AKAI AC 3800L: The Legacy of the Audio Mastery

Discussion in 'Cassette Decks' started by Retro Audio Museum, Aug 10, 2023.

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  1. Retro Audio Museum

    Retro Audio Museum Well-Known Member

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    AKAI is one of my favorite audio brands. This Japanese trailblazing company made a lot of efforts to cope with the demand in the 70-s – 80-s for high-quality audio equipment, and even more, made it affordable for most consumers. It was AKAI that educated customers on how to build the audio towers based on individual aspirations and fiscal frameworks.

    In the Retro Audio Museum (Lelystad, NL) we have more than 40 preserved relics of AKAI's ingenuity, such as cassette decks, turntables, amplifiers, and tuners, that can be used in such kinds of audio towers. And finally, we are pleased to announce that we have got this quite rare AKAI AC 3800L Music Center in our collection.

    AKAI03.jpg

    Unlike the tower with the AKAI components, this music center is an all-in-one. Made in Japan in 1977, it is a Hi-Fi unit boasting a formidable 2×40 watts of musical dynamism, a semi-automatic turntable with a switchable, and automatic return of the oil-damped lift tonearm. It has good wow and flutter values thanks to the belt drive via a 4-pole synchronous motor.

    The cassette component bore the spirit of the proven popular CS-705D front-loading stereo cassette deck with a permalloy sound head and a ferrite erase head providing good performance. This deck has separate Dolby systems for recording and playback, and dual tape-type switching for low-noise and chromium dioxide cassettes. The deck is equipped with a DC motor with electronic speed control and good synchronization features. It has a three-digit tape counter for a sentinel of time's passage, and 2 pointer indicators, one of which is combined as a field strength device for receiving radio broadcasts. The third pointer indicator is for the preset FM MHz tuning.

    This audio system has a powerful receiver for FM, MW, and LW bands with touch-sensitive programmable buttons for the FM stations. The tuner has a high sensitivity, switchable silent tuning circuit that suppresses interference between two FM stations. There is also an OSC switch to suppress interference whistles when recording in the MW/LW band.

    An external FM antenna with an impedance of 75 or 300 ohms can be connected to the center for local and long-distance reception. It also has a built-in ferrite rod antenna for MW reception.

    The AKAI AC 3800L Music Center stands as a real testament to the AKAI's quality legacy, encapsulating its dedication to audio excellence and design. It is a great example of an era when music was embraced with both architecture and engineering precision.
     
    Retro Audio Museum, Aug 10, 2023
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  2. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    What a beauty! It even has preset tuning, this might have been one of the first! We saw it in several boomboxes from around this time, it must have been an expensive add-on. I have to believe that the technology filtered on to VHS/Beta Machines that used similar tech for their early tuning, maybe Longman can fill in the blanks.

    Overall the machine looks great, we didn't have cool all-in-ones over here, some might have been imported but I think the feeling was they were entry-level and we never saw these nicer ones. We had lots of crappy ones like Zenith, Fisher, RCA, and more but unfortunately I still haven't seen a cool one up close yet. What does something like this weigh? Did these come with speakers or was that an option?

    Thanks for sharing!
     
    Mister X, Aug 17, 2023
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  3. Retro Audio Museum

    Retro Audio Museum Well-Known Member

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    As for the speakers, I do not know. I think it was an option. The weight of the AC3800L is 17,5 kg.
     
    Retro Audio Museum, Aug 17, 2023
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  4. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    A little beefier than the plastic fantastic ones I saw as a kid. The TT is much nicer than what you'd expect, I was watching a VWestlife Video on one of his recent all-in-ones and it's interesting how they got the TT down to the barest bones possible.
     
    Mister X, Aug 18, 2023
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