Recently bought one of these with all the problems you mentioned and more. It took a good amount of wd40 to clean out the switches and all the transistors had to be replaced. Now its working like new and it has a fantastic sound.
Hi, I'm also in the process of restoring my Akai and wanted to ask which transinstors you used as a replacement. I'm having trouble finding the right ones. Can you please help me?
I had these recordings sitting on my computer since 2016 and when I looked at them last week I too thought that despite this being an unfinished project the video was too good to just be forgotten.
I own an Akai GX630d and it's a great machine. Mine is recently completely been refurbished . All the elco's an transistors are replaced. i bring my akai to a guy in the netherlands who is a master to refurbish thet akai tape decks.
Thanks for this video because of all the controversy seems to hold true from your experience with Akai, and where Teac seems to be more repair friendly.
Best to replace all the transistors on that amp board with 2sc2240. The old ones get noisy and give strange problems. Mind the pinout. The text has to be to the back. The slideswitches need a very good cleaning. The motor has to be oiled very good. I took off the shell at boath sides and soaked the filt with Hammond tonewheel oil. Now the motor stays cool and silent. I didn't have problems with the relais.
As soon as I saw that third head, I thought - 'Crossfield Bias'. I have an old HiFi magazine dated 1969, which writes about this. Don't blame you for giving up on this deck though, too many options, and mechanical issues waiting to 'go wrong' at some point in time.
I worked on an Akai 280d-SS from '71(?), back in early '17. It had a multitude of issues and took a solid week or two of work to get working! It had a few obsolete ICs go bad, but fortunately I found schematics on how to build my own which worked just fine. I replaced all of the bulging caps and it sounded great both in forward and reverse play back! I let it sit for several months and now reverse playback sounds low and distorted. I think next time I have it apart I will replacd the rest of the caps. These machines are long and extensive projects, but quite rewarding to get working ^^
Quite rewarding to get working, if you actually want to keep the machine. In this case my intention right from the start was to get it working and then sell it. I really don't like how the heads move around. That can't be good for the alignment.
Looking at this i'm glad i have the very basic 4000DB, and not this autoreverse nightmare. That being said, akai machines are pretty easy to repair compared to european machines like my Tandberg 3300x, where all the circuits are lumped onto one massive board.
Isn't it amazing how technology has evolved and today an mp3 player isn't much bigger than a coin? But these not even 50 years old tape machines sure are beautiful.
@@DrCassette May be in future there will be not clothes but it will be only ""something" to fill warm and comfortable.. Cheap and not wearing. And the same interestingly looking as MP3. Then some people will try restore vintage T-shirt.
hello dr cassette great video as always and you are a great teacher and do such a great job on explaining what has to be done and how you came to the conclusion and did your repair I love your channel i have a teac a 1200 and the pinch roller solenoid is very weak and does not put much pressure on the capstan I am wondering if you could give me a clue where to get the part but not at a big cost and how to replace it thank you for your time you are one of the great ones and please be very careful and safe out there with the covid 19 virus all the best and keep the great videos coming
Very timely video! I have the 200, which is very similar. The amplifier section has sliding level controls instead of knobs, but the rest seems to be the same. It has the exact same problem. In reverse mode, sometimes the relay does not make good contact and I get weak sound. It always works fine in the forward direction, though. When I removed it from it’s cabinet to examine it’s innards I discovered that it fit perfectly into a square hole in my stereo cabinet. $15 from a local thrift store.
hi got this, deck i pick it up of a old man and this wife 12 years wow it was like new boxed very hard to find i had to take a train 2 hours one way there i never pull units apart only if it in a very bad way i like your video's it hard to find things to do why i stopped doing video's for here
Interesting to see, I got a X-150D, which is basically a non-autoreverse single-motored version of this, maybe a bit older. The mechanical build-up is very similar, the channel selector that mechanically moves the erase- and bias-heads is also exactly the same. Funny to see that in spite of having a single three-state switch for the speed (the X-150D has a two-speed motor and a removable captan bushing to select 3 speeds) the machine still has a separate equalization switch. The motor looks very similar (though only 2-speed) and is indeed very loud, but as far as I know, it has always been, my father bought the deck new about 1970, so I grew up with it, repairing it oft together. The sound quality can be very good, especially making recordings on lower speeds, because of the separate bias head, but they are mechanically very noisy. Nowadays, I really prefer the Revox A-77, as it is really quiet.
@@DrCassette Definitively, only the Akai was much more affordable in the days that they were new... Although in serviceability, the A-77 has some quirks, especially cleaning the heads is not that easy, if you don't have the special tools for it
@@DrCassette i only use the akai because it never stoped working and the GX heads were an improvement to akai reels deck but in a litle studio i have i used to record on a revox A77 that i bought from a german friend of mine, but after i started using a dat deck for masters ,the late 80´s sony high-end model that i get it for free , i went to the house of a friend of mine who bought 4 DAT decks when opening a discoteque but he didn´t use them ,so he ofered me one still closed in the box , i tried and it worked ,so the revox was kind of stoped but always in the same place it still can be used and still have a lot of masters to play in it
Thanks for the video! Amberola1b has a few videos on fixing an AKAI machine... LOTs of work and it took him a long time. In the end, he was successful and the machine seems to work well. These machines are popular, but also very complex!
I apply the oil..then use a blower like you use to blow the lint off of camera equipment, and blow the oil into the bearings or into places it would not get to with gravity alone.
My sony tc we705s mechanism is confused. When I was press for right side, it is going reverse side.. Can you give me an idea about this? Thanks in advance..
You can regenerate them with most belts if they're not pure rubber, by putting them in a glass jar of water put them in the microwave for 15 minutes, will shrink them back to their shape and size. Don't use isopropanol to clean rubber causes damage and cracking to belts white or mineral spirit could be used, then put them in a bag of talcum powder should be done for all belts anyway. Try a bit of sewing machine Oil on the moving parts of the head the springs could be week as well
Götz Hallo , super Video, habe mein 201 auch gereinigt usw, doch plötzlich schaltet das Relais auf der Audioplatine nach zirka ein bis zwei Minuten um und die Lautstärke bricht zusammen. Wenn ich den Abstandshalter Nähe Hauptschalter löse und keine Verbindung zur Masse besteht ist die Laustärke wieder da aber die VU's gehen auf Vollausschlag. Nach einiger Zeit und einem Neustart geht es für 1-2 Minuten wieder, dann schaltet das Relais wieder um und es bricht wieder zusammen. Hast Du eine Ahnung? Danke im Vorraus
Hi! Your video is great! I really love it. I need your help, i tried to remove tape selector but it seems like there are some glue here. I need to remove the front panel, but cant remove the type selector, can you show (or explain) how to remove this? Sorry for my english.
I just want to tell my experiences of repairing these old machines. I have to say that 95 % of problems come from bad mechanical situations. The "old" grease is turned very sticky and hard and the solution is to take this mecanism apart, clean, oil and put together. It's not difficult, it takes time and "order", make photos . I have repaired +/- 15 machines Sony, Akai, Teac, Saba, Philips, ... no electric problem (except cleaning contact) ... Only open, clean, oil (a few) or thin grease and put the peaces together...
Schau dir mal den Motorschmierung genau an. Hinter dem messingfarbenden Deckel mit den zwei vermurksen Kreuzschlitzschrauben befindet sich eine Art Filz. Dieser war urspünglich mit Öl getränkt und sollte durch die Erwärmung eine Art Umlaufschmierung des Lagers bewirken.
If I recall correctly in the case of this tape deck the wrong tape speed may have been because of another, mechanical problem. But yes, bad motor run capacitors are a possible fault.
Наука
Recently bought one of these with all the problems you mentioned and more. It took a good amount of wd40 to clean out the switches and all the transistors had to be replaced. Now its working like new and it has a fantastic sound.
Hi, I'm also in the process of restoring my Akai and wanted to ask which transinstors you used as a replacement. I'm having trouble finding the right ones. Can you please help me?
@@stone9213 2SC1815 or KSC1815 are exact replacements for the 2sc458. Pinout is reversed on the hitachi ones.
Vary lovely video even though it was unfinished it was still really nice and well done (as usual). Keep up the good work.
I had these recordings sitting on my computer since 2016 and when I looked at them last week I too thought that despite this being an unfinished project the video was too good to just be forgotten.
I own an Akai GX630d and it's a great machine. Mine is recently completely been refurbished . All the elco's an transistors are replaced. i bring my akai to a guy in the netherlands who is a master to refurbish thet akai tape decks.
Thanks for this video because of all the controversy seems to hold true from your experience with Akai, and where Teac seems to be more repair friendly.
Best to replace all the transistors on that amp board with 2sc2240. The old ones get noisy and give strange problems. Mind the pinout. The text has to be to the back. The slideswitches need a very good cleaning. The motor has to be oiled very good. I took off the shell at boath sides and soaked the filt with Hammond tonewheel oil. Now the motor stays cool and silent. I didn't have problems with the relais.
As soon as I saw that third head, I thought - 'Crossfield Bias'. I have an old HiFi magazine dated 1969, which writes about this.
Don't blame you for giving up on this deck though, too many options, and mechanical issues waiting to 'go wrong' at some point in time.
I worked on an Akai 280d-SS from '71(?), back in early '17. It had a multitude of issues and took a solid week or two of work to get working! It had a few obsolete ICs go bad, but fortunately I found schematics on how to build my own which worked just fine.
I replaced all of the bulging caps and it sounded great both in forward and reverse play back! I let it sit for several months and now reverse playback sounds low and distorted. I think next time I have it apart I will replacd the rest of the caps.
These machines are long and extensive projects, but quite rewarding to get working ^^
Quite rewarding to get working, if you actually want to keep the machine. In this case my intention right from the start was to get it working and then sell it. I really don't like how the heads move around. That can't be good for the alignment.
yes, sometimes is better just stop a repair, is not worth, and parts (if they still exists) costs a fortune.
The main problem was time. I could have spent several weekends on this project, but I decided to stop and do something more enjoyable instead.
Looking at this i'm glad i have the very basic 4000DB, and not this autoreverse nightmare. That being said, akai machines are pretty easy to repair compared to european machines like my Tandberg 3300x, where all the circuits are lumped onto one massive board.
Isn't it amazing how technology has evolved and today an mp3 player isn't much bigger than a coin? But these not even 50 years old tape machines sure are beautiful.
There is something magical about seeing a reel-to-reel work. Something MP3 Players will never have.
@@DrCassette May be in future there will be not clothes but it will be only ""something" to fill warm and comfortable.. Cheap and not wearing. And the same interestingly looking as MP3. Then some people will try restore vintage T-shirt.
These are nice decks after they have been gone through.
I only wish I had kept my Phillips reel to reel tape deck.
hello dr cassette great video as always and you are a great teacher and do such a great job on explaining what has to be done and how you came to the conclusion and did your repair I love your channel i have a teac a 1200 and the pinch roller solenoid is very weak and does not put much pressure on the capstan I am wondering if you could give me a clue where to get the part but not at a big cost and how to replace it thank you for your time you are one of the great ones and please be very careful and safe out there with the covid 19 virus all the best and keep the great videos coming
Are the comments broken today? Why doesn't anybody have something to say?
Comments are working! I would LOVE to find a reel-to-reel like this at a flea market...
@@ThriftyAV This was a flea market find, but it wasn't cheap, I paid 70€ for this machine, but I had to have it...
@@DrCassette "I had to have it" Sounds familiar :S
Very timely video!
I have the 200, which is very similar. The amplifier section has sliding level controls instead of knobs, but the rest seems to be the same. It has the exact same problem. In reverse mode, sometimes the relay does not make good contact and I get weak sound. It always works fine in the forward direction, though. When I removed it from it’s cabinet to examine it’s innards I discovered that it fit perfectly into a square hole in my stereo cabinet.
$15 from a local thrift store.
I'm guessing that the take-up reel tension was too high, making the unit play faster.
hi got this, deck i pick it up of a old man and this wife 12 years wow it was like new boxed
very hard to find i had to take a train 2 hours one way there i never pull units apart
only if it in a very bad way i like your video's it hard to find things to do why i stopped doing video's
for here
Interesting to see, I got a X-150D, which is basically a non-autoreverse single-motored version of this, maybe a bit older. The mechanical build-up is very similar, the channel selector that mechanically moves the erase- and bias-heads is also exactly the same. Funny to see that in spite of having a single three-state switch for the speed (the X-150D has a two-speed motor and a removable captan bushing to select 3 speeds) the machine still has a separate equalization switch. The motor looks very similar (though only 2-speed) and is indeed very loud, but as far as I know, it has always been, my father bought the deck new about 1970, so I grew up with it, repairing it oft together.
The sound quality can be very good, especially making recordings on lower speeds, because of the separate bias head, but they are mechanically very noisy. Nowadays, I really prefer the Revox A-77, as it is really quiet.
I too would very much prefer a Revox A77 over any Akai tape deck...
@@DrCassette Definitively, only the Akai was much more affordable in the days that they were new... Although in serviceability, the A-77 has some quirks, especially cleaning the heads is not that easy, if you don't have the special tools for it
@@DrCassette i only use the akai because it never stoped working and the GX heads were an improvement to akai reels deck but in a litle studio i have i used to record on a revox A77 that i bought from a german friend of mine, but after i started using a dat deck for masters ,the late 80´s sony high-end model that i get it for free , i went to the house of a friend of mine who bought 4 DAT decks when opening a discoteque but he didn´t use them ,so he ofered me one still closed in the box , i tried and it worked ,so the revox was kind of stoped but always in the same place it still can be used and still have a lot of masters to play in it
Thank you ! You helped me a lot!
Thanks for the video! Amberola1b has a few videos on fixing an AKAI machine... LOTs of work and it took him a long time. In the end, he was successful and the machine seems to work well. These machines are popular, but also very complex!
Can you please tell me how to remove the track selector? He unscrewed the hexagon, rotate freely and does not slide off the shaft.
I apply the oil..then use a blower like you use to blow the lint off of camera equipment, and blow the oil into the bearings or into places it would not get to with gravity alone.
My sony tc we705s mechanism is confused. When I was press for right side, it is going reverse side.. Can you give me an idea about this? Thanks in advance..
You can regenerate them with most belts if they're not pure rubber, by putting them in a glass jar of water put them in the microwave for 15 minutes, will shrink them back to their shape and size. Don't use isopropanol to clean rubber causes damage and cracking to belts white or mineral spirit could be used, then put them in a bag of talcum powder should be done for all belts anyway. Try a bit of sewing machine Oil on the moving parts of the head the springs could be week as well
To microwave the belts, you'd still have to get them out of the machine somehow, which in this case was not an option.
Dr.Cassette. . Is that a Fluke 87 or 85? ..RE
I have a Fluke 87 multimeter. Unfortunately it badly needs to be recalibrated...
Götz
Hallo , super Video, habe mein 201 auch gereinigt usw, doch plötzlich schaltet das Relais auf der Audioplatine nach zirka ein bis zwei Minuten um und die Lautstärke bricht zusammen. Wenn ich den Abstandshalter Nähe Hauptschalter löse und keine Verbindung zur Masse besteht ist die Laustärke wieder da aber die VU's gehen auf Vollausschlag.
Nach einiger Zeit und einem Neustart geht es für 1-2 Minuten wieder, dann schaltet das Relais wieder um und es bricht wieder zusammen.
Hast Du eine Ahnung?
Danke im Vorraus
Leider habe ich keine Idee, woran das Problem liegen könnte. Aber vielleicht liest jemand anderes deinen Kommentar und kann helfen.
@@DrCassette Problem gelöst, Transistor 104 war defekt, getauscht und es funktioniert.
Thank you 🎵
Hi! Your video is great! I really love it. I need your help, i tried to remove tape selector but it seems like there are some glue here. I need to remove the front panel, but cant remove the type selector, can you show (or explain) how to remove this? Sorry for my english.
Saludos, mui buen eqipo
I just want to tell my experiences of repairing these old machines. I have to say that 95 % of problems come from bad mechanical situations. The "old" grease is turned very sticky and hard and the solution is to take this mecanism apart, clean, oil and put together. It's not difficult, it takes time and "order", make photos . I have repaired +/- 15 machines Sony, Akai, Teac, Saba, Philips, ... no electric problem (except cleaning contact) ... Only open, clean, oil (a few) or thin grease and put the peaces together...
The problem is, I don't have that much time...
Schau dir mal den Motorschmierung genau an. Hinter dem messingfarbenden Deckel mit den zwei vermurksen Kreuzschlitzschrauben befindet sich eine Art Filz. Dieser war urspünglich mit Öl getränkt und sollte durch die Erwärmung eine Art Umlaufschmierung des Lagers bewirken.
Ja, genau das habe ich doch im Video beschrieben? Und diesen Filz habe ich mit neuem Öl getränkt.
looking at your video I see that you are an expert, do you thil that it would be a good purchase at the moment to opt for one of these? thank you Dr.
As I mentioned in the video, these machines can have several problems. I would not recommend getting one of these models.
Interesting video. However, after hearing the quality of sound from Akai's I've always thought of them as bargain basement and cheaply made....
Akai is certainly not the best, but there were many much worse. I'd say they are OK for when you are on a budget.
@@davidhaney1394 Somebody seems very butthurt. The X-201D is junk, face it.
Usually when the speed changes i ‘ve heard it’s time to replace the capacitors for the motors. I might be wrong.
If I recall correctly in the case of this tape deck the wrong tape speed may have been because of another, mechanical problem. But yes, bad motor run capacitors are a possible fault.
DrCassette thanks for the reply
👍
If all repairs were just a wire that came unsoldered.
If in doubt just oil
Get intouch with TECHMOAN. What he doesn't know about these things you could write on the back of a postage stamp.
Sorry, I do watch Techmoan's videos, but all I have ever seen in his videos were simple repairs.
@@DrCassette True. Techmoan makes awesome videos, but he is not a repair technician and has never claimed to be one.