Akai AV-U8 receiver with built in monitor

[dr.ido]

I was looking through some of my old pictures earlier and found this. The unit is long gone now, but I thought I'd post it anyway. It's an early AV receiver from Akai with a built in 4 inch B&W monitor, VHF modulator, and dubbing controls with some sort of video enhancer.





I've never seen one since, has anyone else?

[zenithfan1]

No but that is way cool, I want one! Do you remember how many WPC?

[rockin1150]

holy crap the EMI and RF would crush your audio signal to bits.. cool I guess but not very functional and I'm sure it was way expensive back in the day.

[dr.ido]

Based on the listing I wrote for it at the time 20W per channel which I probably worked out by reading the datasheet for the STK module it used. I think this one is an Australia specific model as our (no longer used) channel 3/4 lie in the middle of the FM band (I don't think that was done elsewhere).

Googling suggests that USA, Japan and other versions exist. Funny thing, the google search also found an old post of mine about this unit, but when I searched the forums before posting it didn't show up.

[kx250rider]

Those were a fad in the 80s... Several companies made them, even a cheap JC Penney house brand set. Also there was a car stereo (standard single-height DIN chassis) with a built-in 1" tube TV. The other Akai-badged TVs were usually NEC or Mitsubishi.

Charles

[zenithfan1]

I want one of those car stereos! No wait......I want one of everything!

[zenith2134]

I also vote for a roughly 20wpc STK-thick film hybrid amp. PSU must not have been too ample, considering the back plate suggest speakers of 8-16 ohm impedance only.

Cool contraption though. Reminds me of the 80s JVC boomboxes with the little B&W tv's in the top. Unique.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by zenithfan1

I want one of those car stereos! No wait......I want one of everything!

Like this?

[fsjonsey]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

Those were a fad in the 80s... Several companies made them, even a cheap JC Penney house brand set. Also there was a car stereo (standard single-height DIN chassis) with a built-in 1" tube TV. The other Akai-badged TVs were usually NEC or Mitsubishi.

Charles

Didn't the JC penny one have a crude oscilloscope-like "VU meter" function too?

[jhalphen]

Hi to All,

Here's the JC Penney MCS component series product.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[zenithfan1]

Those are kinda neat, WISCOJIM has 2. I played around with one for a while, sharp picture on these. I think the waveform analyzer looks cool. Albeit a cool radio, the car stereo doesn't float my boat, did they come in any other designs?

[dr.ido]

I've seen a couple of 1" B&W car radio/tv/cassette units before, but I haven't picked one up as they've always gone for more than I'm willing to pay. The one's I saw were different to the one pictured above, from memory the brand was Conion.

I saw a picture of one installed on a vintage video game forum. The owner had also installed an Atari 2600 behind the dash and fabricated a panel so the cartridges slotted in where the cars ashtray would normally be. It was a very clean install, but even as block as Atari 2600 games are I can't imagine actually playing them on a 1" set for any length of time.

[ha1156w]

That Akai looks like their circa 1984 lineup of receivers, but not one offered in the states.

I had a similar-aged AA-A35. The vacuum flourescent display was about 1/3 of the front, with fully solid state controls for everything, volume (with a neat pad using your finger as the "slider"), switching, tone, you name it. Buttons out the wazoo. But what an underwhelming piece of @#$@ performancewise. As it aged, when powering on, half the display would be missing, or nonexistent. This indicated the microprocessor/eprom required periodic reset (via rear button) erasing any and all settings. Annoying. Leave it off for more than three weeks, the same thing would happen as though the CMOS battery died.

The power amp never could produce anything below about 80Hz, as though it was all filtered out. The low end was completely lacking. High end was beautiful but no low bass. Tried EQs and everything.

[zenithfan1]

I had one of those too, it was miserable. It sounded like a very loud shrieking tin can.
The controls were cool but the performance was not worth keeping it. My display only half worked too, the tuner didn't work at all. I just used it as an amp.....for a couple of days! Then back to the trash from which it was pulled.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Akai also made a color-CRT version of that component. I repaired one for a friend several years ago.