Akai GX-280D

Like the Akai 1730D-SS I picked this deck up in 2018 when I was on a streak, bidding on equipment on ShopGoodwill. One of my real workhorse decks is/was my Akai GX-260D which has stood by me through, literally, nearly 1,000 reels that I have gone through as part of the Paper Tape Archive and the 600 reels projects and I figured that this Akai GX-280D would be a reasonable upgrade and the price was right. Upon receiving it I quickly noticed that it had suffered a minor injury in that the spindle on the take reel table was bent. I devised a tool that slipped down over the spindle and slowly, and carefully, bent it back into position. Other than that the deck works just fine.

I did go through and do some basic maintenance on it but at some point I'll go through it and do the usual list of chores that these decks need:

  • clean
  • replace old lube
  • clean switches and controls with deoxit
  • demagnetize the heads
  • replace the 2SC458 transistors with a KSC1845FTA
  • replace motor capacitors
  • replace preamp capacitors if required

For now it gets occassional use and adds to the ambience of the man cave.

The GX-280D during some minor maintenance


Click on an image to enlarge it.

Updated November 2020.

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