I was just checking out your thread sickly_b, and they do look very similar. I think I read somewhere that AKAI bought most of their components and equipment from other manufacturers and did very little if any of their own manufacturing. Marantz was branching out and doing private label manufacturing at this time with the loss of Sony US Distribution Rights, so it would not surprise me. I've found Sansui and Samsung Units that are identical to Marantz Units, your AKAI is just a little bit different. Here's some information from The Vintage Knob Website http://www.thevintageknob.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/2014060...knob.org/tvk_talk/viewtopic.php?f=1477&t=2395 "Akai Little industry minor which naturally used many contractors throughout its history until Mitsubishi/Diatone took over in '79 by way of an exchange of high-rank employees and the sharing of the same bank, the... Mitsubishi Bank The use of external contractors continued after that despite the building of many factories in Europe in the early 1980s and despite, later on, the Japan-only A&D venture (Akai & Diatone) which was a direct consequence of the 1979 takeover. Akai built a lot of its 1979-1983 components in Saitama but the 1988 and e-normous A&D DA-A9500 / DA-P9500 (800 and 700k¥ respectively !) were also made there (T-tag : "A.Saitama", also found on early 90s Sansui amps like A-900XV... Akai or Alpine ?). An "Akai E.L" outfit also built in Taiwan for Diatone itself (TA-55W boombox) and A&D (DA-U11AV amp, LX-5050DU system, DT-W4000) but it's a rare tag ; main contractors : Kashima, Kowa, Cherry Denshi, San-Ei Electric, CPLK, AIC, Taiheyo K., SKC Kogyo, Cybernet... Akai often added destination market letter(s) on the back plates of its components, something which was not erased on the export units (A = America, J = Japan, E = Europe ; there also was a "V" which meant I don't know what.)"
This Marantz PC-88 just came up for sale in Japan, bidding is pretty intensive right now but there's some good photos of this rare unit. The "sound plaza" branding looks like it's name and not a sticker, anybody own one of these?
Looks like made by AKAI, a licensed model. Also TEAC has the PC-R3X which is identical. BTW: I've never seen one like this.
If you read Axel's Excellent Manufacturer's Thread on the Vintage Knob, AKAI was relatively small and subcontracted a lot of manufacturing and TEAC subcontracted almost anything outside of reel to reel. I'd guess that both of these guys used Marantz and not the other way around. I'm just making a guess by small cues and not seeing any of these models up close. My earlier Marantz PC-30 and PC- 36 also have dual volume and two headphone jacks but they also have that tiny threaded hole on the back presumably for the antenna. Mine are marked for antenna and I have the small 12" long flexible wire that screws into it. Here's John Edward's Thread comparing the AKAs, but not the UNIX/Marantz http://www.stereo2go.com/topic/index.php?content_oid=193392314111920279&board_oid=522740502721869426 Here's Axel's Thread on Japanese Manufacturing, one of the greatest forum audio threads out there, it's a unfortunate he didn't finish his website. http://www.thevintageknob.org/tvk_talk/viewtopic.php?f=1477&t=2395 After looking at the KLH Solo and it's similarity to the others, maybe they were all made by Cybernetics, I think I read they made the Solo but I can't remember my source right now.
I found another unit for sale and some great photos, it looks like it may have sold http://m.gougoujp.com/auc/item/t599279554
I was trying to find if there were other models and the UNIX PC-300 comes up, it's odd that they were making a "throwback" model portable cassette player in the 80's.
In the 1980s several million Japanese MSX computer users would have needed a portable cassette player to go with their computer. That (and other similar units) has all the features you need (like a tape counter) and no features (like stereo) which you don't. In the 1980s such machines were sometimes labelled "Computer Cassette Recorder". The Aiwa next to it indicates a different use Language Learning. When I was doing German Evening Class in the mid 1990s the teacher used a Sony "Shoebox' style cassette recorder to play language tapes. Adequate for the job and small enough to go in her bag with the lesson notes. I would need to check but I am sure that Sony stayed in the Argos catalogue until this decade. Now there is an equivalents Bush (Argos own brand) so there is still a market for them. https://www.argos.co.uk/product/5740413 Taliking books is another use thst springs to mind. I would guess most smart phones are completely unususable for visually impaired people. Update: I have just checked and the Sony "Shoebox" recorder was still in the 2011 Argos catalogue More expensive than a no name "egg" but presumably better quality. After 2011 it got replaced by an equivalent Philips, then most recently the Bush. I think such units are a bit like four function Pocket Calculators for which there still seems to be a demand hence many supermarkets still selling them despite them first appearing in the 1970s. P.p.s I just noticed the tape speed selector at the top left of the Unix. What is that about ? You certainly wouldn't need that for a computer. The only thing I can think of is recording hour long meetings without having to flip the tape.
I never thought of the computer angle Longman, makes perfect sense. We didn't have MSX over here, APPLE, Tandy, and Commodore dominated home computers and almost everyone had a disk drive after 1980. Thanks walkman archive, it's amazing how little information there is on the internet about all of these units, I'm still chasing one of these small units, someday one will pop up.
I looked on Wikipedia and they reckoned 5 Million MSX computers were sold in Japan although the later models would have had Floppy drives. The Commodore 64 was a big success over here (in the top three computers) but was unusual in requiring a dedicated Commodore Cassette Deck. Floppy Drives were out of most peoples price range back in the 1980s as they sometimes cost more than the computer. I found a thread on a Commodore board confirming that: https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4374&sid=e8c376d373f5b83918a64cea140e6596
John Edward's Thread had some AKA's, although the manufacturer is still not known. Since Marantz had a handfull of players and had been making portable field recorders for years, I'm going with them.
So this just showed up on Ebay, the Standard SR-311 Portable Cassette Player from 1982. I'm pretty sure Marantz Japan still owned Standard during this time and this little beauty is made in Japan. Does anybody else have any Standard Cassette Players? I posted a couple early boxes in the Ultimate Marantz Thread. I compared the photos to my PC-30 and there's a lot of differences so it isn't just another version. https://www.ebay.com/itm/STANDARD-S...5f3e9d8ac:g:J2YAAOSwLh9a15ol&autorefresh=true
Just found this on the google, the UNIX crabpal and palbox, unfortunately this is the only page and there's no dates. At least we know they were meant for each other. Some more photos of this stuff is up in the big Marantz/Unix/Superscope thread. For the time these came out they were pretty expensive.
Just found another AKA looking on a music prop website, the Whipple! It looks like the tuner window has a cover on it but there is a marking for the tuner on the top. https://www.raincityprops.com/music-and-art
