Akai GX-F44R (c. 1981)

Name: Akai GX-F44R
Brand: Akai

The Akai GX-F44R is a quick-reverse stereo cassette deck that appeared in Japan around 1981 at ¥79,800. Historical documentation is thin. No lineup positioning or marketing narrative seems to have survived, and collectors don't talk about it much. The machine itself is documented, and the spec sheet is interesting.

The standout is Akai's Twin Field Super GX head. Record and playback gaps share one housing, with a 4µm record gap and a 1µm play gap. Akai described this as equivalent to a 3-head system. It makes sense for a quick-reverse deck. Rather than rotating a head block, the head shifts between forward and reverse track pairs, and two erase heads serve the two directions. The transport uses two motors. An electronically controlled DC motor drives the capstan, and a separate high-torque DC motor drives the reels. A bi-counter capstan with dedicated shafts and pinch rollers for each direction handles the reversal. An infrared tape sensor built into the tape guide triggers the quick reverse when it sees a leader or blank section. Introscan and blank search are microcomputer-controlled. A three-position reverse selector governs one-direction operation, one round trip, or continuous playback after recording in both directions. For noise reduction it offers Dolby B and C. The C implementation used B-type circuits for low and high levels and added spectral skewing to improve high-frequency saturation.

Rated performance, quoted to the JIS convention: wow and flutter 0.035% WRMS; frequency response 25 Hz–16 kHz on normal tape, 25 Hz–17 kHz on chrome, 25 Hz–19 kHz on metal (±3 dB); distortion 0.7% at 0 VU on metal; signal-to-noise 60 dB at 3%-THD weighting, with Dolby C adding 15 dB at 500 Hz and 20 dB from 1 kHz to 10 kHz. Recording bias is 100 kHz, and fast wind runs 80 seconds on a C-60. Inputs are line (70 mV/100 kΩ) and microphone (0.25 mV/600 Ω); outputs are line (0–410 mV into 20 kΩ or more) and headphone (0–100 mV into 8 Ω). The deck weighs 8.6 kg, measures 440×118×309 mm, draws 34W, and an RC-21 remote control was sold separately for ¥6,000.

The deck went through High Fidelity's test lab in 1982. The magazine measured record/play response on Type II tape and checked playback response with a TDK standard test tape (High Fidelity, August 1982, pp.32-33). It also appeared in the magazine's April 1982 cassette-deck roundup (High Fidelity, April 1982, p.29).

An owner who found a brand-new, never-played GX-F44R in storage reported that the flywheel belt had turned to goo after decades of sitting. That is the usual rubber-rot failure, and stored examples of this era are likely to have it. Service manuals for the deck are available via HiFi Engine.