Akai X-360

The archive's file on the Akai X-360 is thin. No original sales literature or service manual has surfaced here. The machine did get real coverage in the British hi-fi press in 1969, though, and that record supplies most of what is actually known.

Studio Sound (August 1969, p.27) called the X-360 the most expensive and most elaborate of Akai's home tape recorders at the time. It was a £359 development of the earlier X-355, which had cost £250 before purchase tax. The review lists a heavily equipped machine: a quarter-track stereo recorder with separate erase, record, bias and play heads, solenoid transport controls, automatic time-switched reverse, AGC, an electronic head-cleaning indicator, side-facing monitor speakers plus a stereo headphone output, A/B comparison, a three-speed hysteresis-synchronous capstan motor, magnetic braking with variable left-to-right supply tension, and multiplay with four-channel input mixing. The package measured 444 × 406 × 254 mm.

A later Studio Sound equipment review (December 1969, p.35) carried the manufacturer's specification, quoted with Scotch 202 tape at 19 cm/s. The auxiliary input is rated at 50 mV, and the auxiliary outputs at 0.4 or 1.23 V. The reviewer liked the signal-to-noise ratio, the short-term speed stability, and the fact that all the gadgets kept working. He suggested the X-360 would suit repeating-playback installations or the entertainment and catering trade (December 1969, p.37).

Beyond those reviews, the record goes quiet. Production years, full specifications, and collector-market details are not documented.