Akai X-201D Check Out

[DMcMahon]

Recently purchased the Akai X-201D from red16v and have been checking it out recently.

It is a 4 track, 3 speed, 7", solid state, 1/4" R2R, vintage is early 70's.

It was detailed by red16v in an earlier Thread in this category.

As described externally and internally it is in very good condition, especially for its age.

As described the Tape Speed and Auto Pause/Start control knobs are missing, I have found temporary replacements from a couple of my other Akai machines.

It is the first hands on experience I have of a Cross-field bias machine.

Playback and recording work very well on all 3 speeds, the tape in the photos (which I have not played before) sounds excellent quality, a mixture of various classical and Jazz music (neither of which is my preferred music genre).

The only known operational issue was the Playback Auto Reverse where red16v explained that the Play switch has to be in the exact correct position for auto reverse to work due to a damaged wafer on the back of the switch. I have not yet tried auto reverse, but the manual initiated auto reverse works fine.

I did have a quick look inside but impossible to see fully/access the back of the switch without a full strip down. I will later assess the auto Reverse operation and if problematic I will plan to have a look at it. red16v has cautioned me about attempting to rectify the auto reverse due to the difficulty and risk that could make it un-operational but I said I like a challenge.

I find the Track Selector switch very stiff in operation, red16v advises that it has always been stiff since the machine was new. This is not just an electrical switch but it also mechanically moves the height of the erase and bias heads assembly. Manually lifting by hand the erase & bias heads assembly against a spring does not feel too stiff, I think the stiffness is in the plastic gearing drive assembly.

Cannot really see the gearing without lifting up the complete heads assembly which looks not easy at all, so needs some careful thought on how to tackle.

One small issue is that when there is a lot of tape on the Take Up spool, when fast rewinding (RWD) the rewind only runs for a few seconds before the auto stop lever drops down and cuts power off. This was particular bad on first tape I tried but now with current tape is not so bad, so maybe is improving or the first tape was somewhat sticky. Need to evaluate this more.

Microphone recording and DIN connector operation not yet been checked out.

I am very happy with this purchase, it is great (and somewhat unusual) to get a machine that is actually as good as its selling description.