Akai 230D (c. 1970)

Documentation on the Akai 230D is thin. What survives is a sparse set of specifications and a production date of roughly 1970. Little else has been traced.

Here is what is known. The 230D was a four-track, two-channel stereo reel-to-reel deck that took 7-inch reels and ran at 7½ and 3¾ ips. It had four heads (one record, one playback, two erase) and three motors: one hysteresis synchronous motor for the capstan and two torque motors for the reels. Frequency response was rated at 40 Hz to 18 kHz at the higher speed. Wow and flutter was 0.09% RMS at 7½ ips, and signal-to-noise ratio was 55 dB. Inputs were RCA jacks for two microphones and two line sources. Output was one line RCA pair and a ¼-inch headphone jack. The unit measured 440 × 392 × 218 mm and weighed 17.5 kg.

No original price, user reviews, or service manual excerpts have surfaced for the 230D under this exact designation. A related model, the Akai GX-230D, was announced in 1973. It appears in period literature with different dimensions and weight, and with three GX (glass-and-crystal) heads instead of the 230D's four conventional heads. That suggests the names separated machines by construction and era. Whether the two shared a transport or were entirely different designs is not documented.

High-Fidelity (August 1977, p.62) published a comprehensive table of open-reel equipment then on the market. The OCR quality of the surviving copy does not confirm whether the 230D or the GX-230D was listed. No other period magazine references to this model have been located.