Kenwood AD-5 Cassette Deck

The Kenwood AD-5 is a three-head cassette deck, from a period when three-head designs were the province of serious recordists. The record on it is thin. No production years, original pricing or period reviews have survived in the sources we have. The specs that are documented point to a capable, mid-to-upper-tier deck.

The big feature is the three-head configuration with a Sendust head, which allows off-tape monitoring while recording. It also has Dolby B and C noise reduction and HX Pro headroom extension. Wow and flutter is specified at 0.08% (WRMS) per one source, though another lists 0.06% (WRMS). The discrepancy is unresolved. The deck records in 4-track, 2-channel stereo with auto bias and selectable 70µs/120µs EQ. Frequency response is only documented for metal tape: 20-20,000 Hz. Signal-to-noise is listed at 70 dB with Dolby C engaged, and no figure without noise reduction is given. THD is rated at 0.8% at 0 dB, 333 Hz.

Line input sensitivity is 50 mV / 50 kΩ, mic input is 0.3 mV / 5 kΩ, and line output is 0.3 V / 50 kΩ. The AD-5 draws 25 watts and measures 400 × 133 × 225 mm at 4.0 kg. It has a digital tape counter.

Beyond its listing in equipment directories, almost nothing is recorded about the AD-5. There are no design write-ups, no reviews and no service history. Two independent databases agree on the specifications, and they describe a three-head Sendust deck with Dolby C and HX Pro.