I finally found a decently priced WM-DC2

Hi folks,

It's been some years. I haven't checked the forums here for aaaages. Not since COVID-19 happened.

I still own my beautiful gold WM-DD3 and it plays perfect (after being fixed by wonderful mihokm) even 3 years later. Still in absolutely mint condition too.



Though I do heavily caution using this case:



As the zipper can easily scuff the metal sides of the walkman. Thankfully this didn't happen to me though as I noticed it would be possible after putting it in the case.

I keep my WM-DD3 in this case when storing it, which is "okay" only. Though it does tend to leave rubber fibers on the walkman as the case is likely 35+ years old.



Today however, I managed to pick up this beauty. (Photos not mine, but they are of the walkman I now own)





The seller accepted my offer of €550 + €16.50 postage. It does sadly have the clicking gear problem. Which will be the first thing I get fixed. I have personally not seen such an amazing exterior and interior quality DC2 anywhere except on The Walkman Archive. I have wanted a DC2 for many years now but prices in recent years just exploded for all models. Most DD models go for at least 400€ no matter the exterior condition so long as the device is 'working'. It seems though today that patience has rewarded me.

We should all know that a DC2 can cost often a completely astronomical amount, eg. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234745871648 ($3,499 + $62.90) and arguably same condition as the one I just got.
or even: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165757822010 ($780 + $20) and far worse condition than mine.

So I am even more thankful that the seller accepted my offer of €550, for a fully working model in amazing visual condition and with great sound. Complete with serial number, battery door, no corrosion etc.

I think now it is time for me to get a custom made leather case now that I have a DC2. I guess I can use the case I don't like as a donor and send that to a leatherworker to be used for the dimensions. As previously every single person I contacted said they wanted the walkman to verify measurements, and would not do the job otherwise (I was hesitant to send such a device to them and need to have it sent back).

What do you guys think?

P.S. I am still praying to god that one day I will be the owner of a mint AIWA PX-303 and PS-202 MK3. I did have one beautiful condition PS-202 MK3 but it was sold working, and did not work at all when it arrived.

 

Good looking unit, enjoy.

The examples you listed are just way over priced and will never sell at those prices.
I would not send your unit away, send then the case it comes with that should be good enough for them to do what they need. When I needed a case that was what I did before I got one of the one the specially made by a seller on this site.

Here is the one of the cases I have now.

 

The 550euros you paid I think is a decent price indeed !

As for units that are "fully working" and "sell" at a certain price regardless of cosmetic condition, we must first aknowledge there is a difference between being listed at a price and actually selling.
Most people don't realise this and assume that if there's a device listed at 3000, that's the market price. This is not necessarily the case.

As a seller, I can list it at any price that I want, however that's not a guarantee I will ever sell. Have seen listings on ebay that didn't sell for years, so the fact a DD is listed at X amount does not mean much.
As for cosmetic condition, it certainly does matter a lot when it comes to units that actually sell, not just listing prices.
I can tell this from personal experience: selling a fully serviced DD that's in less than mint cosmetic condition (a few minor scuffs) made me drop the price significantly in order to sell.

Of course, many (most) sellers will try to sell their walkman like it's a once in a lifetime opportunity or the only one that's available for sale in the entire world.
Then we should understand that these DDs will need to be serviced, no matter how "fully working" they are. Most sellers will claim their unit is fully working, unless there's a very serious problem.
Almost no seller will mention the clicking noise, which is (as of 2022) a problem on all of them (except those that don't have a main gear like DD9, DD1 etc.). Failing to fix it will result in wear on the flywheel gear that drives the main one.

Will post the link to the DD buyer's guide I wrote some time ago for reference: https://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/sony-wm-dd-series-buyers-guide.7657/

Hope you will get that AIWA PX-303 one day ! From what I've seen these rare units are starting to appear on sale more often than in previous years, so pay attention to listings and extend your seraches beyond ebay.
As for the PS-202 MKIII and PK-202 MKIII, never heard of these units myself and cannot find anything by this model number. Are you sure it's not PC-202 MKIII ?

 

Great photo. Could you recommend me an amp? Seems you are using the line-out plus amp. I was thinking of 3D printing some kind of holder or something depending on the amp I get, so everything could stay kind of flush together.

Also I ended up getting one of those cases because thankfully doublecee is still making them. Link: https://www.analogueoctober.com/?s=walkman&post_type=product

I will get it tomorrow likely, as today is Independence Day in Finland.

Truly it is such a blessing to have a community with people who are all pitching in to make these 30 and 40+ year old devices usable.

In other news, I got the DC2 and it was packaged as well as you would send a newborn in the mail. Incredibly happy about that. Zero traces of wear or corrosion at all. It looks even better than in the photos. The clicking sound is LOUD and rewinding does not work at all, which I am hoping is the fault of the broken gear. Though fast-forward works fine.

Sound quality is amazing even with the loud clicking. I have only tested with my Sony WH-1000XM5's so, have not plugged it into my home HiFi yet or anything. With headphones it is loud, like ridiculously loud at max volume using the headphone jack. No crackling or buzz when changing the volume either like some of the other models had. So no corrosion or issues with the volume rocker. Line-out is very quiet, but obviously I need an amp for that and I'll test it later. The clicking is so distracting though that it makes listening kind of pointless at this stage.

Still needs a service and head demagnetizing and so on. Otherwise, I couldn't be happier.

 

Thanks for the link. Yeah the prices of DC2 (and most other DDs) are basically anywhere from reasonably expensive to utter highway robbery. I've been talking so a few people on eBay and other sites about the Aiwas. Though I found that Aiwa sellers are a lot less reasonable and negotiable than those with the Sony's actually haha. Most Aiwa folks don't want to post internationally, even if I offer more than the asking price. They are also a lot more inclined to sell a mint looking item, mention that it's 'defective' due to age, or 'untested'. Yet they set the price as incredibly high because the exterior look of the item is so good.

I do understand the higher prices for 'good looking' items, even though they can (and do) often live in their cases. Aiwas are an interesting one for me. I have some weird attraction to them, especially the MKII, MKIII P202 and PC202 devices. I will never get over just missing out barely on one of the PC202 MK3s that were sold on eBay some years ago, with that seller that found about 150 of them all sealed in a warehouse in the US...

As always it's pick 2, or even 1 of the following:



Oh and yeah the PK202 was a typo. I will eventually own some kind of P202 and PC202 so I can compare the sound quality. I am not sure how important it is to have a PC202 when the only difference is the "Dolby-C" which cuts the highs so strongly and it's so hard to find tapes that were recorded with Dolby-C. The P202 at least has DSL and still has Dolby-B, plus they are often much, much lower priced (between only 50-150 max) .The PC202 variants I have seen as high as 300 euros. I am more inclined to make use of DSL on the P202 than Dolby-C on the PC202, especially as I have a nice Sony-DC2 now.

As for the PX series. Well the 303 and 505 are basically impossible to find. I have found some nice condition PX101's actually very recently and also at a good price (only about €150) but the problem being, none come with the remote. I am really, really interested in the BBE system that PX303 and 505 have. I will keep waiting patiently.

P.S. Some years ago I was sure that most of these Walkmans are owned by the following small group of people I could find in my years of searching.

2 Russian guys who seemed to have between them hundreds of Awia and Sonys (unless they were same person but still different name and location)
2 Germans that had hundreds of Aiwas, every single one of them listed as defective
3 Germans that had dozens of Sonys all in various conditions
1 Austrian who was slowly selling incredible condition Sonys one-by-one
1 British who likely owns some vintage record store who was selling all his 'okay' cond walkmans (many not just Sony and Aiwa) and all as best restored as he could do

That was basically it. Apart from some Singaporeans and the occasional Japanese seller I could find on other sites. It was about 7 or 8 people I could find aaaaall over the internet who were selling 90% of all walkmans.

I bookmarked their names and even years later half of them are still slowly selling everything. Of course there is likely far more of these sitting in cupboards and so on that people don't even know about. I'm also not lucky enough to live in the US where I can just hop in my car and drive down Route 53 and go visit a bunch of garage sales either.

 

Hi givemeyourwalkmans if the unit is clicking due to the main gear being broken, I would recommend you stop using it till you get the gear fixed or replace. Continue to use it and you risk damaging the adjacent gears and those you will not find a replacement for.
I got my carry case from the same please as yours but chose to not have the embossed DD logo. For my amp, I just got the local shoe menders to make me a leather case for it.

With regard to headphone amp’s there are many companies out there making them, from cheap to very expansive. Just try and get out there and try a few and pick the one you like the sound off.
I am using Ray Samuels Audio P-51 Mustang. Since Ray has retired there has been no more developments and if you go for a Ray Samuels, you will be buying something that is old. Not saying they are not good, but you may be able to buy something better for the same money.





Aiwa’s BBE & DSL are the best in the business, some of the Aiwa’s I have owned when you can still get personal stereo’s new in the shops are HS-JX101, HS-JX303, HS-JX505 and HS-JX707. All very nice sounding units but every single one a terrible recorder.

 

Pre-recorded tapes encoded with Dolby C I think there are very few out there. And I wouldn't trust that they haven't degraded and will likely need to be re-recorded.

Dolby (be it B, C, S) will not cut any highs when properly calibrated (both on the recorder and player).
Unless you have a deck with automatic or manual recording calibration, so you can adjust the bias and rec sensitivity for the specific tape you are recording on, Dolby C recordings will simply sound trash.
However, when the recording is done correctly and the player (walkman in this case) also has its Dolby levels correctly adjusted, the results can be very good.
This is also the case with Dolby B, but the problems will be less obvious unless the adjustments are way off.

Another difference between the Aiwa P202 and PC202 is the output coupling capacitors. The P202 has 330uF ones, proving better sub-bass even with DSL off, while the PC202 has 220uF being more flat in the sub-bass region.

Thanks for sharing your experience about walkman sellers !

From my observations just in the last couple of years more and more are coming for sale than before (even some very rare units).
There is an impression of shortage, but in reality there are enough walkmans, decks and cassettes for everyone. People will slowly going to find them in their drawers and sell them.

 

Thanks as always for sharing your knowledge and opinions, it's very appreciated. I have only used the DC2 with broken gear for about 2 minutes just to test the sound and that the seller didn't rip me off. It's now sitting inside it's leather case from Analogue October, so the case stretches a little to fit better. The case I got is really quite incredibly designed. Though the 5V Power adapter hole is a little out of place (I will not be using it anyway). I am very excited to use it eventually after the gear is fixed.

BBE has gotten amazing reviews from everyone lucky enough to own one of the devices. I've found some other models with BBE but all of them suffered some kind of cut-corner or they all require remotes to even function at all and they are never sold with the remote sadly. It's a shame because some I almost decided to go for and then try and find a remote later, but I would rather not have the hassle and just keep being patient as I have been.

That said, I eventually found a completely mint condition AIWA P202 MK1. It's not the MK2 or MK3 design which I like so much, nor is it the PC202 (Dolby-C version) but it does have DSL which the PC202 does not have at all. It's been completely professionally serviced with new belt, demagnetized head, cleaned and oiled components and so on. So I am really excited to hear how it sounds as I am hoping it's "like new" quality. It's now on its way. Nice thing is that it also comes with the battery case which takes 2x AAA instead of the one which sadly takes a gumstick (I find often only the ones which have gumstick). So I can use some nice high quality Philips Eneloop batteries with the device. I'm still looking for a european variant of the official 5V Power Adapter for it though. So I could use it at home for casual listening. Either way, very excited to test it compared to an (eventually) fully serviced Sony DC2 and see how they differ.

For now I guess the search for PC202 models is over. I'll still keep my eyes open for the PX models I am interested in, even though I have heard that they are extremely difficult to service and care for.

Thank you for sharing such interesting and important information. I am definitely a bit more interested in good sounding bass than presence of Dolby-C. Thanks also for sharing the information about Dolby-C calibration. I don't think I have ever owned a Dolby-C tape, let alone (until now) a proper device to play such a tape. At least I have the DC2 for that in the future.

 

The device is now on its way to Marian for a complete service and to have the broken gear fixed. Cannot wait to get it back.

Monumental thanks to Marian for accepting to inspect and fix the walkman!

 

The price of DC2 is higher than D6C

 

Did you get your repaired unit back?

 

Original Aiwa PC202 or P202 power adapter is 2V not 5V. As I understand using it with 2,5V or even 3V wouldn't be a problem, rather advantage in sound quality.

 

550 for a broken walkman just wow lol. looks very nice though congrats

 

The AIWA P202 and PC202 runs directly off 2 x AAA (which is 3V) with no DC-DC conertor (unlike other AIWA models) so it will run fine on 3V.
I imagine the original power adapter is a linear unregulated one, in which case it will output more than 2V anyway.
As far as output power and distorsion (clipping) goes, yes having 3V is to be preffered to 2V especially if listening at louder volumes.