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Akai Pro 1000
offence at the markings, but even the most doggedly anti-metric among us\
should assimilate the "new"
designations soon enough.
The playback metering works exceptionally well. It responds to the outpu\
t-level controls, which are
independent in the two channels. Since both have centre detents at the "\
normal" position, they can be used as
a reference for actual recorded levels. But when these controls are turn\
ed up or down, the meters will
continue to monitor output level. If a running check on recorded level i\
s needed in playback, the controls can
be left at the detents and the listening or dubbing level adjusted elsew\
here in the system. They do not control
the output of the source feed through, incidentally: just the output fro\
m the playback heads. Also a nice detail
is the outer-ring friction "stops" by which maximum rotation can be pres\
et on the mixer knobs. The friction
clutching allows you to twist the knob past this maximum if you want to,\
but with normal handling the stop is
quite positive,
Among the nice touches on the transport are the CUE. button, which allow\
s monitoring from a hand-rocked
tape for editing, and the PAUSE, which delivers marginally 'faster start\
-up than the regular PLAY button. Both
are competitive in quickness with the start-up on many cassette decks (\
thanks, in part, to the dual-capstan
drive, no doubt), though the far greater mass of open-reel systems prob\
ably always will give the cassette
format a significant edge for so-called electronic editing. Physical spl\
icing is, of course, far easier with open
reels. The Pro. 1000 aids the process with a flip-up head cover for maxi\
mum visibility of and access to the
heads.
There are four stereo heads: from the left. quarter-track play-back. hal\
f-track erase, half-track recording, and
half-track playback. (Unlike most decks-pro or home-of a decade ago. it\
has no provision for independent
operation of the two channels in any mode: mono recordings must perforce\
be put on both tracks of the stereo
pair, using up as much tape as stereo recordings of the same speed ) Op\
eration is, mechanically and
electrically, very quiet. The open reel format's much greater headroom a\
bove the reference 0 VU gives about
10 to 15 dB more dynamic range (depending on the tape) than cassette d\
ecks of comparable S/'N ratio
figures, and even with the tape running the sounds emitted by the transp\
ort normally are swamped by ambient
room noise within a few feet of the deck.
Response, measured with Scotch 206 tape for the record/play curves, is m\
ore than adequately flat in all
speeds and about par in band pass. Speed accuracy is well controlled at \
3¾ and 7½ ips, though it is about
1% (our arbitrary dividing line between excellent and good) at the top\
speed. The latter, however, exhibits the
best wow measurements; the two slower speeds are, again, merely good.
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Akai Pro 1000
Playback quality at all three speeds and with either head delivers audib\
ly fine reproduction within the
limitations of the chosen format. (Remember that half track stereo intr\
insically offers about 3 dB more dynamic
range than quarter-track stereo-all other things, as they say. being equ\
al) With average-quality source
material, both 7½ and 15 ips offer ear-perfect replication; the slowe\
st speed, predictably, introduces some
audible hiss, but the subtle tradeoffs of the higher speeds are unapprec\
iable without super quality input
signals, if then.
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