Akai 4000DB tape recorder.

[Drew Stephenson]

I was more imagining a spontaneous work of genius emerging to the tempo of the tape end flapping round the reel...

[Arpangel]

I have visions of Tony recording a masterpiece with a coiling pile of tape slowly building on the floor!

Not a problem if he runs the machine at the top of his tower

I’ll give you a mention on the album if it works……….

[ken long]

I have visions of Tony recording a masterpiece with a coiling pile of tape slowly building on the floor!

Not a problem if he runs the machine at the top of his tower

LMFAO

[Arpangel]

Update, surprisingly, it’s all working fine, I got an empty reel, and some master tapes on seven inch reels, I recorded years ago.
They play back fine, although at half speed, as they were recorded at 15ips, on a half track machine, so I had to fiddle around with the head selector switch to get anything out of it.
I found some blank tape, all fine, records well, although the heads need a good clean, and I’ll de-mag them too.
So money well spent.

[Hugh Robjohns]

[Tomás Mulcahy]

They play back fine, although at half speed, as they were recorded at 15ips, on a half track machine, so I had to fiddle around with the head selector switch to get anything out of it.

As you guessed, the Akai is quarter track. But IIRC, the capstan sleeve slides off to make it 15ips.

[Arpangel]

They play back fine, although at half speed, as they were recorded at 15ips, on a half track machine, so I had to fiddle around with the head selector switch to get anything out of it.

As you guessed, the Akai is quarter track. But IIRC, the capstan sleeve slides off to make it 15ips.

Thanks for that Tom, I’ll investigate.
One weird thing, the left tape guide has a wooden centre to it, I’m sure it should be metal, I think maybe someone has bodged it up at some point.

[Hugh Robjohns]

One weird thing, the left tape guide has a wooden centre to it, I’m sure it should be metal, I think maybe someone has bodged it up at some point.

I think you are right!

[Arpangel]

One weird thing, the left tape guide has a wooden centre to it, I’m sure it should be metal, I think maybe someone has bodged it up at some point.

I think you are right!

Yes, oh well, it seems to work OK, seeing as I'll probably use it for loops, and distressed things, it’s not that important.

[mooblie]

But IIRC, the capstan sleeve slides off to make it 15ips.

On mine (now long gone) the capstan sleeve removal switched between 3.75 and 7.5 ips.

15 ips wasn’t an option.

[Arpangel]

But IIRC, the capstan sleeve slides off to make it 15ips.

On mine (now long gone) the capstan sleeve removal switched between 3.75 and 7.5 ips.

15 ips wasn’t an option.

I’m not at home, I’ll check this out later.

[Forum Admin]

I owned one too in the ‘70s and it definitely did not offer 15ips speed.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Hugh Robjohns]

All the information you could wish for regarding the Akai 4000DB is available online.

Hifi engine is a very useful resource for example, offering basic info and specs on the product page, with user and service manuals available when registered.

https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_libra ... 00db.shtml

The 4000 series recorders were consumer machines and offered 3.75 and 7.5 ips speeds, selected by removing or fitting a sleeve on the capstan (secured with a screw cap).

I had one in the 70s too....

[Tim Gillett]

I think some older Akai models did offer 15ips. At least I've had what looks like a 15ips capstan sleeve in my spares box for years. But for proper record and playback it would have required a machine with bias/EQ switching for that speed.

Most of those old Akai had a maximum spool size of 7" making for short record
times at 15ips, and playing back half-track stereo recordings on a 1/4 track machine isn't ideal. You lose most of the right track, and the left track while better doesn't play back ideally.

[Arpangel]

and playing back half-track stereo recordings on a 1/4 track machine isn't ideal. You lose most of the right track, and the left track while better doesn't play back ideally.

Erm, yes, I’m having great fun listening as you describe, as mine are half-track 15 ips, mind you, I could remaster all my old tapes and create whole albums out of just a couple of pieces!

[Tomás Mulcahy]

But IIRC, the capstan sleeve slides off to make it 15ips.

On mine (now long gone) the capstan sleeve removal switched between 3.75 and 7.5 ips.

15 ips wasn’t an option.

OK so II(didn't)RC

[Arpangel]

Had an interesting day yesterday, a friend has just rebuilt the cross-overs in his B&W DM2A's, and I was surprised at how good they sound, we also dug out his Revox A77 not used for many, many years, it fired up and worked perfectly.
He’s got loads of stuff, he’s driving the B&W's with a Quad 405/44 set-up, a Marantz CD player, and a Thorens TD125 with an SME/V15.
All good stuff, fun day.
But these old B&W speakers were a revelation, you could really hear right into recordings, and they showed up really bad ones, they would make excellent monitors, I was a bit miffed actually, I need to upgrade my speakers.

[DazzerT]

My 4000DS mk II has been working fine apart from rewind issues but today it has on noise on the right channel.

I have another one which suffered a dunt in a van and one spindle isn’t true but I could raid it for spares.

Which component is likely to be malfunctioning?

Many thanks

Dazzer

[James Perrett]

Apparently Akai reel to reels are a bit notorious for transistors that go noisy after a while. However, if the problem is a transistor, I would replace it with a brand new equivalent rather than one from an old machine which is also likely to be noisy.

[DazzerT]

Hello James,

Thanks for your help.

Having deciphered the circuit diagrams but fortunately before I opened the machine I was relieved to find it may not be the amp transistor chip after all.

I noticed the channel selector switch was very noisy when I resorted to only dub the mono left track recordings. I found by trial and error you could find a position of the selector which gave clean stereo. What's best way to clean the selector?

Now of course the Akai has begun to run slow. It even stops about 30 mins into the tape. Then starts again some 30 minutes later. I've not used the Akai in a year or two, and the room it is in is around zero centigrade at the moment. Could this issue simply be that it needs new belts? It doesn't like rewinding when the tape has nearly completely rewound.

Thanks

Dazzer