I picked up this Akai M7 locally from Craigslist. Originally bought in Japan by the seller's son. Has original manual, mic, mini speakers (not sure what the tiny speakers are for), tape splicer and splicing tape plus an ear phone. It's in good cosmetic shape but of course there is somewhite paint splatter on the case. We played it for a few minutes before I bought it. Both VU meters respond but the right channel didn't play through the the right channel built in speaker. Looks like I have a nice project, I'm looking forward to working on it and building a low power stereo. It's quite heavy, feels like about 45 pounds or so.

Sorry for the bad picture :



What do you think?

Nice.

Are those speakers or microphones?

Those are two little speakers that fit in a small vinyl bag w/ the tape splicer and stuff. The little speakers actually have some weight to them. The Mic is separate and doesn't fit in the bag, it's betwen the small speakers. I asume there is a left and right speaker mounted in the cabinet firing upwards. I haven;t taken it out of the case yet to see for sure but it's a stereo unit so I guess therer is two speakers in the cab. . The shiny front part looks brand new. It's a thing of beauty.

Here in another pic of the accessories.

Akai/Roberts (US) were highly regarded in the mid 60s. Notice the strong resemblance to Ampex 600. It's not accidental. Nor is it a whole lot more than cosmetic. Ampex 600 was a portable studio machine. Akai/Roberts wanted to look like one and were even used as such. Until Akai got off on their gimmick tangent of crossfields and glass heads--neither of which did anything significant--their stuff was fundamentally solid.

But you don't have to tell your guests the gory details, it's a beautiful one of what it is. I've never seen the gold panel color but I've only seen the US/Roberts version

Coincidence that a person named Roberts was CEO of Ampex in the late 60s? He presided over the stock falling from 45 to 4.5 almost overnight. How do I know that? I worked there and owned their stock at the time.

It's not gold in color, that's just the flash in a poorly lit room. It's just a nice shiny chrome color. I'll take better pictures when the light is better. The manual l is in English, but there is also half pages within that are written in Japanese.

Those two "mini speakers" that say AKAI M-7 on them, are actually microphones. I used to have that same model recorder, and the same microphones myself. Unfortunately, by the time I got mine, the tape recorder heads were too far worn down to do much good. Contrary to what "arbilab" says above, the crossfield gimmick really did work. It extended the high frequencies that went onto the tape, even at slower speeds. Akai was not the only manufacturer to use the crossfield method, as Tandberg had some models that used them, too. "arbilab" is correct in saying that the Ampex 600 series is essentially superior to the Akai. Both are built like tanks, but the Ampex is a better designed machine, and one used in some studios. The Akai was built for the consumer market, the Ampex for the consumer and semi-professional. The real professional studios used Ampex 300 series machines. Those were the work horses of the day.

I'm not too sure about those glass "GX" heads that came in later models. Supposedly, they lasted longer than regular heads because they were made of a harder material.

Anyway, there is only one built in speaker in the M-7. I think that they sold a separate speaker to use for this recorder, although I never actually saw one. The built-in speaker only works for the left channel audio. You need to plug in another speaker to the right channel speaker plug on the front panel.

If you take the lower tape head cover off, you'll see the crossfield head. Do not mess with this, unless you know what you are doing. It is factory aligned with the playback/recording head above it, and the crossfield head applied a special bias field when recording on the machine. In this fashion, the tape would have higher frequencies recorded on it. It works much more noticeably at slower speeds, although it works at high speeds, too. When I first got my M-7, I was surprised at how much detail it captured especially at slower speeds, and it was due to the crossfield design. I kid you not. After a while, I started adjusting the crossfield head, and it really made a difference once I found the "sweet spot". Like I mentioned before, the tape heads on mine were pretty well shot, so I had no problem in messing around with it. If everything is working as it should, these machines sound very nice. Nice tube sound! Do yourself a favor, and get yourself some prerecorded tapes that play at the 7 1/2 IPS speed, and marvel at how they sound!

Thats' sgood information JohnS, about the built in speaker., thanks for that. I checked the paperwork, it lists it at 47.3 lbs so it should sound pretty good. For the record, the accessory case is made of rich full grain cowhide not plastic, nice touch.

One thing that I noticed on your accessory bag, and that it says "tape recorder" on it. Mine said "terecorder". At one point, Akai changed the word "terecorder" to "tape recorder" on this model. I'm not sure where they got the word "terecorder" from! Perhaps a translation problem, or it was an Akai trademark? Anyway, the word "terecorder" never caught on.

BTW, earlier Akai's used the word "terecorder" on them, and that's why I think that your recorder is a later model.

I could go on and on about the M-7, and your's looks very nice!

Here is a link below to the "obsolete media" website, and in particular the Akai M-6. It shows the M-6 with a pair of Akai speakers that could be purchased to use with it. You can see the microphones placed on top of the speakers. I haven't done a search there for the M-7 yet. I was looking to see if the M-6 was called a "terecorder' and sure enough, it was. Here's the link:

http://www.obsoletemedia.com/tapedecks/ ... atures.htm

Here is a close up from the badge of the case, looks like they were still using the term when mine was made. I'm impressed with the quality of the case and woodwork.

Was that the notorious guy from Bell & Howell?

-David

I've got an M7 in the shop - gutted for parts.

I see John has a different memory of Akais than I do. Yeah, I only worked on a few hundred of them and it's been a while. More Ampexes, TEACs, Sonys. Not counting broadcast.

I'm glad you're using it for its intended purpose. So many people gut them for their amplifiers and leave the rest. It really makes me sad as they're a great piece of kit. I record with my M8 all of the time and I'm always very impressed with the results. It won't compare with a later Otari or TEAC but those two are in a different price bracket. Make sure you give it a full lubrication as these old machines really appreciate it. Be gentle when using the Play/Rec and the FF/RW controls as the pot metal cams that are used to actuate these functions can get brittle and break if you're too rough with them.

If you have a chance try powering some worthy external speakers with it. The amplifiers in these are very very good as is. They're about 5 watts on a good day so make sure you use efficient speakers. It's a simple 6BQ5 power stage with a 12AX7 preamp and a 6X4 rectifier. It sounds so good most likely due to it being such a simple circuit. You will more than likely be very impressed with what you hear. I really like the original accessory pack you received with it. Try recording with those microphones and see how they sound!

Good luck with it. I have a feeling you'll enjoy it.

I have a couple of there too, but wondering if you can still get fresh tape, and if so, would you care to do so?

Of course the sonic quality would be improved by a genuine Akai takeup spool. Your M7 will sit there happily humming....

I was gonna' say, those resemble the boxy, small speaker looking, Wollensak mics:



That is a beautiful recorder, Elrick. I've got an old Dokorder 7500 that technically resembles that unit, and it's a incredible performer - I'd swear it sounds better than CD's at it's fastest recording speed. Problem I have is every time I run a reel of tape through it I get to spend the next 1+ hours cleaning the heads and tape path - old tape. Can we even get new, decent recording tape for these things? Without it costing an arm & a leg?

I feel dumb I thought those were speakers. The seller told me they were extra speakers and I just thought, leave it to the Japanese to make them that small.

Still haven't playedor powered it yet besides the couple minutes in the sellers garage. I've taken the face plate off, lubed the idler wheels aand greased the mechanical linkages. Everything spins freely, the motor offers just a little drag when spining the metal fan on the back, but it seems fine. Haven't cleaned the heads yet but they don't look too bad. Need to pick up some IPA. I'm hoping, judging by the super clean condition that the heads still have some good life remaining. The directions in the manual for lubricating the motor has got me stumped. Apparently, to properly lube the motor you need to remove something called a motor board and a number of washers/bushings/retainer clips to get access to the "oiling pit". I'm not seeing these parts but perhaps I need to remove the idler wheels to get in there. Instructions say there are two oil pits, one on the back of the motor and one on the front that need to be filled with oil.

For motor lube all I have actually done so far is to carefully drip a few drops of oil against the shaft and and hand turned the motor to help it work itself down. For something that is suppose to be done every 600 hrs of operation they sure make it difficult to oil the motor. Or perhaps the manual isn't't exactly correct.

I plan on getting some efficient hi fi speakers to play it through. Specifications list it as 6 Watt max on eacch channel, total 12 W so it should fill the room. I 'll peruse the second hand shops for some tapes. The seller gave me two or three unopened tapes and a couple of pre recorded taps to get me started. I gather the "newer" high bias tapes are not recommended for this vintage player?

That's odd, because the M7 I have in the shop has TWO built-in 4 inch speakers facing out the top of it. - factory installed.