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This is quite te collectors item, Akai were one of the best tape
recorder manufactures, many say they got their hands on the best
machines and made them better. Akai along with other Japanese firms were
quick to move away from valve technology and only made a select few
machines in comparison to their transistor recorders, this recorder from
1964 is one of those few and in my opinion, the best looking. The Akai
M7 is a modular machine, with the tape transport and two completely
separate amplified contained in one flight case, these machines came in
either a cloth covered case like this one here or with a wooden finish
case for the Hi-fi enthusiast, this machine being the cloth case one was
designed to be moved around and generally had a better build to it.
This recorder has had some hours work done on the restoration,
many of these recorders suffer a problem were the VU meters fail to
work, this is due to a design flaw where the audio signal from the
output stage is passed though the meter, after 40 years of use, the VU's
meter return spring corrodes and the meter stops working, this recorder
suffered this fault and I have replaced the springs giving the VU meters
another 40 + of life. The recorder has also had a few capacitors
replaced improving the output of the lower amplifier and preventing any
damage to the valves. The recorder has been used for 4 hours after this
work was carried out with no problems. The usual tape path has been
gleaned, and many points of mechanical pivots greased and oiled, the
recorder is functioning as best as it could do considering its age,
overall the machine performs great however there is not as much high end
frequency response which considering its age, is quite normal.
To find an Akai M-7 like this in as good working order as this
will be hard to do, many of these machines will have the failing VU
meter's or meters ready to fail, these meters will not fail, the
electronics have been checked over and are on good order. |
