Very Old AKAI Terecorder

[Bone Yard]

While taking care of some projects today I ran into a small pile of equipment which ended up in the back of my truck. I wasn't going to take this unit but it was in really good shape and I didn't want it to end up in the trash heap. Looks like it's an early M-Series AKAI (TERECORDER AKAISTEREO Badged), maybe mid-sixties? Everything seems to work fine but the volume is a little low on the upper unit. There's two units...both are very heavy with the seperate head unit for what seems to be "stereo" recordering and playback. Each unit also has it's own square microphone as seen in the lower left.

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

Jeezus...is that ever old! Cool find!

 

[vinyldavid]

I have seen an M4, and that is FAR older.....

That's the coolest lookin R2R I have ever seen!

If we can see a pic of the Headblock, we can tell you it's track layout...

 

[outlawmws]

Is that thing one of the tube recorders? looks a lot like one I have. (And don't need)

 

[Garrard201]

Oh I LOVE those... my friend had one (without the bottom unit) when we were younger, found on his Grandpa's farm. It was a great deck.

 

[jami w.]

I have seen an M4, and that is FAR older.....

That's the coolest lookin R2R I have ever seen!

If we can see a pic of the Headblock, we can tell you it's track layout...

hey david, he possibly may all ready know this

 

[vinyldavid]

hey david, he possibly all ready know this

The 'for what seems to be' prompted me to ask that so that we can give him conformation.

If he already knows, then all is well, and just mention it.

 

[Bone Yard]

It plays somewhat and I had to wait for it to get dark out to confirm.....yes it has tubes, they're hidden deep inside but I can see em glowing. It almost has a military feel to it, olive-drab color scheme, industrial toggles and those killer meters that look like their out of a WWII submarine. If anybody has a manual or more info that would be great.

The blotches are just dirt, it should clean up really well....

 

[djnagle]

Cool deck Bone.

 

[HipCat5]

Akai Terecorder

@BoneYard, I just found one of these Terecorders. It works but the external amp for the secondary channel is losing steam. Could anyone confirm for me that this particular model (What model is it, by the way?) can record in stereo? The half-track / full track "knob" makes me wonder if that's controlling the erase head (full track erase, half-track erase) because the playback head never moves. I am going to rebuild both channels to see what I've got going on ... but I was curious if this unit was truly a Stereo Recorder ... or if it was like the old Voice of Music recorders where it was Stereo playback only. Thanks!

 

[wualta]

Definitely a cool machine. Very much a copy of the old Ampex 601 we used to use as a "portable" to do remote recordings in radio.

My guess is, it can't record in stereo (only one meter on the deck), but can play back in stereo, like my Wollensak T-1515. And it looks like half-track stereo. This will be a fun machine to research and play with!

 

[HipCat5]

Akai Terecorder

If you look at the secondary channel amp, the header has a switch for "RECORD". I don't have the manual for it, so I'm looking for confirmation on my theory ... but from what I can tell, the jack in the secondary channel header (the one sitting all alone) is both playback and record. The two jacks on the master recorder below the heads stack are (to the best of my knowledge) direct conduits to the PLAY/REC head channels (upper & lower). The problem I am having in testing the whole stack is that I've got a "bad" secondary channel amp, so all I get is weak playback on prerecorded tapes and nothing when I record out of that "lower" track. "upper" track seems to work fine. My next step is to pull both preamp chassis and see if the schematics are still inside the cases. I'm just looking for some confirmation from another owner of the same model that indeed it is supposed to record on both the upper & lower simultaneously in PRACTICE as well as in theory.

 

[wualta]

Owner's manual (don't know how much help it will be) is on HiFiEngine.com. Free signup and then you can download the pdf.

http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/akai/terecorder.shtml

Aha, the Akai is a 2-head machine. Easier to make the conversion to stereo.

I wonder if Bone Yard ever got his running.

 

[HipCat5]

Akai Terecorder

I was able to pull the chassis' out of the recorder. I've attached the schematics if anyone else is curious. Indeed it is stereo. Thanks for the manual link!

 

[Scott Young]

I have one of these (both units). No idea if it works, but in decent shape nonetheless. Also no idea what to do with it. Anyone interested? Let me know.

 

[tom3]

I have one of these (both units). No idea if it works, but in decent shape nonetheless. Also no idea what to do with it. Anyone interested? Let me know.

These are made into guitar amps sometimes, but I'd sure keep it as original for the value of it. Sure not many around these days.