AKAI Pro-1000 Open Reel-to-Reel Tape Deck

The Akai PRO-1000 was a semi-professional reel-to-reel tape recorder which made in between 1977 and 1982. The primary market was the United States, Canada, and Japan, with limited availability in Europe. That is why it is a rare model.

I always impressed about these open-reel decks, they are so massive, powerful and huge while they are also precious and particular. They were a beautiful decoration of the room, as soon as a person entered in, they immediately attracted attention.

The building process was trully hard and extreme difficult. Special techniques had to be used to capture the details, like the quarter distance between tiles, the large reels with holes, the whole inside structure to hold the outside casing or the driving of the reels and VU meter, all of them needed lots of brainstorming and attempts.

The grid on the top is removable, where a battery placed. The reels are rotating by a motor, and the VU meters are also moving. The big knobs can be rotatable.