LED treatment. But how to apply ? The only way i could think of is to place a LED strip above the dial,shining down. Could work with som diffuser paper . The original place for bulbs is out of the question , it would render the same result as the original design.
Maybe i post pictures later when the lid is off checking the inards , checking idle current, solder points and the lot.
 
The only way i could think of is to place a LED strip above the dial,shining down

Yes Akai, Yamaha and Technics didn't get the illumination right at all. Sansui used this same method and achieved excellent results. I have used an LED strip as you suggested on a little Technics to great effect, so should work well for your Akai. Great pickup by the way, these are a nice series and so underated, at least here in Oz.
 
Yes Akai, Yamaha and Technics didn't get the illumination right at all. Sansui used this same method and achieved excellent results. I have used an LED strip as you suggested on a little Technics to great effect, so should work well for your Akai. Great pickup by the way, these are a nice series and so underated, at least here in Oz.


Did you use a diod from keeping the leds flashing ?

One more thing : I´d like to avoid the effect of bright spots on the dial as shown on the photo.

IMG_2646.JPG
 
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