Michelle, I am really thrilled that you are still within our tiny community!!! I am fighting my own depression since 11/9, but since I’ve managed to crack a joke last week about my pains of 9/11 vs. 11/9,... hopefully I shall live without any bills from a psychiatrist... Just in case you need an advice (and I guess you do Not): soldering iron, the fumes of solder, and the miracle that the end result is as dead as before the “intervention” really helps me during the fight Are you sure that your Aiwa is not TPR-950??? and I am with @Longman and @Mister X re. Readers Digest boxes: now that my leather-clad book collection (I got this disease about leather-bound books from my dad) and a complete set of 180g King Super Analog LPs are gone I am visiting our local Malibu Library pretty often and got there two boxes of R.D. LPs: "Beethoven Symphonies" and "The Best Classical"... They sound absolutely horrendous (compared to what I had) but it is a start... and before you ask: digitizing is NOT an answer. Here is my lowly setup, EVERYTHING is to be upgraded, hopefully within my lifetime: Just in case you did not follow my old ramblings, this is my burned setup which sounded as good (or better) as cheap seats at LA Opera :
Thanks for the kind comments, folks. Yes, you're correct, it's TPR-950. I'm just dealing with too many TLA's I actually had one of the box sets already, a James Last set. However I've since done a Max Bygraves, Perry Como and I've just finished an 8 record set called "Festival of light Classics." Phew. I'm a small fan of Last and saw him live in Sheffield ... I think in '90. I picked up the Last bug from my father. Nice set ups Jorge. I hope to aspire to something better in the coming/latter years. Time will tell. There are some books bound with human skin, believe it or not... but you're probably already aware of those. They discovered one in Harvard a few years ago. It's amazing what we humans get up to.
I'm sorry for this Jorge, but seeing you mention 'leather-bound books' just makes me think of Ron Burgundy in Anchorman 'I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany'
Can you believe it. I'm still here! So... in my last post from late 2019, I detailed that life was complicated. To cut a long story short, I now have a new job. I'm still an infrastructure engineer, but now I work for one of the ambulance services in the UK. Yup, I now work for the NHS. My previous position was local council, so all throughout the pandemic I've been a key worker, at my desk, doing my thing. Actually, all things considered, I've been luckier than many for a host of reasons and I'm very, very thankful for my friends. Long story. They always are when I'm involved. The period has taken its toll, and my little home office had so much crap in it, that I couldn't even see the carpet. Now, however, since changing jobs, I have been in a better mental state and have had a good go-through of the little office and the attic. Many things now stand by to be thrown out or go to new homes when lockdown allows. The TPR-950 has someone who will look at it for me, again once I can travel safely to take it to them. Yes, I do have the necessary badges to get past the police, but that's not really cricket. It can wait. The little work bench is also nearly cleared (finally) and when it is, I intend returning to the walkman recapping that I started a few years ago now. There are still plenty of models to care for. The Panasonic RX-C45 has been waiting patiently and after watching recapping videos, it seems to have a single board that pulls out, which is a job I should be able to do myself. In the mean time, going through my tape collection, I found one labelled, "Groove Time." Well, after about twenty minutes I found myself listening to the theme tune to "Postman Pat" and radio adverts for Air Jamaica. It appears that it was a cassette I must have inherited from a good friend who has sadly been passed a number of years. As most of it consisted of recording Choice FM and seemed to be far more talking than music, I had to beg my friends forgiveness and I'm currently recording new tunes to what is an old formulation SA-90. Listening to the monitoring feed, it's doing nicely. Sadly, the K222ESJ has a problem with the calibration circuit. Suggestions so far are that the unit is known for dry joints, so when I feel bold, I'll have to tackle it. Or more likely, take the cover off, peak inside and go, "Hmmmm.... " and call a friend.
@Michelle Knight - So good to see you back, I was worried about you, but was afraid to ask... Thanks to your blog I do not touch any AIWA bboxes, but once (if ever) I rebuild my burned house and get a steady income I will definitely go for AIWA CS-880... and then get rid of all my other bboxes
Thanks for the good wishes .... as for putting you off and being afraid to ask about things ... I do have that effect on people :-D
Just starting work on the Panasonic boom box. Looks like a spider had set up home in here at some point. I wonder if I'll find it while taking it apart.
It could be far worse. At some point a mouse had been living inside the oscilloscope I bought, presumably entering and exiting through the hole for an optional module. Luckily I only paid £10 knowing it had issues. The crooked trace was due to a chewed through wire !
As someone who knows only basic electrical stuff (resistor, capacitor, coil, Ohm's Law) but not electronics, what are the "very obvious capacitor aging issues" to look at in a walkman or a boombox? You know that you can download from YouTube? YouTube's OPUS 160 kbps stream is about equivalent to 225 kbps MP3, and most likely is better than what you can get off your old LPs and cassettes.
Yes, it's a good suggestion, and sometimes I do that, if the recordings themselves aren't recordings off vinyl. I did actually manage to find those tracks on CD in the end, and I think I'm now at the end of sourcing the old material I wanted to get hold of. Now I've turned my attention to newer releases.
So, this is what I ended up ordering. Panasonic didn't cover all the range, so I went for Nichicon. Total cost including postage is less than £40, so that should do me proud... V - micF - Qty 6.3 - 33 - 1 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/7152344/ 6.3 - 47 - 2 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/8515276/ 6.3 - 100 - 1 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/7152353/ 10 - 47 - 2 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/7152445/ 10 - 100 - 7 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/5193832/ 10 - 220 - 3 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/5193848/ 10 - 470 - 1 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/8623070/ 10 - 1000 - 2 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/5201422/ 16 - 10 - 1 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/7152511/ 16 - 220 - 1 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/7621657/ 25 - 4.7 - 2 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/7152612/ 25 - 100 - 2 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/5194059/ 25 - 3300 - 1 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/8454714/ 50 - 0.1 - 4 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/8624146/ 50 - 0.22 - 5 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/8624171/ 50 - 0.33 - 1 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/8624174/ 50 - 1 - 14 - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/4759009/
Just waiting for 12 more caps to arrive and then it will be mostly done. The equaliser took most of the same caps as the main board, with the exception of two 50v 0.47 muf caps one one of the sliders and one 25v 10 muf cap by the LED array. I've re-pasted the heat sink and cleaned and lubricated the switches, pots and sliders. Then it will be a case of turning my attention to the tape deck itself and there's not much more I can do except clean the heads and rollers, as the main belts look to be OK, and the two belts that feed the tape counter... well, there's not much I can do about them, to be honest. I don't have a source of replacement belts. It is a bit sad that this is an early version without the Dolby NR but... hey... if I can get it working, I'll be well proud. As a first boom box repair project, I really rate this unit. It's relatively easy to take apart and work on, without having to really touch the transformer.
To quote Mr Jools Holland ... "I'm in a dancing mood..." ... too ages for two caps to arrive, but when they did, I managed to finish the board and re-assemble the unit. For a beginner like me, this unit was a breeze to work on. The cassette unit, the equaliser and the main board were simple to remove and work on. As a bonus, I didn't need to touch the transformer. That's the kind of repair that I like. Still got a little cleaning to do, but the thing is working and sounding good. The radio tunes and locks well. The only thing of concern is some of the cogs in the tape mechanism are that kind of plastic that gets brittle with time... as also does the cog in the tape door hinge. I count myself to be so fortunate to have this unit, and to have patient people like everyone on this forum who has helped out with advice. Another unit lives again... 'cause "I've got the rhythm and blues and they're in my shoes."
In a bit of a freak accident, I managed to break the board. Obviously, it won't power now, and I've killed it. Upset doesn't even begin to cover it.
I am so angry with myself. So, so very angry. I did so much work on this, and a stupid thing while I was working on the cassette deck (which needed a new belt by the looks of it) and I wrecked the board which was sticking out of the case as I didn't have the cover on. I am fuming. I can't believe I've done this... well, OK, I can. I am a fuckwit.
