i just picked one of these up a few days ago,i like the idea of dolby on a reel to reel ,it is fairly rear as far as i have seen , as a package deal i ended up with a sony tc-377 aswell so will have a look at that one later,
im thinking of starting work on the akai 4000db next week, i cant say i will keep it for long as i dont collect 7'' reel to reels ,
i tend to collect the 10.5'' models ,i like the way they look and sound,
good luck with your unit, have you checked the ball bearing /cam arrangement behind the two large lever switches?
they some times give head aches ,i have made replacement parts once or twice for that model,(im a boiler maker and handy with a lathe and mill some times lol)
ill post a pic or two for you if interested once i start mucking about with it,
what other gear are you using ?or are you fixing it to move on? either way you can get the bug lol
just tonight i have just finished recapping and painting a yamaha AX-700 and EQ-630 , THEY LOOK SMASHING, lots of fun all round
mike
That's really exciting! I hope they go as well for you as mine has been for me!
The Dolby is quite intriguing to me too - I know that B (and later C) was used for cassettes; do you know if this would be the one sometimes called A, or is it something else altogether?
10.5" sounds like lots of fun - makes me wish I had more space for equipment! I think some certain people wouldn't be too happy with me if I were to end up with one, though...
The two large switches seem to move great, and the ball goes back and forth quite nicely. If something goes awry with them, I'll get in contact with you - thank you!
The top of the pause switch and the knob that went on the track selector are missing, but aside from those everything seems to move very nicely.
As far as other gear goes, I don't have much else in the way of open reel decks. I'm a college student at the moment, and my father gave me the Akai (he was given it around 2007 by a coworker). I do have a portable mono Webcor that I replaced the filter cap and a belt in, but it sounds rather poor - I only really have it because it was in my grandparents' barn, and I was able to play some of the family's home recordings on it.
My reciever is just a hinky JVC RX-250 from a garage sale when I was younger, my primary cassette deck is a TEAC I fixed up (I can't remember the model, and I'm not in my apartment right now, but it's silver and has analog level meters, so late 70s-early 80s?), my main turntable is a Technics SL-B500 that my father gave me (though it's missing the tall spindle and the dust cover), and I've got some little Infinity speakers he also gave me. So, the setup isn't up to some people's standards, but that doesn't really bother me - I quite enjoy it!
I'm fixing the Akai up both for fun, and to use it. With it were a number of home recordings my father had, as well as a copy of The Association's "Insight Out". I've also ordered a few inexpensive prerecorded tapes online (some early Barba Streisand and such), and plan to get more when I can.
Oh! I'm planning to unwrap and dub to tape a copy of Scheherazade that I have in my record stack, so I can give the record to a friend of mine.
Don't go take any just for my sake, but if you've got pictures of the Yamahas, I'd love to see them!
Charles
