Akai 1710W as a tube amp

[Radio Wrangler]

Very few people, when recording something would want loudspeakers operating blaring out the signal from the microphones. It would create howl-round like a badly set-up public address system. At a minimum, there will be changes to the frequency response, with a 3-head machine doing off-tape monitoring, there would be echoes.

So it's not surprising that the Akai mutes the speakers during 'Record' mode. In other modes, the microphone preamplifiers are off.

So having the machine configured to put sound from any input straight through the speakers will need an amount of re-wiring in the switches of the machine. If you still intend keeping the machine, it's a lot less trouble to just pick up another amplifier. You could even survive listening with something with transistors in it, until your fancy amplifier gets fixed.

David

[audionirvana]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Very few people, when recording something would want loudspeakers operating blaring out the signal from the microphones. It would create howl-round like a badly set-up public address system. At a minimum, there will be changes to the frequency response, with a 3-head machine doing off-tape monitoring, there would be echoes.

So it's not surprising that the Akai mutes the speakers during 'Record' mode. In other modes, the microphone preamplifiers are off.

So having the machine configured to put sound from any input straight through the speakers will need an amount of re-wiring in the switches of the machine. If you still intend keeping the machine, it's a lot less trouble to just pick up another amplifier. You could even survive listening with something with transistors in it, until your fancy amplifier gets fixed.

David

Yeah figured not worth hassle. I also learned the headphone out impedance is 8ohm so I have so spare cables lying around that allows me to plug my speakers into the headphone out and get some decent playback. Totally makes sense for speakers to be muted during record.


Btw do you know if the headphone out is stereo or mono. I have the original headphones and the connection jack seems to be TRS. The volume control individually controls both left and right speakers. I plugged in an adapter TRS to dual female but when both speakers are plugged in the left and right volume control affects both speakers

[ms660]

Originally Posted by audionirvana

Btw do you know if the headphone out is stereo or mono.

Headphones output socket is stereo as per the schematic, if you wanted to use the headphone socket to connect your loudspeakers to you'll have to bypass the two 220 Ohm power limiting resistors otherwise you you'll only get minimal power to the loudspeakers.

Lawrence.

[audionirvana]

Originally Posted by ms660

Headphones output socket is stereo as per the schematic, if you wanted to use the headphone socket to connect your loudspeakers to you'll have to bypass the two 220 Ohm power limiting resistors otherwise you you'll only get minimal power to the loudspeakers.

Lawrence.

I see thanks

[analogadikt]

Originally Posted by audionirvana

Hiya, I’ve seen previous threads but not found anything that was complete and also seen YouTube videos so know it is possible.

I would like to extract the amp out of my Akai 1710. I took it apart yesterday but When I unplugged the small black connector that links up the amp to the tape path it would not power on at all. So I hooked it back up.

Next I connected my DAC to the line in on the akai and my phone to line in on DAC. Played some music but the sound coming out of the Akai with external speakers is barely audible.

Does anyone have some step by step advice on how they managed to achieve the task of using this as an AMP. The sound is loud and clear on tape playback but input source is barely audible

Hi !

There two versions of the Akai 1710. One uses 6BM8/ECC82 as driver/outputs with ss rectifier, other one has 6AR5 as output, ECC83 driver and valve rectifier. Which version is yours?

To convert into a stand alone amp, remove the tape mechanism and the PCB that carries the tape preamp circuitry. The output of this board is connected to the volume or tone control, sorry I forgot exactly where it goes. Anyway, you connect a shielded cable from the input RCA to the same point and that is it.

If the tape section is to be retained, a switch can be rigged to give the line in input directly to the volume control, bypassing the tape amp board. The tape section is nothing great. The mechanism and circuit are vastly inferior compared to the previous valve based R2R from Akai, the M8.

BTW, I replied to this query on another forum recently. Was that you?

Regards,

[audionirvana]

So I ended up actually getting it to work by simply soldering wire from each input to the volume control thus bypassing the SS preamp. Must say for a 4W amp sounds really great and it still plays the tapes

[dave walsh]

A four watt amp in the 1960's was considered to be loud in the domestic
environment and even on stage It it works for you that's good nirvana. The speaker and cabinet could often make the difference, not just the wattage!

Dave W

[audionirvana]

Yeah 4W is loud indeed and in my case they are hooked up to some classical Wharfedale E-30s at 94dB sensitivity.