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Back from the dead AIWA HS-P 107

Discussion in 'I found this!' started by enryfox, May 14, 2017.

  1. enryfox

    enryfox Active Member

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    Out of the three walkman’s I had in my youth, I still have only one, the other two, a Sony WM-3 and a late Panasonic RQ, were sold for cheap to buy new gadgets. The only survivor is an early 90’s AIWA model HS-P107; I bought it in august 1993 for 77’000 Italian lira, roughly 77 of today’s EUR, and I have used it for 4~5 years; it’s been on a shelf for almost twenty years but actually it was already dead some 4 years ago when I re-discovered it. The belt has melted to goo and a lot of capacitors have gone bad (no leaks though) turning the walkman into a random noise generator.
    I now have to deeply thanks Marian for saving this poor walkman and restoring it to full working order; I really appreciate the fact that he has the same passion and commitment for both TOTL models and everyday budget units. He told me he too has a walkman from his youth he keeps for sentimental reasons so he understood why I wanted to restore this AIWA.

    Here it is in all its (plain black) glory.

    HS-P107.jpg

    It’s a mid-low level from the early ’90s, I have the standard version made in black plastic but Hugo has the gold version in its collection so I think AIWA considered this model worth of a special version. I like its design, small enough to fit in a pocket, uses two standard AA batteries, no fancy writings, labels or pointless graph, just the essential with a slightly rounded look as it was trend on those days. It might look plain, but to me it’s essential and proud of being like that; it’s not pretending to be what it is not, it’s just an honest cassette player for those of us who could not afford expensive models.

    HS-P107 2.jpg

    It still has the old AIWA logo from the ‘80s so I think this unit is still the brainchild of the real AIWA, not the company Sony turned in a low-end maker of cheap tape and CD players. Its commands are very basic as standard for auto-reverse walkman with mechanical buttons. It has DSL (the AIWA megabass), dolby B and on the back a selector for Type I or Type II/IV tapes.

    Hs-P107 top.jpg

    Sound-wise is exactly what you could expect from a walkman of this level; it is a bit weak in bass frequency, but it has surprisingly good HF response; internally the PB level of both channels can be adjusted and that helps to have a correct playback of Dolby encoded tapes. It does indeed playback type II tape with dolby B pretty well, and treble response is quite accurate for a walkman of this level. Just out of curiosity I tried playing back one of the tapes I recorded back in the 90’s and it sounded exactly as I remember - crappy. But with tapes recorded recently with proper bias and calibration it sounds much much better. I wish I had knew then what I know now, I would have considered cassettes in a different way.

    The nicest thing of all it's the box, with it bright yellow shade and the orange bands, really gorgeous; the Sony DD boxes with their dull colours and simple writings do really pale by comparison.

    HS-P107 Box.jpg

    And again as a BIG THANK to Marian, these are all the capacitors he had to replace (basically all of them).

    Capacitors.jpg

    bottom line - it’s not a valuable walkman, but having carried around this very unit when I was 20 years old it makes me very happy to see it back in action in pretty good shape.
     
    Yari and sickly_b like this.
  2. Ball000

    Ball000 Member

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    Very cool story, and it's in an incredible condition for a machine you say have used a lot while you were younger! Congratz! :)
     
  3. walkman archive

    walkman archive Administrator Staff Member

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    Thanks for sharing your story, enryfox. I still remember it from the catalogues in those years. It was the most basic of the DSL cathegory, which itself was clearly ahead of the cheap 'Superbass' models.
    I'm not sure where do I have mine stored now nor even if it works or not but it surely is a cool walkman. It's curious how differenc does the DSL sound in each AIWA. I found many to have quite different signature in the sound, and many times cheaper models have a better DSL and expensive ones. Same for the Megabass.
     
  4. Helaba

    Helaba Active Member

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    Indeed a very Nice and touching story! Superjob from Marian... But most of all, super that you devote your sentimental youth recollections into a " no matter the cost" result! Bravo !
     
  5. enryfox

    enryfox Active Member

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    Thanks for the replies; in the early '90s I wasn't much into taping as I was in full swing with digital and CD's. That is mostly to blame on the poor quality of my recordings and even the tape deck user manual did not properly explain how to record a cassette. My first walkman (a Sony WM-3) was a gift and I sold it in the late 80s as it was mostly obsolete by then; after a couple of no brand ultra low quality walkman's, the AIWA HS-P 107 was the first "serious" walkman I bought with my money (I guess earnings from private lessons).

    I have monitored ebay for several months and it has never appeared for sale while it is more common the P105 which is the no auto-reverse variant.
    Maybe it wasn't a very successful unit and sold only in some countries.

    As for Marian, he has the right spirit and motivation: not for the money and not only super high-end models. Bringing a walkman back to life is what feeds his passion; great attitude, vary rare these days (most of people I know who fixes walkman's does it just for the money). Kudos to him !
     
  6. Boodokhan

    Boodokhan Well-Known Member

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    you got a beautiful AIWA . Its amazing how you kept the box all these years.
    By the way, You sent your walkman to the right person. I always admire Marian's passion and dedication to vintage electronics.
     

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