Akai Sa-980 Quad

Hi there.
Can anyone shed some light on this quad reciever I have just recieved
it's the AKAI AS-980 in very good condition and sounds a lot like my SANSUI QRX 7500 but not in the same class as the QRX 8001 I also own but it's very pleaseing with bags and bags of bass and openness.
What I would like to know is the output and the general feelings about such a tank as this is built like one.It is a monster.


I have totally stipped this unit and cleaned I though out and the differance
is totally mindblowing.I have compaired this Akai to my QRX-7500 and the Sansui does not hold it's own againist it.The Akai truely wipes the floor with it
in my opinion.The soundstage is huge with bags of bass and very open on the tops.And night time on very low volume this still kick arse it sounds very much like valve amp as my pioneer SX -1010 does.I love that warm powerful sound of the 70's.But as a 46yr old I would.
I aways belived that Akai were bottom feeders but mabe I'm wrong on this.
Because if one thinks and goes back to 1972/3 when this was made and AKAI were competing against the likes of SANSUI then really you have to come up
with a true competive unit, and if this was the norm that I have got well.(I think so but thats only my opinion). Remember I also have a mint QRX 8001 which is a great unit.Theres not a great deal of differance (AT THIS TIME) apart from the power issue further auditioning is needed.

Also does anyone know were I can optain some early pioneer two pin speaker plugs (apart from oaktree)????
And lastly has anyone got the remote for this unit that plugged into the front panel.Think it run the speaker setup and volume.Not sure.

It looks sharp - you can go to google and search on AKAI AS-980 to find a manual for it if you need one.

loverockcars said:

Hi there.
Can anyone shed some light on this quad reciever I have just recieved
it's the AKAI AS-980 in very good condition and sounds a lot like my SANSUI QRX 7500 but not in the same class as the QRX 8001 I also own but it's very pleaseing with bags and bags of bass and openness.
What I would like to know is the output and the general feelings about such a tank as this is built like one.It is a monster.


I have totally stipped this unit and cleaned I though out and the differance
is totally mindblowing.I have compaired this Akai to my QRX-7500 and the Sansui does not hold it's own againist it.The Akai truely wipes the floor with it
in my opinion.The soundstage is huge with bags of bass and very open on the tops.And night time on very low volume this still kick arse it sounds very much like valve amp as my pioneer SX -1010 does.I love that warm powerful sound of the 70's.But as a 46yr old I would.
I aways belived that Akai were bottom feeders but mabe I'm wrong on this.
Because if one thinks and goes back to 1972/3 when this was made and AKAI were competing against the likes of SANSUI then really you have to come up
with a true competive unit, and if this was the norm that I have got well.(I think so but thats only my opinion). Remember I also have a mint QRX 8001 which is a great unit.Theres not a great deal of differance (AT THIS TIME) apart from the power issue further auditioning is needed.

Also does anyone know were I can optain some early pioneer two pin speaker plugs (apart from oaktree)????
And lastly has anyone got the remote for this unit that plugged into the front panel.Think it run the speaker setup and volume.Not sure.

Click to expand...

I love this unit, I got two of them. Had one since '73. 32w(RMS) per channel x 4. SQ is good. Matrix Sepration is excellent. CD-4 Works great. Of coures that is dependent on calibration of the unit and that is no small task. I also use the Akai AS-1080DB. The 1080 is much more powerful (40watts) and the dolby is top notch for recording, but the 980 always seemed to have better CD-4 seperation. Right now, I have the 1080 on the bench and the 980 took over full duty. I forgot how nice this amp really is. The the balance and tone controls are very versital. More than other amps I've seen. This Amp Does Rock Hard. There's the short version, If you need any specs. let me know. I have manuals.

Spence

Here is a link to Vintage Electronics , who sell those Poineer speaker plugs:
http://www.vintage-electronics.cc/parts.html
There's some other cool stuff on this parts list.

loverockcars said:

And lastly has anyone got the remote for this unit that plugged into the front panel.Think it run the speaker setup and volume.Not sure.

Click to expand...

And yes I have a remote for this unit, It has a 4 channel "joy stick" and volume control. Model #RC-4

Spence

The 'bags of bass' sound is something pioneer was famous for back then, and the Akai is essentially a rebadged pioneer. So if that is your preference, then this is an excellent unit. It was fairly late in the quad game and so has acceptable quad circuitry, better than what the more famous pioneer's had. Congrats on your happy purchase!
Marc

Marcsten said:

The 'bags of bass' sound is something pioneer was famous for back then, and the Akai is essentially a rebadged pioneer. So if that is your preference, then this is an excellent unit. It was fairly late in the quad game and so has acceptable quad circuitry, better than what the more famous pioneer's had. Congrats on your happy purchase!
Marc

Click to expand...

Thanx guy's for all your kind words on this rare find. I was
hoping that there where others out there who felt as I do about these unit's
Yes I totally agree that this is a rebadged pioneer as the transformer is very pioneer and so is the wire rap joints and the output stage screems eary 70's pioneer and also the rear speaker connections.All the phono connections on the back are the same as the ones used by pioneer also the tuner connections.All come from the same supplers.I have many vintage pioneers including the sx-1010/SX1250/SX-950/SX-1050.
So as to compairing this with them it does seem very pioneerish.
The good thing though is that this Akai does not seem to suffer from the problem that all pioneers of the 70's had and that the over heating of the regulater board.

This unit did have problems due to dirty pots and boards and was gutting out on the left hand channels.After about 30sec on fire up.

She was also very gold when she first came out of the box due it being still winter here in the UK.
So was left for 8hours to acclimatise first with no bottom and no top on her
and left close to a radiator to thor out.

She has two wrong switch knobs on her the power switch is pioneer SX baseball type
and one of the cd-4 switch knobs is a black plastic thing that I don't reconise
any help getting the right ones on this would be great.NEED THAT REMOTE AS WELL...


Also on the back panel there are two screwdriver slots one is for the tuner mpx the other I'm not sure about think it controls the bass as it states 30KHz level low,medium,high.any one shed some light on this.

Also I love the idea of the volume lock/preset and the slider control for balance.This unit has so many good ideas and yet today you just don't see these any more.
I don't think this one has not seen a lot of work as the controls are very tight and solid indeed even the tone controls there still well damped.All the bulbs work as well. I'm very pleased with this find..cheep hifi...NEED THAT REMOTE AS WELL

Thanx for reading my thread guy's AND YOUR INTRESED.

RGDS LARRY

loverockcars said:

Also on the back panel there are two screwdriver slots one is for the tuner mpx the other I'm not sure about think it controls the bass as it states 30KHz level low,medium,high.any one shed some light on this.

Click to expand...

The MPX adjusts is for FM stereo calabration and the 30KHz is for CD-4 set up. Any good CD-4 set-up LP will give you the 30KHz set-up tone.

Come up with the akai 4-channel headphones and I'll trade you a RC-4

Spence

spenceo said:

The MPX adjusts is for FM stereo calabration and the 30KHz is for CD-4 set up. Any good CD-4 set-up LP will give you the 30KHz set-up tone.

Come up with the akai 4-channel headphones and I'll trade you a RC-4

Spence

Click to expand...

Spence the RC-4 seem to come up from time to time on the bay this was the last one a marantz one went for $128.00....£64.00 there abouts.

but if I see a set there yours even if I win them I'll have them shipped to your door. How does that sound ?

Thanx for the offer though keep it in mind.....



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3075943514&category=3284

spenceo said:

I love this unit, I got two of them. Had one since '73. 32w(RMS) per channel x 4. SQ is good. Matrix Sepration is excellent. CD-4 Works great. Of coures that is dependent on calibration of the unit and that is no small task. I also use the Akai AS-1080DB. The 1080 is much more powerful (40watts) and the dolby is top notch for recording, but the 980 always seemed to have better CD-4 seperation. Right now, I have the 1080 on the bench and the 980 took over full duty. I forgot how nice this amp really is. The the balance and tone controls are very versital. More than other amps I've seen. This Amp Does Rock Hard. There's the short version, If you need any specs. let me know. I have manuals.

Spence

Click to expand...

Hi again Spence.
IF you could think of mabe copying the paperwork onto disc and sending it to me..... I'm in the UK is that a problem???I will willingly pay any costs.
buy cash US STIRLIN.If indeed you are in the states...

RGDS LARRY

loverockcars said:

Hi again Spence.
IF you could think of mabe copying the paperwork onto disc and sending it to me..... I'm in the UK is that a problem???I will willingly pay any costs.
buy cash US STIRLIN.If indeed you are in the states...

RGDS LARRY

Click to expand...

Hi Larry, The owners manual for the 980 is not very informative. It's more like a fold out brochure. The only thing you might find informative, is the "Tape 3" in/out is for Quad only, rear channel will not work in stereo mode.

The Service manual on the other hand is 84 pages long and includes 6 fold out schematics. It is a absolute must if you are going to keep this for yourself. The CD-4 calabration section is 12 pages itself. There is copies of this manual at

http://www.treasurechestcorp.com/

I can't comment on the quality of these, but there under 20 bucks US. Sorry, I don't have a scanner or I would be happy help.

Spence

spenceo said:

CD-4 Works great. Of coures that is dependent on calibration of the unit and that is no small task. I also use the Akai AS-1080DB. The 1080 is much more powerful (40watts) and the dolby is top notch for recording, but the 980 always seemed to have better CD-4 seperation.

Click to expand...

Hi Spence, I know this post is old but I've got an AS-980 receiver as well and I just bought a new CD-4 cartridge from Ed Saunders on Ebay because I got a "Best of Bread" Quadradisc recently that I'd love to hear in the full 4-channel separation so I could really use some CD-4 help and you seem to be experienced with the same unit as I have. The AS-980 Operator's Manual refers me to the Akai 45rpm CD-4 Test Record sleeve for the calibration process (my 45 is Akai Part no. 4DE-502) and the sleeve explains the separation adjustments but refers me to the cartridge paperwork for 30Khz calibration and I don't have any paperwork for my cartridge that's supposed to be CD-4 compliant. Can you give me some idea of what I should be hearing, if anything, as the 30Khz track on the 45 is playing, what I should be checking for and expecting to happen as I turn the 30Khz adjustment in each direction, and what should be happening as I adjust the separation controls. The separation controls pretty much just seem to be a level attenuator so far so with only a hint of mild left f/r separation at best and I'm suspecting that the decoder is having various levels of electrolytic cap failures in the left and right channels and may not be up to the task of full front/rear separation for the left side or decoding the right side at all anymore but I don't know for sure.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Thomas
Quadradude

spenceo said:

Hi Larry, The owners manual for the 980 is not very informative. It's more like a fold out brochure. The only thing you might find informative, is the "Tape 3" in/out is for Quad only, rear channel will not work in stereo mode.

The Service manual on the other hand is 84 pages long and includes 6 fold out schematics. It is a absolute must if you are going to keep this for yourself. The CD-4 calabration section is 12 pages itself. There is copies of this manual at

http://www.treasurechestcorp.com/

I can't comment on the quality of these, but there under 20 bucks US. Sorry, I don't have a scanner or I would be happy help.

Spence

Click to expand...

Hi again Spence,
I would like to ask if you can tell me the specs from the service manual for all of the various selector lamps, meter lamps, tuner-dial lamps, and the mode lamps including that 2/4 on the far right as only the 2 lights up anymore, one of my four output/power meters is dark (front left output), and the tuner pointer went dark a few months ago, and I haven't even begun to figure out how to get to any of them or what their voltage and wattage specs are. I took the lid off this monster when I first inherited it about 18 months ago and as I recall it's going to be somewhat of a challenge to replace all those bulbs but I plan to re-cap the entire unit eventually so I may as well get familiar with the disassembly process since I plan to own this unit for many years...

I really like all the inputs it has since I also have the Akai Q8 Cart Deck (CR-80D-SS) and one of their touch-control/auto-reverse Q4 Reel Decks (GX-280D-SS) to go with it and I recently bought an old Harman Kardon Dolby-Digital 5.1 Decoder (no DTS though, darnit) that puts out all 6 channels using 6 standard analog RCA outputs, and the "sub out" RCA jack can be switched off which returns the bass signals to their channel(s) of origin, and the "center out" RCA jack acn also be switched off which automatically creates a "virtual center" channel by making that signal appear between the front left and right speakers, so I switched those two output jacks off, fed the remaining 4 channels into "Tape 3" of my receiver, and fed the optical audio output from my roommate's Sony Playstation 2 into the HK DD5.1 Decoder which resulted in us having a full Dolby-Digital 5.1 Surround Sound Home Theater experience coming out of my 30 year old Quadraphonic stereo sound system paired up with our 10+ year old 46-inch TV with his PS2 Game console as the player when watching DVD movies ... How's that for a strange adjoining of 1970s, 1990s and 2000s technologies for an excellent sound and video experience???
I actually wondered why, when listening to a stereo music CD in the PS2 throught the HK decoder's internal AC-3 converter, which is connected to the receiver's Tape 3 Inputs, even with the mode selector in Stereo I only got sound on the Akai's front speakers. I had read the manual when I first inherited the receiver but I overlooked that little tidbit of information... so I'm glad you said that because now I know why that happens...

Thanks!
Thomas

Quadradude said:

Can you give me some idea of what I should be hearing, if anything, as the 30Khz track on the 45 is playing, what I should be checking for and expecting to happen as I turn the 30Khz adjustment in each direction, and what should be happening as I adjust the separation controls.

Click to expand...

Hi Thomas, Nice to have another Akai owner around here. I too have the same Aaki test record, though it is not my favorite test tones for set up, but that said the record will still do the job. The 30kHz adjustment on the back of the unit should be positioned so that there is minimum distortion from the 30kHz test tone given by the record. There will only be a subtle change in the tone. Find the position that sounds the "cleanest".

As for the separation controls on the front of the Amp. The procedure on the test record sleeve is the correct. Be sure to only listen to the rear channels, either right or left when setting the separation controls. ei...Set the fader control to the rear and the rear balance control to the left. Play the left channel adjustment tone, Then turn the left channel separation adjustment so that the test tone is at a minimal level out of the rear left speaker. Repeat for the right channel.

I have the Best of Bread LP. One of my favorite CD-4. Mother Freedom has good separation. Keep in mind that the separation adjustment controls may need to be tweaked for each different CD-4 LP. I use the above procedure to achieve a "baseline" setting. It seems some Cd-4 LP's can be pushed a little harder to get separation while others need to be backed off a bit. You will have to find a setting that is pleasing to listen to.

Give these adjustment a whirl, and see if the CD-4 demod is working.

Spence

P.S. I will reply to the other post on the lamp info a little later today

Quadradude said:

Hi again Spence,
I would like to ask if you can tell me the specs from the service manual for all of the various selector lamps, meter lamps, tuner-dial lamps, and the mode lamps including that 2/4 on the far right as only the 2 lights up anymore, one of my four output/power meters is dark (front left output), and the tuner pointer went dark a few months ago, and I haven't even begun to figure out how to get to any of them or what their voltage and wattage specs are.

Click to expand...

Actually, the lamp replacement is pretty easy. Most of the lamps are 3AG (size) Fuse type lamp, 6.3v, 250mA. I believe all the tuner-dail lamps and the meter lamps are this style, but I'm going on memory. If your are having trouble with the mode and selector indicators, Check the P.C. Board 98-5011, this is a small board with a rectifier circuit. One or more of these 4 diodes may need replacing.

Let me know if you need more info.

Spence