The Sony is working nicely but the Aiwa is broken, I've heard this Aiwa sounds pretty decent so I will try to bring it back to life, though I have no idea exactly how, I'm excited about digging into it.
I'd love to hear about the hunt, I usually go over to Japan this time of year but I'm land-locked over here. Don't be afraid to take them apart and do some work, just take a lot of photos because you won't remember where any of the small screws go.
Great advice! Thanks. I actually started working on the Aiwa and the first thing I saw was a literally melted belt which I already replaced, and once I finished that I thought to myself "so exciting! I repaired my first walkman," only to find that there was no sound coming out of the unit... I need to do some research as to how to proceed next.
I have an AIWA HS-P107 very similar to your. It needed a new belt and all electrolytic caps replaced. AIWA was more on the budget side and often used caps which nowadays are dead. Other than that, the walkman sounds nice.
Sorry for such a late reply enryfox, I have seen several HS-P107 in my go to secondhand market and they sure look nice, hope I can try one soon. On the other hand, my aiwa didn't survive my repair attempts, a costly learning experience...