I guess it’s a very open question as there would be a heap of different Aiwa models over many, many years. But I read about capacitor problems in them, hard to fix … what models? All of them? Sony prices are getting silly, especially in Australia… but even Japanese auctions people are asking crazy prices now. I see Aiwa, even in boxes, for reasonable prices …not working of course .. but prices that I think should be about what they are worth. BUT, that’s if they are able to be repaired without hours and hours of smd work. Eg, this is going for around aud$50.. Aiwa HS-RX470 . Nice looking, in a box. Or this HS-PX580, in box etc for a little more. I suppose Panasonic as well. They just seem better value than Sony at the moment. I’m not buying to sell, like it seems a lot of people do, just buying ones I like the look of and can be workable.
Yes, even on Japanese auctions prices gone way up, some models that I bought for 2000 yen are now for 5000 yen in worser condition. And something that looks salvable cost even more. I've only bought few Aiwa's, P and PC202 which I can recomend if you can recap capacitors. PX101 (sadly doesn't work now), nice piece of player but now crazy expensive. Newer Aiwa's are cheapened models, so I wasn't interested.
Aiwa's have always been one of my favorites, I just picked up another AIWA Boombox last week, they tend to be easier to find then some of the cool portables. I feel like for the first few years they were pumping out high-quality products but after the mid-80's they followed other manufacturers with lower-cost entry level models. Like a lot of other members, most of my stuff is shelf queens, I use a cassette player/radio everyday but there's just one of me so only a handful are in use any given month. For me personally, I'll search them out but the interest level is really spiking.
I really like my Aiwa HS-EX2000, one of my first cassette portables in the 90s. The only thing that is not good is the Lead Acid battery, but there are several fixes for it. A recently acquired (and restored by @Valentin ) HS-PC202MIII is not bad at all either Besides, there are plenty of Aiwa units I listed in the Dolby C thread (see signature) that are certainly worthwhile to search for.
SONYs are a lot about the brand, many seem to perceive SONY as a luxury brand, when in reality it's a consumer brand as far as walkmans go. Apart from those labeled "Professional" (like WM-D6(C), WM-D3) which were designed for the professional market, the rest are products designed for the consumer market, even though some are high-end. However professional, high-end and luxury are 3 very different categories. In fact, the above mentioned were labeled Professional because they can make good quality recordings on all tape types and with Dolby NR on the field. So despite many buy D6Cs for playback only, that's a device that was primarily designed for recording. And it is a device which can do very good recordings on the tape it was calibrated on. AIWAs and Panasonics are better value for money in general indeed. I'm more of a Panasonic fan than an AIWA fan, but both brands have produced good walkmans over the years. The PC202 MKIII mentioned by @Emiel is a very good walkman, I have one in my own collection and like it. Not much goes wrong with them, many even having the original belt still good. The non-C version will need capacitors to be replaced (there are kits on ebay), potentiometers and switches cleaned. If one wants to use Dolby NR (especially on the C version) a calibration is needed. It is recommended to repalce capacitors even on the C version and also upgrade the output coupling ones with 330uF for better sub-bass response, but not strictly necessary. Given it's a simple walkman with mechanical controls there's really not much that can go wrong with them. Occasionally, the clutch retainer can crack (will need to be glued) and on rare situations the IR LED can fail (symptom will be motor stops after a few seconds). Many of the ones with logic control will need the PCB to be removed to replace the belt (on both AIWA and Panasonic), so that is something to be kept in mind. The boxed ones are to be considered as those are likely to only need a cleaning and a belt replacement. AIWAs and Panasonics, unlike SONYs, don't have problems with lubrication like the WM-EX series motors. The ones to be avoided from Panasonic are some of the RQ-SX series which use the mechanism with 2 belts and gears. Those have much higher wow&flutter than the ones with a single belt. I'm not familiar with any of the walkmans mentioned in first post, but if I were to choose between these and a SONY WM-EX, I would choose these as the 2 main problems that exist on many WM-EXs (clutch gear and motor wear) do not exist on AIWA and Panasonic. There are of course options from the older generations (bigger, with mechanical controls) like the AIWA HS-G35/36 for example. These are good walkmans which are easy to fix, but some have capacitor leakeage. In regaard to your concern about capacitor leakeage, it's the older models that tend to have problems. Many newer ones don't even have electrolytics. Certainly not all of them have problems with capacitors, but unfortunately I don't have a list. The suggestion I can give is choose newer models (like the ones shown in first post) and I would also incline more towards Panasonic in this regard.
It's funny because I always thought that Sony built crappy boomboxes outside of a handful, but the reality seems more like they funded the cool stuff with a ton of consumer crap. Every year they had gems but it gets smaller and smaller going into the 90's. When they bought out AIWA around 92, they turned that brand into consumer crap but they made a killing doing it since 90's aiwa Sales were huge. I just keep looking, there should be 1-5 units on your radar for a great price without battery juice all over the plastic. Lot's of buyers will flinch with non-working units, most just need a belt, some more but if they're desireable, that's where the bargains are. Yes it's a gamble but so far I've done ok. Also look when the market is asleep, usually around November to mid January and summer-time but for me it revolves around our holidays. I bought a couple cool things tonight, kind of on a roll. I've only sold a few things and traded others, it's not about flipping for me but having the great engineering/designs of the 60's-90's. Of course I love music and something is turned on all the time, just burned a Van Halen CD tonight for a trip to the ice rink.
I do remember than in late 90's everybody in Poland 'knew' that Aiwa is just a cheap brand of Sony. So if you couldn't afford Sony, you bought Aiwa. Aiwa was controlled by Sony long before they bought it fully, just Sony didn't mess much with it. I guess when they started to produce crap (all those green cubed reverse EX/EX Amorphous heads walkmans) and Aiwa was at their peak with PX series they just couldn't leave it at that. As I like RQ-S (and SXes with S series mechanism), making them work perfectly is hard. Aiwa HS P(C) 202 after recaping and (sometimes) belt change usually just works.
What about this Aiwa, comes with a weatherproof case and these massive weird wireless head phones. forgot to add , it’s an Aiwa HS-RD10
I ended up buying it. It’s crazy looking enough I just had to get it. Aud$50 which I didn’t think was too bad seeing it’s in box with all the bits including the wild headphones that have an aerial..
