Akai RC 21
A small wired remote that runs the tape deck's transport from across the room. It's one of the few pieces of Akai accessory kit that collectors still hunt down by name.
Overview
The RC 21 is not a component. It is an accessory - a wired remote control unit that Akai sold as an optional extra for a range of its tape machines. If a deck had a REMOTE jack on the back panel, the owner could run a cable across the room, plug in the RC 21, and command the transport without walking over to the machine. Simple idea, and a good one.
The paper trail is what puts the RC 21 in an archive like this. Akai's own manuals name it again and again, and the list of compatible machines is the real story. According to the owner's documentation for the CS-F21 cassette deck, the REMOTE jack accepts the optional RC-21 or RC-90 for remote control operation, with the warning that only an Akai-recommended connection cord should be used. The same instruction appears in the German, Spanish, Swedish, and Dutch editions of that manual, so Akai shipped this accessory across every market it sold into. The RC 21 shows up in the documentation for the GX-747 open-reel deck as well, where the manual's connection diagrams label the remote jack for the "Fernbedienungseinrichtung RC-21."
The compatibility picture gets more specific in the documentation for the RC-90, the wireless infrared sibling. That manual lists the gear the RC-90 serves - open-reel decks GX-747 and GX-77, and cassette decks including the CS-F9, CS-F11, CS-F33R, GX-F15, GX-F25, GX-F35, GX-F37, GX-F44R, GX-F10R, GX-F66R, GX-F95, and UC-F5 - and then notes that the RC-90 can also be used with any equipment marked "RC-21" or "RC-90" on the rear panel. That last line is the useful one for RC 21 hunters: if the jack on the back of a deck is labeled RC-21, the wired remote is the right accessory for it. The GX-77 manual goes further and warns owners not to use any remote unit other than the RC-21 on that machine's remote jack. Akai treated the RC 21 as a specific, matched part, not a generic wired remote.
There is a second remote unit in the family, the RC-91, and the naming invites confusion. The RC-91 serves a different set of cassette decks - the GX-F31, GX-F51, GX-F71, and GX-F91 - and Akai notes it can be used with any equipment marked "RC-31" or "RC-91" on the rear panel. So the RC 21 and the RC-91 are not interchangeable, and a deck marked RC-21 is not a deck marked RC-91. Read the jack label first.
According to the manual excerpts, the RC 21 commands the transport. The decks it pairs with, the CS-F21 among them, present record, pause, reverse at normal speed, forward at normal speed, rewind, stop, and fast-forward as their control set, per Modern Recording (April 1982, p.68), which described the CS-F21's transport button row in detail. Those are the functions a wired remote is built to duplicate. The remote jack itself is a small round connector on the rear panel. Akai's insistence on a recommended cable is the practical warning: the RC 21 is a passive wired device, and a wrong cord can mean a dead remote or, worse, a misbehaving deck.
The RC 21 plays a supporting role in the Akai lineup. It makes a deck more usable, and it is the kind of thing that got separated from its machine decades ago - thrown in a drawer, lost in a move, sold with a different deck. That is why it is hard to find today. A working RC 21 with its original cable is a small prize for someone who has just restored a GX-747 or a GX-77.
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