Just borrowed a friends DD9, which has been sitting in a drawer for years. It’s all original, except it’s had a broken door hinge which has now been repaired. I am going to compare it to my one, my one has had a replacement capstan rubber and the ribbon cable in the door has been fixed since it was broken. The replacement capstan rubber is not as good as the original, I can detect some W&F. So I have been trying to find an original capstan rubber and a new ribbon cable, I think it will be hard if not impossible to find. So if anyone has these original parts, I will be interested. I want to see how much better the original parts are compared to the replica replacement. Not had a chance to compare them yet, only picked it up yesterday.
Before I start my comparison, I thought I’ll give them both a clean and demag. While there I thought, I may as well give everything else a clean. So all the Walkman and CR-7 gets a clean / demag, well it’s a rainy Sunday morning anyway. All my units are cleaned after a week’s use. Unlike most people, I am not a collector; every unit I have are used for my daily commute to and from work. So, after a week’s use the unit is cleaned and a different unit is used the following week, this way the wear & tear is spread across the units. So now down to the comparison of the 2 DD9’s, one is very much stock and the other has been tweaked by Doctor Walkman. On setup for the test, the first thing I noticed is the original needed a tad more volume to make both units level. You can’t do a comparison with different volumes, as we all know the louder one is perceived to be the better sounding one. You can’t have that for a fair comparison that way. The bulk of the test’s was done using Etymotic ER-4SR as it allows good isolation from anything external. Everything ran through the Ray Samuels P-51 Mustang headphone amp. On listening they both have very good clarity on well recorded tracks on good quality cassettes. The original untouched unit had a very slight recessed midrange, the vocals is just that little bit further back in the mix. The Doctor Walkman modified unit was a tad more upfront and just as clean in the midrange. The Doctor Walkman unit had a bit more body to the sound too. I thought it was to do with the fact that Doctor Walkman had aligned my DD9 to my CR-7, but switching to a commercially recorded cassette still gave me the same result. Cassette after cassette through the units showed that the Doctor Walkman modified one, just allowed you to hear that little bit more into the mix. This is not to say the unmodified one was no good, it is but having a direct comparison means you can hear a difference. The unmodified unit on its own sounds great and I would say most people would not notice the difference and the majority of people would be happy with either unit. The differences I am talking about, are so small and I would not have noticed if I was not listening critically with the 2 units side by side. I have not had a chance to compare the W&F as it’s been raining and I have not used them out and about, but at a guess I would say the unmodified unit with the original parts would perform better; that’s only a guess. When I get a chance to test that function out, I’ll update. Since I had the original earbuds, I thought I’ll give it a try. I used it directly out of the units, and I compared the earbuds to Bang & Olufsen A8. I have to say I usually stay away from Sony’s Bass boost as they all sound terrible. The original earbuds sounded clean and efficient but lacking in the bottom end. Using the bass boost in the mid setting gave the earbuds just that bit more body and was listenable but going to high setting ruined everything you gained from the slight body you got from the extra bottom end. Switching to the Bang & Olufsen, the first thing you noticed is it’s not as efficient as the one that came with the unit. Since the DD9 only puts out 5mW + 5mW, the included earbuds needed to be efficient. The Bang & Olufsen unit gave a better rendered sub bass using the mid bass boost setting than what I got out of the original earbuds. Even though the original earbud gained a bit more with the mid bass boost setting, it just did not give you the sub bass and going to high bass boost just ruined the whole sound. The original earbud was not embarrassed by the Bang & Olufsen.
Thanks Thomas Monteith, on first look it looks like I have to send my unit off to them. I'll double check, but I only want to buy the original parts and have someone nearer home fit them for me.
I used the DD9 for my commute to and from work last week, so putting a solid weeks use on to the unit. The conclusion on the W&F of the unit with original parts compared to my unit with replacement parts is simple the original parts win's hands down. The original parts are far superior to the replica replacement parts. Now only to find original replacement parts.
Hi... just wondering which Aiwa model is shown in the photo I have a model with the same head but it is not the same as yours mine is a pl55 and yours seems to be a pl70
its a six piece repair kit he sends to you.he does offer a repair service aswell. I dont know if its new old stock but being from the country of origin they maybe
ps cant see past Valentin for repairs https://buyee.jp/mercari/item/m94847446603?conversionType=Mercari_DirectSearch
Thomas Monteith I will have to check to see if it's new old stock or replica, if it's new old stock that would be amazing.
