Akai 355 (mid-1960s)

Little is documented about the Akai 355 under this exact model designation. Period sources call it the Akai X-355 Automatic. It was a quarter-track transistor stereo tape recorder with Akai's cross-field bias system - bias applied from a separate head on the opposite side of the tape, to extend high-frequency response. Studio Sound (September 1966, p.33) listed it with tape speeds of 7½ and 3¾ ips. An advertisement in the same publication (March 1969, p.36) claimed three speeds including 15 ips, plus four heads: erase, record, playback, and the cross-field bias head.

The X-355 was Akai's domestic flagship until the more elaborate X-360 replaced it. Studio Sound (August 1969, p.27) called the X-360 a £359 development of the X-355, which had been priced around £250 before purchase tax. The X-360 added solenoid controls, automatic reverse, AGC, and other refinements. That suggests the 355 was a simpler, manually-operated machine built around the same cross-field transport. No surviving documentation confirms the exact production run, or whether "355" and "X-355" were used interchangeably in all markets.

Beyond these fragments, almost nothing else is recorded.

Known specs (from period sources):