how good is an akai ap006 turntable?

I'm not at all familiar with the table, but Akai made some decent analogue tape equipment in their day. You may want to post this over at Vinyl Asylum or Vinyl Engine - there are many more vintage geeks over there. Based on your description I would think it's work salvaging at the very least.

Commcat - I'm not sure is your intention was any more than curiosity, but if you look at the OP's history, this isn't the first time he's been here. I think you'll agree, for someone familiar with this site, this is the first place they would come for a query like this.

Judging from the specs and reading the comments around the web, it's a decent but not outstanding TT. But the looks are gorgeous IMHO. here's some info:

http://www.thevintageknob.org/THEVAULT1/AP006/AP006.html#

commcat-I have been perusing this sight for quite a while now and have gleaned much useful information from it. No disrespect intended but I am not in the habit of diving into dumpsters. I will however, if the opportunity arises, open my hands willingly to pennies falling from heaven. Satch- I thank you for the link. It is indeed a fairly pretty beast.

I bought an entire Akai system in Dubai in 1977 including the AP-006. I t works as well today as iot did when it was first switched on 34 years ago. In that time I have changed the stylus about 4 times but I have not needed to do anything else to the unit at all. It is brilliant.
I have the manuals for the AP-006 Record Deck, the GXC-730D Cassette deck and the AA-1040 Receiver if anyone needs the details