Price Paid:  $200.00 from ebay

Summary:
one of the smartest machines out there, still rocks like in the old days. it sounds many times better than any average minidisc up to sony jb940. i don't agree with so called "professionals" who says that akai is not in the same league with nakamichi, sony, pioneer etc. or maybe i should, akai is better in many regards. THIS MACHINE NEEDS PERFECT PARTNERS.
we all know that you need to match your system to sound the way you want. i agree that mechanically is not quite up to expectations but i wasn't able to figure out a better combination to match features this machine offers with reliability. overall out of 100 points this machine deserves 90. the last advice, never listen to "experts", if you think you like the machine listen to your heart and buy it!

Strengths:
features in general

Weaknesses:
rotary head

Similar Products Used:
nothing like it

Price Paid:  $230.00 from out of business

Summary:
Have an Akai GX-R99, has a been a great sounding deck, just repairing the head positioner track now, any help out there, like a diagram to show me where the spring clip goes? Thanks!

Strengths:
Great sound, auto calibrate, computer control was WAY ahead of it's time. Incredible discrete electronics, heavy construction, matching decks costing 4 times as much!

Weaknesses:
Very delicate mechanism, doesn't precisely reverse the head every time, leading to incorrect tracking on recordings.

Summary:
Whatever anyone may say here, this piece of equipment is one of the best there was.

What deck has 4 heads and 5 motors anyway????????????
No other deck has such a large and usefull display as the GX-R99, and I mean none.

This one should be in the "state of the art" museum.

Don't even go there, with your nakamichi, it has no use.

case closed.....

Strengths:
Mechanism, front layout, display

Weaknesses:
It's getting older

Summary:
I have had AKAI GX-9 I purchased in Japan in'85 and used it every day for 10 years. Great sound with proper Amp and extremely reliable. The only maintanance required was heads adjustment . Small defect was noise at line frequency when connecting headphones directly to tape recorder-but LINE ourput signal was pure.Overall performance- good.

Summary:
Regarding the GX-R99 i had one(silver).Just sold it for $30.God machine for the '80.Everlasting head(crystal),but synthetic sound without dynamic.You want state of the art?Than go TANDBERG TCD-910 the best cassette ever made...$10.000 or NAKAMICHI CR-7A,DRAGON,ZX-9...