Akai GX-F95 3 Head Cassette Deck - Unboxing and quick test 

Never had this model. My girl bought me the GX-f31 model for christmas in 1983. Loved the wide range, two color meters and record cancel features. Had the f31 for over twenty five years before it died. Recorded a lotta stuff from my local NYC rock station, WNEW-FM, 102.7 in it's heyday during the 1980's. A great looking machine this GX-f95. My main deck now is a Denon DRM800A in excellent condition picked up cheap for $125. Nothing like a TOTL cassette deck for great recording and listening pleasure. Nice video.

Good old TDK SA90, a cassette that sounded great (very balanced) and worked superbly on all decks. I have an unopened SA60 from 1982.

Beautiful deck, love the 80's akai styling too.

I used to have a big, bulky Akai reel to reel machine back in the 80s. Loved that thing. Very solid build.

Lovely beautiful cassette deck. Bring it back. We love this stuff

I’ve just come across your channel and am very impressed. I’ve been an ardent fan of the cassette medium fo 50 years. I still use daily a Sony CF 420L that I purchased in 1973. My system deck is a Denon DRM - 550. Please keep up your excellent work!

Gorgeous deck. Sounds so vibrant and alive!!!

Hi my names Tony and I'm a cassette-deck-aholic. All of us tape nerds, hi Tony. That's a rad deck.👍👍

I liked this Akai. I am glad you showed us Tony. Nice. I think these are getting rarer than rare. This is before Akai got absorbed by Diatone. Finances were not kind to Akai. Mismanagement killed this wonderful riding the wave company. I grew up with Akai. My Dad and his Dad had them. Saburo Akai would be proud to see his machines still loved by us. Now gone forever in 2002, these are the finest of a legacy that is no more. Like fine wines or Champagne you get just once. Tony you should get one of these. Epic machines. Nakamichi, Tandberg Studer Revox B&O and more were at the party fighting hard to earn your money. I have my eye on a Technics RS-M280. I need that like a hole in the head. Not smart, yeah I know, but I love my tape machines. My Teac X7 reel to reel is my go to for Reel to Reel tape. I don't need a big 10.5 NAB machine. This suits me just fine. Tape doesn't die if you and all of us do our part to hear, love it, and live it. Everyday!

In the 70's my love for AKAI started. This japanese brand made stuff that grabbed me seriously by the throat...wanted it so badly...and I did/worked for it, until I could spend the valuable pennies on the GX-F35 and went on with the AM U-02 and AT-K03 (still remember the different types right now...amazing). A complete set and finished it all off with BNS speakers and Sennheiser HD headphones. It was magic/AKAI was always at the forefront of developing magical stuff and it still works, now, some 40+ years later! Thanks for this!

Awesome deck. That motorised bottom lid is lovely. I'm a sucker for anything motorised. Even motorised volume nobs still make me smile ☺️. It just shouts out quality.

omg this deck is a hell of a deck and it looks sweet. That's a beast right there! Luv it!!

Nice deck Tony. Akai made excellent cassette decks, especially the GX series.

What a lovely cassette deck!!!!Beautiful!!!Sparkling sound!!!

I had GX-F91 back in 81 but this F95 is a dream, to my knowledge it was made by Mitsubishi. In the class of Technics RS-M95 and JVC DD9 but F95 is the one I missed, cheers bro!

I service many cassette decks in my "youthful electronic technician" days. The shop that I worked at was an Akai warranty service provider. Akai made some excellent cassette decks,, especially the ones with the GX tape heads..

This deck can reaches up to 72 db on Dolby B!! This is a record at the time. My Nakamichi bx-300 need Dolby C to obtain this level of signal to noise.

Wow, I’m 3 years late, but what a beautiful deck! Subscribed, and just ordered a bunch of cool NOS tapes on your site! Thank you for sharing this fantastic content, keep up the great work 😊

3:18 The way you giggle a little when you open the control cover 😆😅 , love this Akai!

Hi Tony! This is awesome this Akai is a beast! Congratulations for the new acquisition!

I have always loved Akai tape decks ( I have 3 myself) But have never seen this model before. That is a really lovely looking machine and is obviously high spec. Fabulous!

Akai ha prodotto grandi macchine , ho un Akai gx-95 mk2 che ha un suono eccellente tridimensionale, completo, con una gamma alta nitida e cristallina !

Fantastic deck & so well engineered! 👍

What a nice peace of equipment. thanks for the review!!

Looks really nice! I would really like to record some early 80s new wave on it if i could. Fit’s perfectly into that era!

Owned that deck from 87' to about 97'. Amazing unit. I got it from a pawn shop for about $200 and that was a lot back then, for a used deck. Used to compare it to my Luxman K03

Very cool test Akai deck!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

ANOTHER beautiful and rare deck to add to the collection! Cheers!

What a beauty

Just adopted one of these, original box, both doors, manual, original invoice purchased here in Canada in 81 for $1480.00!! That's $4171 today according to the inflation calculator. The play/rew/ffw ... buttons are not responding but play is still operational. Such a beautiful piece. I opted for the Pioneer CT-F1250 in 82. I was young and was swayed by the brushed aluminum, doorless front load and those flouroscan meters. Purchased with my University Grant. My priorities are still somewhat skewed. Not regrettably however. Just upgraded my MGIIIa to 3.7i. Life is good.

very nice machine. i'd love to get inside it and have look around. Akai really made some great gear back then in the 80's

BTW, the cassette you see at 4:19 is a TDK SA from about 1992 or so, and this is the same cassette as it was used in “Home Alone 2: Lost In New York”. I have two of them which I got a few weeks ago along with the rest of my cassette haul. I called this TDK SA, the official “Home Alone” cassette.

@Cassette Comeback *LOVE THIS CASSETTE DECK REVIEW!* Back when Made In Japan meant Quality! Love all the REAL brushed aluminum trim panels and it wouldn't be 80s Japanese electronics without the extra details and motorized control panel! I hope the new owner enjoys his new OLD deck. Thanks Tony, appreciate it!

i love it i miss using cassette radios.i still collect cassette tapes

Brilliant fun you are having👍.. Used to use decks for studio recording years back, because couldn't afford a 4-tracker, woe onto you if the tape got 'eaten'.

Very fascinating, I still love to have tape decks

A review of a cassette deck. Very nice!

You lucky chugger! I've always wanted one of those! This would go well with my GX-77 open reel deck from around the same time.

my first proper Cassette Deck i bought was a AKAI GX-325D that had 3 Heads & Dual Capstans it was a nice Deck but it was a Top Loader i bought that in 1976 i only changed it because i wanted one of the Newer Front Loading Cassette Decks with adjustable bios so i got a SONY TCK-81 in 1981 and i still have that lol

Nice, always had very good results from the Akai decks I used to own

Amazing Akay ,love ,love love !

Always always always wanted one of these when I was younger :)

What a nice looking deck!

Yet another good video from you sir every time I watch you or listen to you I keep thinking it’s Vic Reeves so I’m always smiling as I’m listening don’t take that the wrong way I love it......Kev.

I've just bought an excellent Yamaha Double cassette deck KXW 232 and love it. I wish I had more tapes though.

Oh that is one hell of a beautiful deck

thats a beautiful deck , i have a technics 90s deck which i hardly ever use but it works great and i will never get rid off it

Nice too see some good decks. Thx

What a beauty!!! 😍 Always wanted one, but is it true that unique parts make Akai decks especially difficult to maintain?

lovely deck, congrat!!

It looked like a nice deck to me and seemed to work well.

beautiful stuff thank you

That display area looks like it's bulletproof with that super thick piece of acrylic

Gorgeous deck.

WOW!! Electrically closed flap !!. Solid machine.

Didn’t know they made them in black. Thought I had the only black one, as I had it anodized to match my other components. It is a beautiful machine. A “poor man’s” 1000 ZXL.

And this is how one of Tony's most casual videos gets the most views. Life is disconcertingly weird.

NICE purchase

So pretty design....looks more 70's than 80's deck by the colour....magnificent garment

That Akai deck is gorgeous. I like the slate gray color of the deck it would match my NAD 3155 amplifier. It's pretty difficult find tape decks that make match my NAD amp besides other NAD tape decks.

Akai was my brand of choice when I was a budding audiophile in my early and mid teen years. I had 2 over the years, prior to the double well deck era. I thought they were a really good value in terms of overall quality and sound quality. Clearly I would have preferred to have a big Sony reel to reel, or eventually a Nakamichi, but I didn't have the money for stuff like that, so Akai was my mid-fi deck brand of choice. My first deck was a "Sankyo." Yes, Sankyo with a K inserted in the middle of the name. It actually wasn't awful, but predictably is wore out and started to wow due to some worn belt or something and I was not mechanically or electrically capable enough at the time to try to fix it myself. I was able to step up to a nice Akai with CrO2 setting and later for a second deck I eventually got another Akai in the "Metal" tape era for tape-to-tape dubbing.

Always interesting as usual, Mr Comeback. BTW do you ever sell from time to time some of your decks in your collection, some duplicate?

Looks great in the black finish. I have the silver version, waiting patiently on the shelf for an overhaul. For a TOTL deck with auto cal, it's a shame the transport is only single capstan, albeit with quartz locked capstan motor. The motorized door on this one is not opening all the way, it should end up fully horizontal when opened.

That was better packed than my JVC KD-A55, which arrived wedged into a flimsy cardboard box with no packing whatsoever... I feared the worst, but it didn't have a scratch on it and (after a quick once-over with the head demagnetiser - always a good idea) it worked fine. They built them well 40 years ago!

Had the GX 95 (NO F) great machine. Slightly different. It has the polished wooden end cheecks and an electric door mechanism if I remember right.

geez look at this deck. it looks decked out and luvin it! Its Lit! Turned Up!!!! Whaaaaa!

Nice deck 👍👍

The quality of that 3 head sound and that sexy long VU Meter probably has you tempted.

Beautiful machine.

a really impressive toy

Tony, it's official, you infected me, I just bought my first 3 head deck! It's a lowly Sony TC-K511S with the dreaded TCM-190 mechanism, but normally I can't afford even that level, it was just a bargain buy which I *had* to make. The deck looks to be in decent cosmetic condition based on the pictures, it powers up, but no tape transport. Obviously needs new belts, and it most probably has the notorious broken gear syndrome of the TCM-190 mech. The deck cost $20. Yes, twenty bucks, I think it's really peanuts for a 3 head deck with manual calibration and Dolby S. It's not dual capstan, but that can be an advantage, as I heard dual capstan is a good thing only in really high-end decks, the midrange double capstan decks can put way too much stress on the tapes, stretching and damaging them, someone says you shouldn't use longer then 60 min tapes in those midrange dual capstan decks, like the big brother of my deck, the TC-K711S. I can't wait getting my new toy, but I have to calm down, it's not good to count your chickens before they hatch, I cross my fingers that it's repairable at all, without buying a complete donor machine, which would probably never happen, at least not in the near future, this deck for this price is really a rare bargain... I don't even know what is the condition of the head, it might be worn out, what would be quite a show stopper. Keep up the great work! PS: Have you considered making a video about the different Dolby (and perhaps other) noise reduction systems? I've never used Dolby, because all of my decks only had Dolby B, which I was not pleased with, it messes too much with the high frequencies. Dolby S seems very decent though. You said in some of your videos (I think it was you...), that you don't use Dolby S, because only one of your decks supports it, so you can't play Dolby-S recordings in your other machines. I've read in some places, including Wikipedia, that Dolby S is supposedly playback compatible with Dolby B, by the means a Dolby B deck would play back a Dolby S tape just fine (better than a Dolby B tape), but a Dolby S deck can't properly play back a Dolby B tape in Dolby S mode (which is not an issue, because all Dolby S machnies has Dolby B mode as well). Isn't it true? A video confirming or debunking this would be great.

Best Unboxing Ever.

Always wanted one....

Now that's a deck i would love to have. It could replace the sony auto reverse deck i have which is very faulty.

Awesome Beast!!

What a beast!!😍😍😍

I love my akai gx M50, also the heads on the super gx machines don't seem to wear fast at all. Also thats a really nice thing to do for a friend tony!

Excellent deck

Cool video i love my Tapes, i am recording mixtapes sins 2004, so i have 213 tapes, 3 tape decks, 11 walkmen....its the best hobby, bought a brand new Panasonic rq sx 59....i'm sooooo happy, i have left a abo for you, sorry for my bad english, greetings from germany ☺️

From where did you buy the recorder from and what is the price.

Hope you're well Tony, not seen a video in nearly a month. Stay safe mate.

My Sony cassette tape sterio already not functioning well.. can I purchase or buy new one cassette tape player from you ? How can I get it ? Thanks

Wow, nice one. I got me one just like it from a bloke over in the U.K. Small world.

wow they actually made decks that have buttons which light up different colour.

Nice deck! Wish i had one like that, but the one i have is an Auto-Reverse TEAC. (88 or 89). It records pretty well though.

Nice machine What ever happened to AIWA branded hifi gear?

I’ve never seen a cassette deck before. There was also a US version of this same model that has a US plug. I don’t have to get this one, because it’s too expensive on eBay. I might as well go for a lesser cassette deck or portable cassette recorder that I can find that are not as expensive as this one. I can go with Superscope, Sony, Panasonic, and others along with brands like Califone and Audiotronics for their classroom cassette recorders, and cassette players or recorders that are designed for children, for example the My First Sony and Fisher-Price.

I have the exact same deck I want to sell with the clear cassettes door and the stainless Cassatt door. It’s in mint condition except the last week I’ve been having some issues with it only playing for a few minutes and not wanting to rewind in fast forward. But all the channels sound great and there’s nothing wrong with it besides that so I’m just wondering if are should get it repaired or if I should just sell it and take a loss. This is my third Akai I own and they are fantastic decks. Plus this one is fun because the door on the bottom opens and closes with a press of a button. I will tell you I don’t know what you paid for this but it’s a beauty. Mine is silver and not the darker model but I like the darker model actually.

The first thing I noticed is that (from what I can see) it's a single capstan. There is a Mk2 version which is dual capstan and the controls are on the front panel, not behind a door. Nice looking deck though.

Nice deck, and if you get anything from Akai it might as well be what they where famous for.

I love the music you play. What's something I could get in the USA ?

Best deck from Akai

The only thing better than a cassette deck is a reel to reel machine! These are awesome though and this beauty is in great shape!

I guess this AKAI should also have an optional blind casstette compartment cover which makes it looking evern more special

wowww..i love tape player 80s...

My old AKAI CS - F12 needs to be restored. It is nothing like this supreme deck. But it did have logic controls, and microphone inputs..❤❤❤

It is a beast! It is probably for musicians to write songs on it and plays good.

I am doing what you are doing soon. Aiwa AD-F660 coming. Fully Teched out belts the whole kit and caboodle. It is 1983 again. I have A&D 6300 Cassette deck too. Nice looking Deck! Wow!

I have a GX-A5X (main deck is Integra TA-2800) and it's pretty sweet! Not a 3 head but good sound nonetheless. This thing is pretty awesome! Also your channel is super underrated.

I own a vintage kenwood 1060 from 1980. Turned it on and no tape movement. All lights turned on. Is this worth fixing?