AIWA XK-S7000

Commentary

A cassette deck that challenges the limits of analog decks and adopts super AMTS and stress-free 6N winding pure amorphous head.

Uses Dolby S type as a noise reduction system.
The Dolby S Type is a noise reduction system that optimizes the Dolby SR (spectral recording) for professionals used in recording studios for commercial cassettes. It achieves a noise reduction effect of up to 10 dB in the low-frequency range and up to 24 dB in the high-frequency range. It also achieves natural high sound quality without the pumping (dynamic side effect) that is often found in conventional NR.
Dolby Type S is acoustically compatible with Type B, so it can be played on a cassette deck equipped with Type B.

Equipped with Super AMTS (Super Anti Modulation Tape Stabilizer) to prevent tape vibration completely.
Super AMTS is an advanced version of AMTS, which is Aiwa's unique stabilizing mechanism. The cassette box inherits the two layer structure of non-magnetic aluminum plate and non-resilient rubber, while increasing the pressure applied to the surface of the half body from 1 kg to 1.5 kg. In addition, the back side is bonded with non-resilient rubber with different properties to further reduce vibration.
In addition, the capstan motor, which is the source of vibration inside the deck, is supported by two 3-layer damping steel sheets and special damping rubber and floating. In addition, the mounting of the recording and reproducing heads has been strengthened from 2-point support to 3-point support, and the heads are precisely fixed to the heavy head block. In addition, a head stabilizer, which dumps from both sides with non-resilient rubber, is also installed.
These structures realize a thorough vibration control mechanism and further improve sound quality.

It is equipped with BTOR (Blank Tape Optimized Recording) system which is a recording position only for raw tapes.
In conventional cassette decks, even when recording on a tape that has never been used, it passes through the erasing head and affects the signal system due to the erasing current. We are working to improve the sound quality by improving this BTOR.

Equipped with a real 18-bit linear dual D/A converter, it can be directly connected from digital source to digital.
The D/A converter section has an independent dual configuration dedicated to the left and right channels. Mutual interference is eliminated by adopting a completely independent power supply system consisting of windings dedicated to the D/A converter, independent rectification circuits for digital and signal systems, and independent power supply circuits.
In addition, the digital part is isolated by a dedicated shield case to reduce the influence on the audio system. In addition, an ON/OFF switch that can stop all digital clocks is also installed.

A stress-free 6N wound pure amorphous head is used for the recording and reproducing heads.
In order to achieve high sound quality, ultra-high-purity copper with a Stress free-6Nines purity of 99.99997% or higher is used for the head winding regardless of the cost. LC-OFC and PC-OCC used copper with a purity of 99.99% or higher called 4Nines, but with 6N, impurities are reduced from 100 ppm to 1 ppm, eliminating distortion of atomic arrangement and suppressing disturbance of electron flow.
The head core uses a 12-layer laminated pure amorphous head with extremely high magnetic flux density, which has excellent characteristics as an audio magnetic head.

Sendust material is used for the erasing head.
Compared to a single capstan, the dual capstan mechanism has a higher constant tape tension and a higher degree of adhesion between the tape and the head. Therefore, when an ordinary ferrite material is used for an erase head or a read / write head, the high frequency degradation of the tape signal is caused by the spontaneous magnetization effect associated with the coercive force = Hc (0.1 to 0.15) of the ferrite material.
The use of a Sendust erasing head with a very low Hc of 0.007 ~ 0.02 prevents degradation of the sound quality of the tape.

A vibration control mechanism has been adopted. In addition to a heavy-weight high-rigidity chassis and cabinet, a resonance damping wood base with a dense coniferous MDF board has been adopted at the bottom to reduce external vibration. In addition, a vibration damping type with fast vibration damping characteristics has been adopted for the printed circuit board.
We also pay attention to the micro vibration caused by the power transformer, and have installed a large power transformer of anti-vibration and anti-magnetic type externally.
We are also pursuing vibration control with heavy-weight insulators, head stabilizers, bias-shielded head blocks, and three point support high-rigidity head bases.

As much as possible, electronic switches, switching circuits, connectors, and printed patterns that cause sound quality degradation are eliminated, and simple and straight signal transmission is achieved.
In addition, it is equipped with a transmission mechanism that does not degrade sound quality when turned off, such as an MPX circuit with through position and an open-type muting circuit with gold-plated relay during performance.

The digital, mechanical logic, display, signal, and Dolby S NR printed circuit boards are separated from each other and placed at sufficient intervals to eliminate mutual interference.
The mechanical logic system and the display system are isolated by an internal chassis to eliminate interference with the signal system. In addition, the printed circuit board for the D/A converter is isolated by a dedicated shield case.

It is equipped with manual calibration to extract the tape performance, and the built-in oscillator is set to 400 Hz and 10 kHz for wide frequency response adjustment.
In addition, since the level meter is expanded to 0.5 dB steps during calibration, highly accurate calibration is possible.

Low output impedance power source with discrete configuration is adopted.

PC-OCC OCC low-capacity head wire and is directly attached to the playback equalizer.

A PC-OCC wound trap coil using a low distortion core is adopted.

Equipped with discrete Dolby HX Pro circuit capable of ON/OFF.

Equipped with ultra-low distortion factor Dolby NRIC.

A copper plated heat sink has been adopted.

Low contact resistance type input / output pin jack with gold plating is adopted.

Uses high-quality sound condenser and high-precision parts.

The headphone jack uses a gold-plated terminal.

Three nitrogen gas sealed relays are used.

It uses an auto loading type cassette door and closes automatically when the cassette is inserted.

Equipped with a super bias circuit.

Equipped with 3-mode display ON/OFF switch, clock stops when OFF.

A low-distortion oscillator output can be used to calibrate other decks or to check the phase of speakers.

Quick response AI mechanism is adopted.

Equipped with a linear counter with pre-end winker.

It is equipped with a large FL multi-mode display and a peak meter with 24 segments x2ch peak hold (Auto/Manual Resetable).

Wireless remote control is included.

Model Rating

Type	Stereo cassette deck
Heads	Recording : Stressfree-6N Winding Pure Amorphous Head Playback : Stressfree-6N Winding Pure Amorphous Head Erasing : double-gap sendust heads
Motor	For Capstan : Mu-Flat DC Servo Motor For take-up and FF/RWD : DC motor For Super AMTS / Cassette Door : DC Motor
Wow flutter	0.025% (W / Peak) ± 0.045% (WRMS)
Frequency Response (-20dB Recording)	LH : 13 Hz ~ 20 kHz ± 3 dB CrO2 : 13 Hz to 21 kHz ± 3 dB Metal : 8 Hz to 25 kHz -10dB 13 Hz to 23 kHz ± 3 dB
SN ratio (peak level)	63 dB (NR off, metal tape) 84 dB (Dolby S NRon, metal tape)
External dimensions	Width 430x Height 150x Depth 415 mm
Weight	11.8kg
Attachment	2 stereo pin cords Remote controller