Akai 4000DS Reel to Reel -

I love reel to reel tape.  Who doesn’t?  I have several 10.5” and 7” inch machines, and often switch them out in my system.  For me, when playing 10.5” machines, I prefer the 1/2 track format,  As good as 1/4 track is, you can really hear a difference in the sound quality, and I almost always use 15 ips as I have a large collection of masters and dupes to choose from.

But the 7” reel format appeals to me for many reasons.  When playing production media, it’s almost always in the 7” format.  And many tapes even at 3 3/4 ips are surprising good sounding.  Second, I like that way it looks.  The machines don’t seem to ‘take over the system’.  The smaller the better.  My hifi is in my living room, and I don’t look at it, I listen to it.  Still, my wife and I want it to look nice and when I have the big Reel to Reel in place it just draws your eye to it, and not always in a good way. I have owned dozens of reel to reel decks in both formats, many of them very sophisticated machines.  But I have always seem to like a mechanical deck when it come to 7” machines.  Like the Sony TC 250, 350 and 370 series, The Akai M, and 4000 series, along with the old Ampex 600 decks.  Tandberg 3000 and 6000 also on my list of favorites.

All of these have one thing in common.  A single motor and fully mechanical transport.  This translates into a machine that is nearly indestructible and one that any novice can easily maintain.  

My favorite of these are the Akai 4000 series of machines, and of those the decks, the ones with the “One Micron Gap”, record and play head are the best sounding.  This is a quote from an Akai advertisement for the Akai 4000 reel to reel with the one micron gap heads.  

“Akai’s one-micron gap head is responsible for an amazingly important difference in tape recording.  It’s the difference between ordinary performance and high density quality recording and playback.  Ordinary head gaps are from 2 to 4 microns, but the gap of this outstanding head is only one micron.  This high density recording system provide excellent frequency response and clear, high pitched sound is generated as frequency  tone and recorded smoothly without distortion.”

I completely agree.  Many will say that the one-micron gap means lean bass.  That’s completely false.  The bass response from these decks are outstanding.  

My little Akai 4000DS reel to reel sounds incredible, functions flawlessly and is over 50years old.  Yes, it’s a little bit of a pain when you need to change speeds, but oh my!, what sound!

It’s hands down better sounding that my SONY TC 255, 355, or 377, and as good sounding as my Akai GX4000.  

Truthfully, all of the Akai 4000’s are great sounding machines and very robust.  Before Akai was building reel to reel machines, they manufactured motors.  Turntable broadcast motors.  Smooth, quiet and powerful.  Akai was also responsible for manufacturing almost the entire line of Roberts reel to reel decks, and if you look at an old Roberts or Akai deck, you can certainly see that the Ampex 600 was the inspiration for these machines.  

The Akai 4000 series is an inexpensive way for a music lover to discover reel to reel.  They were sold throughout the world and parts and supplies are plentiful.  Machines in pristine condition, will often command a higher price than a more sophisticated deck from  Akai, TEAC, SONY or Phillips.  I attribute this to their great sound, good looks and fact that they are nearly indestructible.  My 4000DS is a MKI version, which means I need the rubber reel hold down hubs locks if I am going to play this deck in the vertical position, which is what I do.  I prefer laying it down, but that doesn’t lend itself to easy use in my hifi stand.  I have the original Akai rubber hold down hub locks, which were rock hard form drying out over the years.  Just this past week, I began applying Fedron rubber revitalizer to them and to my surprise they are now soft, supple and grippy.  Still, the Radio Shack brand Realistic rubber hub locks were the best you could obtain and my favorite to use.  I have two sets and the rubber is of very high quality.  The are soft and grippy and look good too.  

The later version of the Akai 4000DS ‘MKII’, has built-in spring clips to hold the reels in place, which for many was a game changer.

If you’re buying an old reel to reel, spend a little and have them serviced.  A good CLA, and replacing any out of spec capacitors is always a good thing.  You might want to update the transistors if the deck has been sitting for years.  The silicon in the transistor  drys out and they develop hairline cracks which will pick up electrical interference from within the machine and really mess with the sound of your recording and playback. 

Once serviced, these deck will outlast you.  The humble Akai 4000, it’s a keeper in my book.

I forgot to mention, that if you are a musician wanting the analog sound, this little beast will record sound on sound and sound with sound.  I’ve done it, would would be floored at the demo that you can make with this.  More to come soon!

A few years back the Akai GX4000DB in a Mac/SUMO system.