Akai CD-A30. wow.

onanysunday

Listen carefully
Has anyone heard this lil' cdp that could? I have to say it sounds amazing at lower level detail, presence, soundstage right in your face all around you. Warm, organic. Strong, defined bass. It literally feels you can reach out and touch someone. Gets a little hot and noisy when pushed too far and loses some focus at high volume. But I have to say, I am very impressed since I enjoy listening at lower levels some times and appreciate a good cdp for this purpose. Has anyone else had experience with Akai CD Players? What are your thoughts? To be honest, I really wasn't expecting much for $20. I knew I was in for a treat when I went to the seller's house and literally saw a trove of vintage hifi (only) treasures. The player looks and feels kinda cheap yet sounds completely amazing. I am going to recap this one, but unlike other cdps I've modded, this is the first I want to keep the opamps and everything else original. It competes very favorably to my Nakamichi CDC-4A with TDA1541A/S1 DAC. Kudos to mid-eighties Akai engineering prowess, I salute you!

Akai CD-A30.jpg
 
I have an earlier higher model CD-A7 that sounds very nice. Very well built and nice-looking as well. Mine's just damn complicated to operate as you have to program it to skip tracks (by pressing 3 separate buttons).

Love the Nakamichi equipment, by the way. :thumbsup: Big fan myself.
 
I would love to hear that one sometime, it sounds nice. If I ever see one, I will not hesitate to pick it up. Seems opposite of mine which is almost too simple and cheap seeming but sounds amazing. From my understanding, the CD-A30 is the follow-up to the CD-A7. However, I've never heard much of anything besides very little on both of these two models. Perhaps Akai didn't produce very many earlier cdp models? I am not sure..But they are definitely worth picking up if you can find them.

Captive, thin RCA cable (supplied) and no headphone jack..Okay, I do miss the headphone jack for sure, but surprisingly, not a better RCA cable. I really don't know what's going on here besides some excellent engineering, because this toy shouldn't sound this good.

Perhaps not surprisingly, I'd say it excels in bass and synthesizer sound and effects and full-front and center immediate presence. Basically music that is just fun to listen to. If you think about it, it just make sense. I guess you could say they really knew what they were doing and "in their element" with the CD-A30. They certainly have extensive experience creating some outstanding digital samplers compared to other manufacturers.
 
Last edited:
...I have an earlier higher model CD-A7 that sounds very nice. Very well built and nice-looking as well. Mine's just damn complicated to operate as you have to program it to skip tracks (by pressing 3 separate buttons)...

Just press play and FF together on the your CD-A7 front or remote- it will skip forward or back. Easy.

Akai made a lot of their 'natural logic' on that machine- I still reckon it's the best programming of any machine ever. AND, TO and WITHOUT in any combination. Love it.
 
Just press play and FF together on the your CD-A7 front or remote- it will skip forward or back. Easy.

Akai made a lot of their 'natural logic' on that machine- I still reckon it's the best programming of any machine ever. AND, TO and WITHOUT in any combination. Love it.
I'm just not patient enough to scan through several tracks haha. It's complicated, but I agree it is very programmable. It just threw me off the first time I messed around with it.
 
I have one of Akai's last CD players, the CD-73, purchased new in 1989 or 1990 (I can't remember). Its been a terrific player, but unfortunately is not working at the moment. I purchased a CD-93 for parts, and hopefully between the two of them, I will have a working CD player again. My thought is, to use the CD-73 to get the CD-93 going again, as they share a lot of bits.
 
I have one of Akai's last CD players, the CD-73, purchased new in 1989 or 1990 (I can't remember). Its been a terrific player, but unfortunately is not working at the moment. I purchased a CD-93 for parts, and hopefully between the two of them, I will have a working CD player again. My thought is, to use the CD-73 to get the CD-93 going again, as they share a lot of bits.

I am not exactly what is sure what is wrong with your CD-73. But I just picked up an Akai CD-32 yesterday at a thrift store for five bucks. It would not read discs. All I had to do was increase the gain on the laser potentiometer that was directly attached to the laser assembly. It started to read discs again instantly. I would try this if you haven't already. You've got nothing to lose. I can't tell you how many old CD players I fixed this way, it's usually a pot that needs adjustment or the belt on the loading mechanism is broken. You'll want to screw in a pot gently clockwise if there is one directly attached to the laser assembly or nearby. You can mark the old position of all pots by drawing a reference line on the side of them, or using a sharp knife to cut a little hash mark into the side of it so you can always revert back to the original adjustment if necessary. Let me know if this works, I'd be interested to find out.
 
Last edited:
I've got a CD-A30 that I won in a radio station give-away, back in... 1986? It still works flawlessly. The only problem I've ever had with it was when I put it on top of my amp. The heat from the amp caused the CD to malfunction. (Or maybe it was just the display that malfunctioned. Hard to remember. It was many years ago.) Regardless, as soon as I changed its position in the stack, it worked fine, again.
 
Picked up one of these at the thrift store few weeks ago. Light and flimsy as heck, didn't expect much, but for $15 figured little to lose. Hooked it up and whoa, very nice sounding player. Warm, smooth, and very pleasing sound. 20170806_204156.jpg
 
My A30 is smooth from top to bottom with an emphasis on a sweet sounding midrange when compared to my other dozen or so vintage cdps. I recapped it, replaced the LCD backlight bulb and had considered replacing the captive RCA cables..but haven't gotten around to it yet. Great little player.
 
The built in RCA cable threw me off..... the cable and the power cord were initially bunched up together and I couldn't see the RCA pins and I thought to myself , " how the heck do I connect this thing ? " Any particular reason you want to do away with the captive cables ? What is the new bulb color ?
 
The bulb is clear and the digits are green. It appears original. I heard a lot of already Great Sound and even more potential from this player so I recapped it. I have to say I think I prefer the sound of the original caps more than my hand selected audio replacements. I love recapping as a hobby, but if I did it again I might just try replacing the RCA cable with higher-quality to see if there was any additional Improvement in sound. I'd also look at an op amp swap and some op amp sockets with the AD827 and LM4562 that I have on hand. I'm sure they would both sound fantastic in there for a quick n' dirty sonic improvement..
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom