The Akai GX-225D: How To Play Tapes On This Unusual Reel To Reel Tape Player!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- Today we're talking about the Akai GX-225D Reel to Reel tape recorder. What's special about the GX Line of open reel tape recorders? And what makes Akai able to claim they can survive the zombie apocalypse?
I try to do a basic how-to for setting up and playing tapes on this and most reel to reel(open tape) players.
This reel to reel tape machine was bought from Adam's Estate Sales in the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs.
All items shown on Audio Thrift are from estate sales, garage sales or thrift stores.
Pioneer 8 Track Video- • The Pioneer H-2000. Be...
Also, go read Digging Up Mother by Doug Stanhope. Or listen on Audible.
(Disclaimer: Hate speech and hostility of any kind toward myself or other commentors will be removed without hesitation. Same goes for ANYTHING political. This isn't the place for that.) - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Nice unit. AKAI made some great R2R in the late 70's and 80's... One point though the track select allows you to record 4 times on the tape, although only in Mono..T1 & T3 are forward, 2 & 4 reverse. You will also find one VU meter should be unlit and wont move when recording or playback using the single tracks. I use this to copy very old mono LP's at high speed so I usually get 2 LP's on a 7in reel...My unit at the moment is an old early 70's Philips that was only sold in mainland Europe.....A great video though....
Damn... I always miss something when I do these. That's interesting... I wish I would have included it.
Thank you though. 🤘🏻
I'm going to pin this comment so people can see that info.
@@AudioThriftI had a Phillips that worked the same way for stereo and mono I have a reel to reel tape from 1966 a freind of ares recorded fm then
philips was maybe one of the best brands of hi-fi in the 70´s and the reel recorders were very good in playing or recording, they did it in the 80´s and 90´s with m,arantz brand also grunding belonged to them as in some point harman kardon alsowas ,one must have seen harman kerdon components exactelly as some philips in late 80´s
I own and use it's forerunner 221 almost daily....use good quality tape with it and adjust the EQ switch according to your speed otherwise it won't sound good and recording won't be acceptable in any ways. At least macel UD or XL-I or TDK stuff. Stay on that tape and align the deck to it and for best results get a calibration tape and align the complete tape path. Get the service manual and redo all the tape tensions... It's worth it. It will perform way better than you showed it in here...i get 35hz to 21khz with XL-I tape at 19cm/sek or 7something ips and 20hz to 18khz at 9.5cm/sek or 3something ips and still 25hz to 15khz at 4.75cm/sek or 1something ips. (cassette speed) and when using maxell UD 18-180 on 7inch it runs 6 hours total, great for background music. Also I use it with a nakamichi high Com II noise reduction unit. Which give me a noise floor of around -80dB at 4.75 cm/sek but the alignment needs to be done well first and the tape path has to be clean... And I mean as clean as possible..including capstan/wheel and all heads and bolts. I bought especially this machine because the 225 has a useless NR system builtin, which only raises the noise floor. But it has the Rock-solid tape mechanics which will never fail, if lubricated from time to time. It has three speeds and one-track only playback ability on both ch output. So you can play every 7inch reel on it, for backup/transfer on or to modern media including digital(I did that as a part of my day job back in the 90s)
This machine series is a workhorse which don't ask for much besides minimal maintenance... I also own studio grade open reel machines like Telefunken M15a / M5, tascam MRS16 mk I.... So give yours some love and it will never let you down.. Unlike the newer akai.. I had the gx-77 and a 636...nice decks but a nightmare to service if something is faulty....tape tension and motor speed control is fully electronic so is the tape engagement...if it works, all is great.. If not - - Stay Away..! Nightmare...these machines got the looks, true but way too complex for economic repair...
Have fun with your 225....👍😊
I have 3 or four old AkaI's R2Rs, Here is a tip watch out for your transport handles cams binding up and snapping Akai used really crappy pot medal to make them I guess you can buy nylon repro's, but not much fun to replace them so if possible keep them lubed.
Now that I think about it, I remember seeing the cams and how... flimsy they seemed. What's the best way to keep them lubed? Is there a trick to it at all?
@@AudioThriftuse the deck and work them... If you don't your deck they will go sticky and may stuck... I use a thin coat of motor oil an all mechanics, and relub from time to time (once a year or alike)
LIKE number 1 which is pretty fun. I have about a dozen or more reel-to-reel decks (Sony, Akai, Pioneer, Tascam, etc.) which I bought about 20 years ago when prices on eBay were much more reasonable (although shipping them to Canada was costly and precarious due to their incredible weight) and aside from my Pioneer RT-909 (purchased on eBay for roughly $150 at the time; not like the $750 to $1,200 or more prices these days) which just needs some new pinch rollers to work properly again, my favourites are my Akai decks with their glass X-Tal ferrite heads and they are built like tanks.
A number of my Akai decks need some repairs (belts mostly, I assume, and a general tune-up), but my main deck which is working well is a GX-77 with its cool LED meters and original flip-up lid. It even came with metal Akai reels (which have sold for hefty prices on eBay these days). :)
Man... that sounds like a fun collection. I'm jealous of your metal reels.
@@AudioThrift, thanks, man. I'm really enjoying your channel too and got a kick out of your recent 8-track video. :)
Thank you. I appreciate it!
Remember sos was what Les Paul used to make many of his recordings with his wife. Disabled the erase head and record on top prior recordings
Jealous of that epic headset dude! Hope you put some good neodymium drivers in there. Heck, can fit four of the buggers in each of those cups. Congrats on the tape deck find.
I haven't done anything to them... didn't know I could. But it sounds pretty sweet as-is. Although, it does start to hurt a little after about an hour.
@@AudioThrift Usually headsets that old you can (carefully) remove the earpads, and underneath should be screws to get to the driver's inside. You might be able to upgrade them. Either upgrade or just reinforce the sealing around the cord, all the seams etc. Something good would fit in there. You did the 901s, this should be easy for you. But if you like them now, that's cool. Still super jealous.
Most of the reel to reel players go for a pretty penny these days.
There's plenty of them on Facebook marketplace for under $100 but I wuldn't waste my money on one that was only worth that. You can definitely get a pretty nice one for less than $400
I have a GX-280D that I got from my dad that I’m not planning on giving up anytime soon, even if I don’t really use it all that much, so that won’t be a problem for me
I just became the owner of a GX-255-SS (4-track, 3-motor, 4-head, stereo) deck that’s still new, unopened in its original packaging. I haven’t gotten it to my shop yet, I’ll be interested to see what condition the rubber and plastics are in.
The heads are glass-ferrite. They will last until you contaminate the ferrite with acidic skin oils on sloppily-handled tape. Acid damage to the gap in the ferrite part of the head will make replacement necessary. Unless you handle the tape properly, ALWAYS! The first symptom of this damage to the playbeck head will be muddy, muffled playback audio with no treble response. Cool find! Oh, and when the 'mute' relay wears out just remove it. Replacements haven't been made in decades.
Well that rules out any tape from the thrift store. Half of them look like Christmas bows. lol
It doesn't hurt it to just remove the relay?
If memory serves, it either gets removed, or gets replaced with two tiny jumper wires. The schematic diagram must be here somewhere. Just haven't consulted it in decades. @@AudioThrift
That´s one of the myths I´d actually buy into. I´ve recently snagged a GX210D. Three motors, mechanical control (but very robust, very good feel from the levers. Not much to go wrong with them. I love it. I dreamed of this machine since 2018.
Had three of them... Never failed...! For parts buy the later 215 they go cheap and you can use almost every thing inside as a replacement. Do a recap, if possible and an alignment, keep the tape path as clean as possible and degauss the heads and all metal parts within the tape path from time to time...when done it's on par with the gx-77. In some cases the glass of the heads crack and or come loose... Then a 215 cheap donor will come handy it has the same heads and it's way neweer6than another 210 😉 keep the reels spinning 👍😊
@@tubical71 Yes, Just before Christmas, I have recapped the Record and Playback amplifier, done a small azimuth alignment (I have a test tape, it´s not my first Reel to reel), oscilloscope in X-Y mode, getting a nice in-phase Lissajous pattern, then I set the record level trimpots according to service manual, measured the oscillator frequency, and finally the bias. I plan on replacing the pinch roller tire, because mine is crusty around the inner diameter and has a capstan shaft imprint (not too deep to affect playback that much, but it´s there). But that will be a 5 minute fix once it arrives.
this model came next to the series i had my second reel deck a X-165D in 1970 glass but not a GX, it works today and records like better than most of the cassette decks known to men with ferric tapes only(only can record this correctelly)the one in the video is maybe the best ever made for this type of reels, with this you´re good for life, people say it´s expensive, well at some point in time you could go and get them by the trash in the street and sold by what today is 5€ or less and normally with a big cardbox filled with reels already good recorded or even new sealed ones,that´s how i have around 15 of them from several brands and not more or it would be my house wall cover instead of paint, the most expensive format ever ,it seems they were sleeping through out their lifes or look like they are in their 50´s but only 31 or two, all so skinny that they lost their hair and teeth so now they are rediscovering what didn´t ment nothing to them till they were balled in their 20´s , when i was 50 i had long black hair and still fit in a Lotus Europa, Oh! and still had my teeth, now i´m grey and missing some teeth and was always a heavy consumer of all today considered bad to health but still here thinking how the hell am i still alive, some days ago i saw a video of a very old man talking about record players and i thought to my self ,how can a old guy like this knows nothing about turntables he looked like he had 80 something years old but than he says ,i´m 51 i was like ,how can this be possible looking older than me but only 51,something went wrong with this person, it happens and he didn´t knew nothing about turntables
Yeah, I like my little white Beat Boy the most.
@@AudioThrift having normally Pioneer top end systems my father gave me his 76 top of the line components but i kept using the akai at the time new model kind of a evolution of that ,also received a RT-707 (the pioneer was fine but akai had better sound) in late 79 when he bought a complete new revox/studer (refering to a pair of huge speakers)system only later he bought the B215 cassette deck and the cd player with the same look of all components in his system, i also bought my last reel deck in 82 from akai already with crystal meters and still using them today ,all 3 i have ,not counting the revox and several other good brands i have when people stoped using them trading this format for the already very good cassette decks sold at the time, the first portable kind of walkman i have was a well built looking good device in aluminium but only AM radio ,it was a family offer
I have 220 d prototype it’s very similar to this .. mines has no belts .. I love these decks!!
I imagine the belt is pretty easy to change if it's anything this one. Looks like there's a bunch on ebay and amazon right now.
@@AudioThrift oh it is.. it’s not like cassette decks!!
I enjoy this video very much indeed 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼I own this model...love playing my tapes🙂
Ooh for the reverse: the old akai reverse machines have a sense bolt if you search for reverse or control leader tape (not cheap but if you got it, you won't be without it no more ;) simply put 2-3inches between leader tape and tape, and your machine will autoreverse, if you put it on both ends of the tape it will play endless.... 😉
Hey man, been binge watching your stuff. Really dig your approach to this subject and please keep up the research on the historical aspects. I’ve been restoring audio gear for a while now and have developed quite the herd.
That's exciting. Thank you for watching. I appreciate it a lot... and hopefully I'll be able to do more history in the future.
Thanks for this. I just scored one of these.
That's exciting! Have you recorded anything with it yet?
@@AudioThrift not yet. Picking it up in a few hours.
I'm stoked for ya! That'll be fun.
As heads wear, the gap becomes wider this affects frequency response. Glass does nothing to stop this wear. To obtain the highest freq response with lowest tape noise, you record at the highest speed possible and the tape biased correctly.
I restore professional 2" broadcast video tape machines, where heads rotate at 14,400 rpm! On air bearings and tapes speeds of 15ips
Looking for the akai cr 80t , have cartrige and radio and imputs outpus... and amp :0
The audio rail to take up reel I believe the brand is called simply audio tape the one with the four round holes in the real as the design
I have an old 1970's Akai 1800SS Reel to Reel
it is quad, with an 8 Track player/recorder on the side. I just dug it our of storage a month of so ago. and haven't got around to seeing if it still works. for now, it just sits on a low book case, in my living room as a conversation piece. but I plan to check it out soon, it used to work great, but it sat for years, unused. it doesn't have an SOS button, but an SRT. not sure what this does. the track selector is used for the 8-track player, and there are Cart/Reel and transfer Buttons,for source/Record options. I don't believe you can record one track at a time,without erasing the other but there are separate Left/right mic. jacks on the front, and Quad Input.Output RCA jacks and DIN connectors on the back.. it even came with an DIN to RCA Adapter and a capstan sleeve, for slower speeds that are not on the speed selector switch. and no reverse switch. so yours has a few bells and whistles mine doesn't.
Yeah, but yours is quad. I think that wins. lol
I've watched other guys repair these and it is a lot of work, you seemed to have gotten very luck with this one. I've never seen anyone explain about the Glass tape Heads or how to thread the tape. Thank-you! I subscribed.
Thank you. I really want old equipment like this to be accessible for people who don’t have experience with it. And you’re right, I was exceedingly lucky with this. The same estate sale had a second Reel to reel that didn’t work. 😭
I have two speakers akai jet stream sistem
I have an RCA 400 from late 50's to early 60's if you're interested. I've plugged it in and the reels work. I don't have a way to test the speaker and the bulb may need replacing. But overall great condition for the age.
I also have a 3M Wollensak
من یدونه توشیبا pt-866 دارم به برق وصل میشه روشن میشود ولی نمیتوانم صدایی داشته باشم آیا آمپلی جداگانه لازم هست؟
I have a unit similar to this (also Akai), but the thing makes a horrible noise, even without a tape loaded, and the VU meters respond to the noise. If you, or anyone might know what might be going on with it, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm not certain of the model number right now, but it is auto reverse.
Is the noise mechanical and coming from the physical machine or is it coming through the speakers?
Thank you for responding. From what I remember, it's both the headphones and the speakers. I honestly haven't used it in years due to this, and I have no idea what's causing it.
Haha that's awesome you pulled out stanhopes book! He's in my tope 5
It’s a very important work! lol
My parents' R-R machine is a lot like this one; also an Akai, but a little bit simpler. Theirs is the 1722-Woodgrain (vs. Leather version).
Nice production, Reel to Reel best sound I ever remember going back to late 1970's (I'm 61) hearing Aerosmith "Rocks" album, still remember to this day, will buy 1 some day but a must is 10" reels. I have heard those glass heads when they fail (and do sometimes) it is like nails on a chalkboard.
Srt is other filtrer but for the playback ..not the record
SRT is a bias setting for recording on higher-grade tape.
Akai is great
Why are your ears so bulbous?
My ears swell when you're not around. I can't help it. It's your fault.
Wow 😮 An awesome AKAI Reel-to-Reel ‼️
Another magnificent video!
Thank You for sharing 😊
Fantastic!
Thank you for watching! 😁
Sos is a filter for the rec
SOS is "sound on sound", a method of combining recordings.
The interesting thing about these Akais with the reversing mechanism is that there is only one capstan, so in reverse mode, the capstan does not pull the tape past the heads, it basically holds back the tape while the (now left) take up reel pulls the tape. To my mind, it means that the take-up clutch needs to be really smooth or the variation in tension will cause wow and flutter; in the GX-225D the clutch action is likely performed by having the reel motor run at reduced voltage, rather than having a felt clutch as would be customary on a single motor machine.
That's actually really interesting.
True...I had initial problems with one of my 210 machines...needed a replacement relay, resistors and some transistors had been blown as well... But after repair it worked nicely.. And I learned a lot 😊
15 IPS is the gold standard!
I wish I had a machine that ran at that speed. So far no luck.
@@AudioThrift you can find a TEAC A-3340S in the wild and working from between 400 to 800 usd.
I would LOVE that.
I had the quad version of this deck. One neat feature was that the circuit boards were mounted into slots. Mine being a quad meant that there were 4 output boards. When one died, I arranged the boards so that it could still be used as a standard stereo deck and I still had a spare board! I used it to tape 3 hour radio shows in the 1990s.
That's actually really cool that you could do that and it still worked.
I have a 1800SS. [ see my post farther up in the comments ]
Holy shit huge headphone batman
😂