Hello there! There are a few cassette AIWA Walkmans currently for sale from sellers near me. I still have a bit of a limited knowledge on Walkmans as a whole and would appreciate if someone could enlighten me on these: AIWA HS-P05 MkII: 150 eur, working. AIWA HS-P09: 100 eur, not working, mint condition cosmetically, includes the original pouch. I could maybe manage to negotiate the price with the seller. AIWA HS-PC202 MII: 200 eur, working, I can maybe negotiate price, seller says it was fitted with new capacitors and belt. What I'm looking to know, is if any of these models are particularly good, and if the price I'm paying for them in their respective conditions is normal, amazing, or terrible. I'd also like to know more info on them, and what could be the potential Sony equivalents in terms of quality to these, as I'm more familiar with Sony Walkmans. Essentially I'm just looking for a very solid Walkman that could provide me with high-end, Hi-Fi levels of performance, or at least really close to that. I heard AIWA made some amazing machines until the 1990's, that could match Sony's best at the time. Of course I'd love to get my hands on a D6C, DC2, DD9, DD100, etc, but those are realistically way out of my reach (the D6C isn't as pricey as the others though, who knows). I'm also making preparations to find a good deck, and everything to make great cassette recordings, as I'm taking this Walkman thing rather seriously. Any feedback or help will be immensely appreciated! I'll try to reply as soon as I can. TreezZ PS: Apologies if this isn't the appropriate section to post this in.
If you are intending on using the personal stereo, I recommend not buying something that does not work unless you are good at fixing or you have someone that is going to fix it for you. Restoration costs are high. Buy what you like at a cost you can afford. Spend your money on one or two good choice units that you are going to use, no good wasting your money on buying things because you can. You can see by what I write, I am not a collector for me they are there to be used for what they are intended for. It does not interest me to look at them. By the way this is only my opinion, plenty of people collect and enjoy doing so, not me. Good luck with your hunt.
I'd be lying if I said its impossible for me to start collecting. With many of the stuff I like, I end up always being somewhat of a collector. Though for the moment I just really want a solid, high quality Walkman, to power good headphones/IEM's. My EX2 is good, but its more of a mid tier Walkman. And my EX500 is definitely on the lower end (correct me if I'm wrong, these are just the impressions I've gotten from them through my experience). I'd only get the HS-P09 if I can determine with the seller what the problem is, and if its easy to fix (like a worn out belt), or if the seller sells it for dirt cheap, and keep it as a display piece. I've been told the HS-P09 and the PC202MII are pretty high quality, geared towards the higher end. I dont know if its a good sign that the 202 has been recapped though. As for the HS-P05 MkII, I have virtually no information about it. Thank you for replying!
I have been after the Aiwa HS-P09 for a long time, but most of what I find is broken and people want too much money for it. I was told by someone in the know that it’s the best Aiwa produced, it is meant to be better than anything Sony ever made. So it’s meant to be better than the D6C & DD9, I would like to give it a try and find out for myself if that is true but not willing to buy a broken one or an overpriced one either. The problem with buying broken things like this is, they are very old and you don’t know if you will find parts or someone that knows how to fix it. You say with finding everything you always wanted, you can’t help collecting. I can’t do that, I will have a house full of junk I will never use. I would rather spend that extra money and buy something really good that works and are going to uise, but that’s just me. The only thing I can’t stop buying is records.
Wow. The HS-P09 being better than Sony's best is a bold claim. You've kind of sold me on that one. Even if it isnt functional, I guess it is a great piece to own anyway then. I also absolutely love how it looks, so thats a big plus. I'll include a picture of it. I'll try to contact the seller today and I'll let you know of any updates. I guess the HS-P05 MkII isnt that relevant then. What about the PC202MII? That one is said to be great as well. Once again, thank you, TreezZ
Fang Bian CEO of HiFiMan told me the Aiwa HS-P09 is better than any Sony, but I have not been able to find a good working one to verify his claim. I still would not buy a broken Aiwa HS-P09 just to find out. I used to own all the top Aiwa's back in the day, I have own HS-JX101, HS-JX303, HS-JX505 and the HS-JX707 when you can still get them new in the shops.
Update: I asked the seller for more details about the condition of the HS-P09. He says, and I quote: "It doesnt produce any noise, and doesnt react when any buttons are pressed, even with new batteries installed". I'm guessing this is a bust then? Not doing anything when the buttons are pressed is to be expected (probably a broken belt), but not making any noise could be something more serious, like dead capacitors?
This is good advice. Aiwas are a bit harder to work on, but nothing impossible. The belt is usually sandwiched underneath the motherboard and caps...better get good at replacing those if you're gonna collect Aiwas. But hey, they made beautiful personal stereos. On Reddit, where there are a lot of younger newcomers to cassette personal stereos, I always advise that unless they're experienced with electronics and soldering, to stick to the Walkman. All most Sonys need are a belt and a good cleaning...and Sony made it super easy to get at the belts on most models. The other thing to consider with Aiwa, it's good that you can buy local as I'd want to see and hear it function. Hopefully you can get a decent deal as online, Aiwas can go for a pretty penny. Let us know how you make out with the seller.
Thank you for replying. I'll see what I can do about this HS-P09. I'm not really an expert when it comes to electronics, but I'm not a newbie either. I've had my fair share of PS3 maintenance, and I've replaced entire Blu Ray drive assemblies on 2 PS3's. I have no experience on soldering though, but a friend could help me with that. As for the condition of the HS-P09, as I said above, according to the seller, it doesnt make any noise or react to any buttons pressed with new batteries on, so I'm not sure if I'm off to a good start on that one. Do you have any AIWA's Magneto? Any knowledge about these 3 models I asked above? (HS-P05 MkII, HS-PC202MII, HS-P09) Thank you once again
Hey TreezZ, I currently have an AIWA HS-TX686 and an HS-JS475. Nothing special about those models. The HS-JS475 is currently dead and the TX686 only needed a belt - works and sounds great. But, it's very basic player that has Dolby and auto-reverse. There are models like the HS-P09 that I've always wanted, but I can never find one working or that doesn't cost a small fortune. I hope you find the one(s) you're after. Look forward to seeing them!
Its nice hearing good things about the HS-P09 from you too. I might really get it, even if broken. The seller at the moment is mid house change I believe and said it was packed in a box, so he couldnt get more pics. Despite being a straightforward model, with very few features, I've always heard those are the best players, since the ones with more features tend to sacrifice sound quality (except the D6C of course, but that one is a different beast). Thank you again for your replies!
The DD9 has features and doesn’t sacrifice sound quality. The DD9 is the opposite sound signature to the D6C. The D6C is good but a more coloured sound signature and the DD9 is lean clean and more neutral, some would say it’s clinical in its sound. The DD9 leans more towards my Nakamichi CR-7 in its sound. I like both the DD9 and D6C. My first choice of what to take out with me is the DC2 which I would say smack bang in the middle of the D6C and DD9, the best of both worlds.
The DD9 being absolutely amazing and probably the best Walkman ever was implicit It does have features, but not as many as the D6C though. And for example, from what I saw in the Walkman Archive, the AIWA JX3000 and JX707 are incredibly feature packed, but have inferior sound quality, hence why I referred this principle (if I can even call it a principle haha), and ruled out the D6C as an exception.
Well let me add a bit to this thread. I have 4 of the soft touch Aiwa models from 1985. Beautiful looking players with features Sony were years away from incorporating in Walkman models. The models are HS-J08, HS-G500, HS-G08 and HS-T500. All were difficult to restore with multiple issues involving switch faults and auto reverse with sound drop out on one channel in REV Play. The HS-P09 is the successor to HS-P08 which had the full logic soft touch controls but not the 5 band GEQ. The HS-G09 was released in 1986 without Full Logic Soft Touch buttons as Aiwa discontinued that functionality after only a short production run. I can see why. Although they are beautiful to look at and sound great with the 5 band GEQ they were really hard to dismantle and swap out a belt. I digress as your interest in the P09 is what I came into this thread with. So it's basically the HS-G09 without the GEQ. Belt change is dead simple. I've done a couple and I have a restored HS-G09 in the collection. My advice is look for any sign of battery leakage in the HS-P09. If you suspect it has had battery damage then don't touch it. These have a motor control board right next to the battery bay and can be damaged if even a small leak occurs. As far as I know they don't have cap failure issues as a rule. I suspect the "no sound" is no audio. If it is no motor sound on power up then that's probably one to avoid. It will need more than a belt.
I confirm what @Silverera says these are mine, not all perfect and working, but because I haven't opened them yet the ones I use and is fully functional and hs-T09 hs-G600 and hs-T08 in red hs-P09 .. hs-J09 and Hs-J500 not ok yet in the laboratory hs -G700 with a HS-G101
Hello, thank you for your reply, and your info on AIWA models! I'm glad to know that the P09 is fairly easy to maintain, and replace the belt. As for its condition, I havent had it in my hands to examine it, but the seller told me "it makes no sound, and it doesnt react when any buttons are pressed, even with new batteries". Unfortunately I dont know if battery leakage occured, but not doing anything at all when pressing any button is a bad sign, I assume.
Hello, thank you for showing your beautiful AIWA's. Wow. The P09 having the same frequency response as the D6C is pretty impressive! Thank you!
Well if you can't hear the motor running it's not a good sign. The P09 has the standard buttons not soft touch and even without the belt should run the motor when play is pressed. Soft touch models won't run without the belt no matter what button is pressed.
