Akai AM U11 integrated

[cableguy]

Akia AM U11 integrated amplifier. I picked it up last night for, geez, around $15 US. (I'm in Indonesia) It gots the still working, double VU meters. From 1980-82 a robust 20 WPC. Making it my highest powered amplifier . Let's see, what else can I tell you...It's pretty darn nice sounding. I'm not sure why I'm surprised. It seems that Akai, along with almost every other Japanese, German, and British manufacturer, when they chose to... made pretty nice stuff, to one degree or another, until around 1982/3. (they also made some crapola) This one features all metal construction, cept, for a few buttons which are plastic. It is what it is. I'm really happy with it so far...I'm having fun again with my audio obsession. It has has not been like this since around when I joined AK back in 2005. Peace ✌

 

[restorer-john]

Look, the best thing about that amplifier is the cool vertical twin power meters. Grab yourself a nice tape deck from the same series to match.

It's a cheap STK based integrated amp, with a decent power supply, nice layout and a surprisingly OK phono stage.

Enjoy it for what it is.

You want better? Find yourself an AM-U7 from the same era.

 

[Rey1]

I like the look of that amp. 20 watts is plenty with efficient speakers. Enjoy it.

 

[cableguy]

Yup, I have a very small listening space. 20 wpc is almost overkill ; my SET EL84 is a whopping 3 or 4 wpc. I'm enjoying both quite a bit

Cheers

 

[cableguy]

It is very simple, isn't it...not much in the signal path. It is what it is...I'm happy with it

Cheers

 

[Okke 70s]

As a teenager I had one of those. I had a sort of DJ thing going, so there where evenings that it ran at max-max power, driving 4 speakers. Drove it so hard, that at every base the backlight would dimm quite a bit. The amp got crazy hot of course but it would power through! I don't think all STK amps would have.. I used 3 such small home amps and a whole tower of 70's speakers. At the time (mid 90's) you could buy that stuff for almost nothing. But boy dit my crazy contraptions blew the walls out! And the AM-U11 was a vital part of it. So yeah, I'm a fan! The sound quality might be limited and all, it's a tough pony and with great looks, including actually usefull VU meters. I also love that input selector indicator.

Be sure to always have the volume all the way down when you turn it on. It's a bit of a crude startup (meters all the way up, speakers going crazy) and you can actually blow a fuse otherwise. Well, mine has but I think that was after upping the main caps one step. Anyway, you realy don't want to turn it on with the volume open. The volume potmeter has a tendancy to crackle badly, so you might want to give that a treatment.

Years later I found it back in my perants atic. I turned it in to a "docking station" with speakers, a bluetooth receiver and a cable-free phone charger on top. Pretty cool new tech at that point. Let's see if I can find the pictures..



Ah yes, I recall now the cover was badly scrached so I spray painted it. Black looks good on'm so you could alway do that.. The BT was on the aux channel and the input indicator on aux would actully do the blinking signals during pairing. It was kind of cool..

Oh and it is a great amp to re-cap, even if you are not that experienced. Note that the amp will give a bad humm as long as the cover is off. Don't panic, just put the cover back on and the humm is gone.

 

[cableguy]

As a teenager I had one of those. I had a sort of DJ thing going, so there where evenings that it ran at max-max power, driving 4 speakers. Drove it so hard, that at every base the backlight would dimm quite a bit. The amp got crazy hot of course but it would power through! I don't think all STK amps would have.. I used 3 such small home amps and a whole tower of 70's speakers. At the time (mid 90's) you could buy that stuff for almost nothing. But boy dit my crazy contraptions blew the walls out! And the AM-U11 was a vital part of it. So yeah, I'm a fan! The sound quality might be limited and all, it's a tough pony and with great looks, including actually usefull VU meters. I also love that input selector indicator.

Be sure to always have the volume all the way down when you turn it on. It's a bit of a crude startup (meters all the way up, speakers going crazy) and you can actually blow a fuse otherwise. Well, mine has but I think that was after upping the main caps one step. Anyway, you realy don't want to turn it on with the volume open. The volume potmeter has a tendancy to crackle badly, so you might want to give that a treatment.

Years later I found it back in my perants atic. I turned it in to a "docking station" with speakers, a bluetooth receiver and a cable-free phone charger on top. Pretty cool new tech at that point. Let's see if I can find the pictures..

View attachment 3755375View attachment 3755376View attachment 3755377

Ah yes, I recall now the cover was badly scrached so I spray painted it. Black looks good on'm so you could alway do that.. The BT was on the aux channel and the input indicator on aux would actully do the blinking signals during pairing. It was kind of cool..

Oh and it is a great amp to re-cap, even if you are not that experienced. Note that the amp will give a bad humm as long as the cover is off. Don't panic, just put the cover back on and the humm is gone.

Thank you for your information. Always appreciated