Has anyone ever done some serious testing of the sound quality of some high-end AIWA Walkmans (PL, PX range...) e.g. frequency range, and compared them to others? Here's the reason for me asking: When refurbishing a PL55 recently I noticed that the service manual states the frequency range is 63Hz-8kHz. I was stunned. My average Sony WM EX-range Walkman has a stated frequency range of 30Hz-18kHz, coming close to cassette deck quality, at least on paper. However, even the best AIWA's do not ever seem to go beyond 12kHz and never below 63Hz. Aren't the AIWA's supposed to be the most sought-after portable players of them all, not least because of sound quality? Is everyone looking for them just wrong? I spent some time listening to some AIWA and Sony models and while the AIWAs do sound much warmer, less transparent, and possibly a bit more muddled, I still find them sounding good. I would certainly pair them with lighter, more crisp-sounding headphones, but they do not seem to be as bad as the numbers would indicate, at least to my ears. What's the deal with this? Am I misunderstanding what actually goes into good sound quality? Do I misread the figures? Do the AIWA's have strengths in other areas? I have not yet had the time to test and compare these players, but maybe someone else has? Update: I did a quick check with a professional frequency measuring cassette and both the 40Hz and 10kHz test tones, that should not be audible on the AIWA, were clearly audible. So, is the stated measurement wrong or am I misunderstanding something?
I have the same experience with HS-PC203 & HS-PC202MkIII, I don’t know why these numbers are stated in the manual, it obviously sounding better than that.
Thanks Rune. I am no audio engineer and don't have much of a clue of the technicalities, but it did more or less successfully produce a frequency sweep and analyze it using Adobe Audition tonight. I probably did tons of things wrong, but the frequency response curves, although they obviously show many differences, do align pretty well between my PL55, a Sony WM EX of modern make, and a stationary AIWA XK-S7000 deck. Aside from the Sony's being noticeably clearer and much more differentiated in the highs, performance is more or less comparable.
I noticed the low values in several of the Aiwa service manuals before, and I also do not believe those are correct. Hence, I purchased some Aiwa units that are being serviced by Valentin. The PX20 should be pretty awesome, and if anything like the Sony competitors, it should meet at least the 16kHz upper limit. I linked to Julian’s blog on the PX20 on WML: https://personalhifiblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/hs-px20.html?m=1
I agree with you. But: Julian discusses these figures on his blog, for instance for the PX50, and he agrees that they indicate a noticeably worse sound. There still seems to be some confusion here: https://personalhifiblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/aiwa-hs-px50-hs-px505-part-i.html
I think AIWA considers just the part of the frequency response that is flat (+/-0dB), hence why the apparently poor spec. In the attached picture (PX30 - spec 10kHz), we can see the FR starts to rolloff exactly at around 10kHz, but the -3dB point is around 17-18kHz. On the low frequency side (not shown in this measurement), it's also to be kept in mind many manufacturers put the spec with bass boost turned on, hence why you see specs of 15Hz or 20Hz. Same is with W&F specs, AIWA gives figures of "<0.45% (RMS)" on top models, but in practice they have much better W&F. Also fact they don't put W in RMS can mean they're reffering to the unweighted figure, which will be higher.
