For more of my content subscribe to KZfaq.com/@ThatGuyWithTheBeard

I worked for a small electronic repair shop as a technician in the 70~80's. We were an Akai warranty provider. They made some great tape decks, including an 8-track recorder with the GX heads.

In 1975 I bought 4 pieces that was being sold as a set at a local audio store. The GX 215 D RtR with glass heads, the AM2000 Amp, the turntable and the AM/FM Radio. The last two were sold in the 1980s but I still have the RtR and the Amp. Not one problem with these in 48 years. Excellent pieces of engineering.

This is a great video, thanks very much. As a teenager in high school and college, for roughly 7 years I owned an AKAI 250D tape deck at the heart of my expanding audio system. This relatively obscure model, which performed flawlessly throughout my ownership, was sandwiched in between the end of the X Series and the new GX Series; it was their first model with servo-controlled motors. My hobby served as a springboard into a ten-year career selling consumer audio & video. Towards the end of that career I was saddened to see the commodification of the industry into cheap mass-market rack systems and quasi-disposable components. Most of those great brands are long gone now.....

Great history lesson. Knew nothing about AKAI before. Please keep making these.

The AKAI GX series were the best made reel to reel tape decks. Glass heads changed the industry

I bought an Akai GX-635D while stationed in Japan in 1981 for $550.00. You could buy products there for about half of what you would pay in the US at that time. I still have it to this day, but it has the usual and well known transistor problem, so I found a guy that rebuilds reel to reel decks and he's going to go through mine at some point. I have the black version and really love this deck : )

*THAT WAS ABOUOT 100X* more interesting than I thought it would be...!!!

I wore out my 1972 Akai Reel to Reel Deck. It was played hours a day almost everyday. I was a music performance major in Grad School and I had accompaniment tapes for every piece of literature I studied seriously. Wish I would have had a remote then but the transport was mechanical and I was forever switching between play-rewind-play-rewind etc etc during long hours of practice. That Akai Recorder was just as much my instrument as my major instrument was (trumpet) and put in long hours without fail. It never got tired. Worked flawlessly. When I purchased a higher end two speed Cassette Deck with a remote control the Akai was sold. I bet it is still playing while that expensive cassette deck isn’t! I don’t remember the model number but it was a fantastic device and piece of Audio History (at least for me). Great Video and extremely interesting presentation. How about one on Garrard Turntables? Anyone else interested ?

I loved Akai. I used to drool over their ads in Stereo Review. My brother owned the GX-9 cassette deck.

I bought an Akai hifi VCR back in the late 80s. Did everything I wanted the machine to do in glorious stereo and video and enjoyed it for a long time.

Proud owner of the Akai X-360. Although it is limited to 7" reels, the deck can record at 15ips! Combine this feature with the crossfield head and you get TREMENDOUS recordings. I do A/B demonstrations of tape and vinyl to friends and family and jaws drop and eyebrows rise in surprise. Really enjoyed this video. Thank you for the time and effort you put into it. HIFI United.

Absolutely love these historical videos of iconic hi-fi companies. Keep em coming. Thanks.

It is implied that the person at the 1:29 mark is Saburo after the war. However, that is an American soldier, not Japanese.. There are many indicators such as the rank "Technical Corporal", his marksman medal and two American ribbons, one of which is for participation in the Pacific Theater of WW II. Soldiers with special skills were awarded the "T" for whatever specialized skill they had. Since this soldier appears to be Japanese, but is in an American uniform, I would suspect his specialized skill may have been fluency in Japanese which would explain his participation in the Pacific campaign, or perhaps electronics. Or, perhaps there is some other explanation. Whatever, the story is informative.

I really love these history videos

Thank you very much for the AKAI and Singer story. Really sad to see such historical brands were ruined by corruption.

In high school I had an AKAI reel to reel, that was in the late 60's. In the early 80's I got a high end VHS player from AKAI. In the late 80's I got one of AKAI's high end turntables, I still have it, it's a direct drive model AP-Q41. in the 90's I wanted another reel to reel and ended up with not one, but two TEAC reel to reels from a small shop in Montclair, Calif. from a guy who said he was the one who designed the reel to reels for TEAC. Really nice guy, wore glasses with lenses so thick it was like he was looking through bullet proof glass. He mentioned his eyes were fading fast and didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to work on the equipment. The reel to reels I purchased from him he said he had completely gone through them and were like new. I believe him, because the two I have still work great. I have a lot of factory reel to reel pre-recorded music I collected when I had my AKAI reel to reel. It was said, back when I had my AKAI reel to reel that the tapes would only last about 25 years before they'd come apart. They were wrong, the factory tapes I have still play as new over 50 years later.

It should be noted that Akai are not only a name associated with consumer audio but are deeply embedded in the professional audio market, particularly with their MPC line of performance samplers. I'm not sure who owns the Akai Professional brand at this point but they continue as a highly respected name among musicians.

I grew up listening to my father’s Ampex reel to reel. I thought it was the best sound possible until a friend loaned me the Akai recorder he’d brought back from overseas in the service. The Akai was so superior in every way, it wasn’t even close.

This video reminds of my involvement with the hi fi industry in the 70’s and 80’s. I miss those days and all those wonderful audio shows here in Toronto. Thanks for the journey back !

I also really love all those photos you have in these videos. They are amazing and thanks for all the work in finding them.

Very informative video - thank you for all your efforts to put these together! I remember seeing an Akai 747 as a nerdy teenager in the early 80s. The big reels were playing The Police’s 1981 song “Spirits in the Material World,” as I watched that r2r and listened, I wanted that machine more than anything.

Thanks for these history lessons of Akai, Sansui, and Bose. I appreciate the work and research. Great stuff.

I know you're talking reel to reel, but I bought a GX-F80 cassette deck at Crazy Eddie for a crazy discount in 1980, and loved it! In a sad twist of irony, the motor stopped working, and I'm waiting for the right time to replace it and fix the deck again. (remember, how Akai manufactured mostly motors in the early days?)

Fantastic history lesson of an iconic oem. Thank you for sharing this with us all.

In Germany Akai was seen as the inventor of VHS for some time, because they shipped their first JVC clone VS-9300EG by plane, the JVC HR-3330EG was on sale later

This was great, really enjoyed this, keep up the great work. I had an Akai top load cassette deck in the early 70's, dont remember the model, would have been about 73-74, it worked well and recorded great.

Great video! I still own my 4000DS Mk1 from 1973, still working well to this day!

Wow, yet another wild ride! The connection with Sansui makes this even more eerie. And, those last r-t-r decks from them - the only thing cooker than the 707-747 models was Tandberg's TD20A SE, which I used extensively for live location recording up into the mid-aughts. Looking forward to more of this, you're truly on a roll here!

Love this HiFi history videos... Big names, vanished without a trace. So sad but pls do keep them coming 👍

Thanks for the story, interesting stuff. I have an Akai cassette deck from late ‘70s. Nothing fancy but has 2 cool VU meters, high speed rewind, metal tape selector (a big deal at the time) and a mic-in port that allowed voice intros to tunes when recording. Performed well but got pushed out by CDs in the ‘90s. Made many a great party mix tape on that deck.

I own 2 AKAI DR16 digital records and 1 of their 4 channel tape decks from the 1970s. The DR16 is really great sounding. I sold my Studer A80 2" 24 track after I used the DR16 and did a A:B comparison with Dave Shogren of the Doobie Brothers. I was at a meeting in Berkeley CA where members of AKAI were buying the rights to manufacture a PCM digital recorder that was designed by an independent engineer. The DR series recorders have really great sounding A/D converters. I still use the DR16 and bought a second one last year as a backup.

Please do a video like this on Aiwa..... lol. My brother, 13 years older, had a serious separate system when we were growing up, I had a neat lil Aiwa all in one in my bedroom and thought I had something special in those days that the audio bug bit me

gotta say these historical videos are cool a f!looks like you put a ton of effort into this one.others will probably start doing this sort of thing please keep em coming.

The year is 2023 and i still own a Akai GX 210D automatic reverse completely refurbished with 2020 components! I live in The Netherlands and up to this day it stil does his magic!

Great video! I never really realized that they went away. I picked up one that resembled the 4000 (with aqua blue logo) in mid 90. It was 4 track and we used it to cut and press an EP release. What a great recorder; bass guitar line-in was like butter!

Wow! I'm so glad I found your channel. You have so much interesting info about anything audio, I love it! Thank you for the work

The AKAI GX Series are things of art as much as they are reel to reel tape decks. I don't have any AKAI reel to reel decks in my collection because they are HUGE 10 inch reel monsters. If I had to pick my favorite AKAI shown here it has to be the AKAI GX-747. The AKAI GX-747 smoked my boots. The AKAI Glass ferrite tape heads were quite the improvement. I have 4 AKAI GX F-31's cassette decks that Just Audio refurbished for me. They all run like tanks for the most part but can be fussy every so often. I don't have room for another monster receiver but that AKAI receiver did get my going a bit. AKAI's monster receiver looked a LOT like a Yamaha with its clean look and simple lines. AKAI products look like precision instruments. Love em! Loved this!

Great video! Very informative!❤

My Dad and I loved Akai equipment and had several products. Our favorite was the 1710 reel-reel tape recorder. My eyes popped the first time I heard Loretta Lynn on stereo headphones at 7-1/2 ips. Real hi-fi back then! Thanks so much for posting this video!

Love these histories! Keep it up.

I bought and still own the AM2650 + Tuner you showed!! Still cranking and still having fun with it!

I still have an Akai 1720W reel-to-reel (pictured at 6.33 in the video) that my dad bought just after I was born. Over fifty years later, and I can still listen to all the Bollywood songs he recorded from vinyls. It came with a prerecorded demo reel, which I also still have. I'm gonna go and listen to a few tracks now!! Thank you @JustAudio

Awesome stuff, love what you guys are up to!!

I have asked myself the same question. In the late 1970's through the mid 1990's I was an Audio Technician. I repaired Roberts and Akai R/R decks. Parts were always hard to come by. The Glassheads were excellent.

Thank you for the research and the subsequent video. I had always wondered. Now I know. I was 14-15 when I worked in a HiFi dealership in 1980 ish. The UK was not a big market back then for Akai. However, with the newly adopted business plan, the mark exploded in retail oulets with the Pro Series. Visually attractive and sonically and mechanically competant, the brand was an instant hit with me. Now, 40 years later, I too hanker after a 747 to add to my collection. Being extreemly curious to hear its sonics compared to my Studers and Naks. What a time for 'Brown Goods' in the UK. Bw Mike.

very interesting video i have an AKAI 4000DB purchased here in the UK in 1975

I love these audio history lesson videos. I have the GX 650D and the GX 220D.

I bought a 747 dbx in the later 80's complete with dust cover and wired remote. Still have it and it runs without any problems, wonderful machine!

I always had a soft spot for Akai since the rack system I bought in 1980 was my first real hi fi, I managed to spot it in one of the stills in the video. Thanks.

Great Video, Thank you

Wow, what a story, thanks for sharing!

Really appreciate your professional editing. More channels could learn from how smooth your corrections flow.

THANK YOU FOR ANOTHER WONDERFUL & EDUCATIONAL VIDEO. GOD BLESS & MY BEST TO YOUR FAMILIES. TMP FROM N.J.

In 1973 I bought an Akai 4000 DS 4 track stereo deck for £75 in London. Also featured sound on sound recording. I still have it along with a collection of pre-recorded 7" tapes; West Side Story is one of them. Still have an Akai VCR that hasn't been used in years.

I had the 650D. I think I paid around $600 for it. I loved that unit. I used to record off FM radio in NY. I used it with the Sansui AU5500 and the TU5500 through a pair of Altec Lansing Valencia Voice of the Theater speakers. That was a LONG time ago.

I got a job as an apprentice factory service technician for Akai in Torrance, CA (Japanese companies operating in the US did this sort of thing long ago) starting in the mid seventies when I was about 21. Once a year around Christmas the company used to sell B-stock and returns to employees for next to nothing and I still have an old AA1200 sitting in my garage. John Carpenter was the National Service Manager and all of the John Carpenter/Bob Crane stuff was going on at the time which in retrospect was pretty eerie. My bosses name was Mr. Kurita. Mr. Kurita was brilliant and he probably as much as anyone really pointed me towards where I would end up. Mr. Kurita asked me one day "do you want to be a technician for the rest of your life?". I subsequently spent a lot of years in community college and university, got an electrical engineering degree, and became a software engineer.

More like this! Bravo! 👏👏👏

I loved to look at Akai equipment. Back in the day I had an AKAI AP-207 turntable, Pioneer SX-780 receiver, Pioneer HPM 60 speakers, and an Onkyo TA-2056 cassette deck. The only one I have left is the cassette deck

I still have a 1730D-SS and a 4000-DS. Still working, bought new and maintained - love them !!

Great video thank you. I remember my parents buying an AKAI Pro Lab system in the 80's, was very flash and supposed to be the business in those days. LOL

I love your channel!!

I enjoy these videos. Thank you…

I have an akai m-10 in working condition, I found it 6-7 years ago in Zagreb,Croatia.....great history lesson....

We had the Akai tape deck featured in "Apocalypse Now". I used to record pop songs off the radio in Singapore as a teen in 1968.

Wonderful informative video👌🏾👍🏽 similarly we would like to hear about AIWA

I had an Akai "walkman" in the 80's. No problems with it.

Hi Funny I owned the AKAI GX-635D from 1981 until I bought a DAT Recorder from Sony than it became owned by my late father and later for years used at my sisters house still working and sold to a collector in 2022 !

Wow, another vid that brought back some serious memories. In 1982 while station in Germany, I had put the Akay 747 on layaway at the PX, but unfortunately I had to cancel due to money matter back then. I have always regreted that decision to this day, as if I had got it back then, I probably would still have it today. Anyway another great vid!

I own the Akai 1730D-SS and truly love it. Even better yet is that it still works.

I have a couple of GX-625s and 'lil gx-4000D. I even have that RC-70 but cant get it to work (had some battery corrosion that destroyed the contacts, so who knows). The 625s don't have reverse playback, but that just allows me to enjoy the ritual of stringing tape twice. Every open reel collector know it's as much the mechanical aspect as the sound that makes this hobby special.

I was given a GXC-325D tape deck in the 80's and it still works

I had an Akai Cassette recorder and player in probably 1981. I used to record my albums onto cassettes than listen to them in my car. It worked flawlessly and I loved it.

I used to have a Akai 1030 receiver with Altec Lansing speakers it was pretty awesome

Great video, great content related to the histoy of the recording technology, Akai dominency, Singer acquisition, and collapse. I just wish you talk a little bit more about the revolutionary crossfield feature. Maybe this could be the subject of another video.

wow this was awesome! More please

I still have my Akai GX95 mk 2. Recently set up by Armstrong Audio in London, fantastic machine.

I bought a used Roberts version of the Akai X355D deck in the early 1970s. Three motor drive, with a moving crossfield head that would move into position when recording. Due to the heavy usage before this deck was a bit tempermental but still gave excellent performance. I sold it to a friend as my hi fi system expanded. Some years later I came across another Akai X355D on Ebay. It came from the estate of a military man and came with all the bells and whistles - remote control, microphones, lots of tapes. The only thing it didn't have was the 15 inch spool adapters. I already owned a much newer Teac deck and was very surprised to find that the Akai bested it in every way, especially frequency response and noise. This Akai had almost NO wear compared to my first one. I still have this Akai but need to replace capacitors and such for safety. The Teac died, it just lost all torque on the drive motor, so it's headed for recycling.

I bought an Akai HXA-3D cassette deck in 1984 (I think) and was my first "proper" audio component. I still have it to this day and sits in my rack and works perfectly as I've always looked after it. I bought it at the time because I was blown away by the dbx noise reduction system and as a student I couldn't afford the Technics one that I really wanted. It's served me very well. I did manage to get the reel-to-reel of my dreams which was the legendary B77 high speed. Again, I still have it and sounds wonderful.

Terrific story and history lesson! This is your calling! Keep up the terrific reporting! Thank you!

As I recall, in the seventies and eighties Akai tape decks were highly regarded. Not far behind the likes of Nakamichi and Tanberg. Never owned an Akai product. My last tape deck, which I still own is a Pioneer CT F1250.

In the 80s I had both their space-age looking receiver and awesome GX-R66 tape deck--complete with all tool b+ dbx plus music tape search too. They were as much known for their regular tape decks as they were for their reel to reels.

My only Reel to Reel Tape Machine was an AKAI D4000DB acquired 40 years ago - lost it in a house break-in with rest of my hi-fi some years later. I used it for Off Air recordings of BBC Radio 3.

Loved watching this. Was always hooked to Akai for some reason. Really good value for home entertainment stuff. Very popular among DJ's and other stuff that related to turntable's, mixing devices, sample machines and such. Generation of now does'nt know what we had before and how people think they have hifi with a soundbar today lol.

I used Akai 1000 pros and 747s as mix down decks to do final stereo mixes from Akai & Teac 4 tracks. We even mixed down from an Otari 8 track to an Akai from time to time. We did some SOS work on a Revox before we got the Akai products and our Revox SOS work went onto vinyl pressings rather well too. By the mid 1980s we had a Studer dealership too. We sold loads of Fidelapacs & carts, all kinds of decks, desks, amps, monitors etc. etc. The company started out as an RCA dealer back in 1954.

Very interesting! Love these episodes. Hope you'll do Technics, eventually. 🙏 I don't have any Akai gear unfortunately.

My uncle had an AKAI cassette deck. It was struck by lightning. Later he gave it to me, but I never heard it work.

I live in Hungary, and love the Akai brand! I own the next Akai equipment: GX 260 D tape deck ( 3 motors, 6 heads ), GX 4000 D ( 1 motor 3 heads), 4000 DS ( 1 motor 3 heads one micron gap head ) GX 65 D cassette deck. Every machine work properly, the belts are factory originals! I enjoy the open reel decks, and the Akai machines are the best among these equipment .

That is one CRAZY story! Love it! Thanks!

Hi, great video. I was curious what happened to AKAI. Never new AKAI was so big in reel-to-reel tape recorders. I bought an AKAI portable black and white video set in 1975. The VT120S reel-to-reel video recorder with VC115 camera. This was before VHS existed. I still have it and restored it a few years ago, it still works.

Great video! Thank you!

Loved the Akai GX cassette decks ,bought my first GX-32 cassette deck in '89 ,have had two amps by Akai in the late 80's and early 90's and used my father's late 70's record player.Went full Sony in the mid 90's (apart for my record player) but their cassette deck never sounded as good as my GX 32 .Recently after acquiring some more high end audio Sony components (QS & ES) I acquired a serviced Akai GX-35R autoreverse cassette deck and an Akai AP-M7(clarity series) linear tracking record player that thing despite it's size sounds clear and crisp like a cd and with the warmth and depth of record player best record player I ever heard. Same for the cassette deck which I regularly used for playing and recording cassette tapes untill about a year ago when I swapped it for a Sony 3 head tape professional cassette deck.Still own the GX-35R though .

Love these videos

I have an Akai cassette player, which I bought in 1991. It only gave out last year when the rubber bands used for driving the wheels gave out. It worked fine for 30 years, now that's quality. And I used it a lot, it has thousands of hours of playtime.

In my mid 20s i bought a n Akai reel-to-reel, the centre piece of my audio system then added the Hi-Fi stereo 6 head VCR with near-digital sound which i still own to this day. Beautiful, purpose built kit.

I had the stunning (for its time) AKAI GXC-40D cassette deck, with the Glass and Crystal Ferrite heads - what a workhorse! - i added a separate Stereo Lab - Cassette noise reduction (Dolby B) processor, worked well - followed many years later by the Sony tc-k81 cassette deck

My first VHS video recorder was AKAI in the early 80's, my dad bought me for christmas. Ladted years.

My father's AKAI X-150D reel to reel deck and his AKAI GXC-325D was passed on to me many years ago. They still run beautifully to this day.

The Greatest stereo ever built I still have the Akai AA-940 today and it still working totally amazing

This is an amazing video! I came across it when searching about the Akai GX-635D because I have a chance to pick one up at an estate sale on the 9th! (fingers crossed) I have my dads Akai D-210 turntable from when he passed, so I sort of have a soft spot for the brand. So much that my wife upgraded that turntable with the newer released BT-500 as a gift. If I can pick up the reel to reel then I most likely will continue to add to the collection. Thank you for the informative video behind the name!