I love accessories!

That's right, you got it, the accessories kind of give me warm fuzzies. Looking through the Japanese Catalogs it's clear that they made sure you could use these little players for many uses or situations. Sometimes it's like playing with GI Joes and wanting all of the gadgets. Most people don't look for these so pricing is still reasonable but they don't come up for sale very often.

We all know the AIWA HS-J02, I think this may be the best bargain going right now, it may be a little clunky but a super nice unit and it makes a perfect base unit for the AIWA FM Transmitter, the little guy in gray and (Sansui) turquoise. The transmitter has a dial on the back that can be changed to an FM frequency. The idea is you use your FM radio headphones with your portable. So the trade-off is the large transmitter for a headphone cord.

I'm sure the unit was meant more for a radio-free player but the buttons and jacks all line up. It is cool that on the inside there a power jack cord that connects to the HS-J02, this works when you connect power to the top of the unit or connect another cool accessory, the large battery case to the unit as I've done in the photo. The transmitter itself has a headphone jack that plugs into the base unit.

This early player can record, up until 10 years or so ago, recording players were extremely hard to find, now there tends to be a decent supply. I always lusted after the few I could find and this model was near the top of my list but it's a little different, most of them have dual built in mics, this doesn't. For recording I've got the AIWA CM-Z3 Microphone, a super good looking mic with all metal construction, who doesn't love the perforated cover? It also comes with a foam windscreen but doesn't look nearly as good.

The FM headphones were part of the AIWA line and were meant to be stand-alone, there's no cord for your base unit, thus making the transmitter an attactive option. The cord coming out of the bottom is an antenna, a lot of small japanese radios had these little screw in wires, one of the hardest accessories to find, everyone lost them.

Feel free to post your accessories, I'd love to see more!

 

Of course most guys our age love the gadgets! As a kid you'd see an older guy mess around with an EQ or DBX box and you thought it was the coolest thing, regardless if you picked up the nuances. Do you still have the Discmans?

 

That AIWA was the first on many fronts, there's a thread around here somewhere on it. It's still a great bargain, they are nice beefy little units with all of the great AIWA Features.

 

I just scored an AM cartridge! After searching for years I finally found one of the hardest to find accessories. Most of the players that had a cartridge style radio came with FM, AM was an option and I don't think they sold many of them. Now my Toshiba KT-R2 has a new friend. According to an old John Edwards Thread, the AM is extemely rare but these will fit in a few Toshiba Players provided they have the pins and dial opening in the cover. I always liked having a radio with my player because the batteries didn't last long with cassettes, but you could still use the radio for a few days.

The red is Toshiba AM Tuner Pack RP-A2 and the more common blue FM RP-S2. They have a lock in the case that locks it to the player, they must of had problems with the pins not making constant contact.

 

Good luck Jorge! That was one of the first items on my wishlist going back years, they were non-existant but who knows, maybe they're coming out of the woodwork. The dork factor might be on 10 with this one, I don't think the younger generation has any interest in AM.