Hey everyone, Beginning this year I stumbled on a unique Walkman, the Sanyo mr-s1, the Japanese version of the m-g3. It's a relatively unknown Walkman from 1982, mentioned only once in the old forums by @ao and @Walkgirl if i recall correctly. The one I own is unusual for different reasons; it has a Toyota logo (possibly an executive gift) and I got it from France. How a Japanese Walkman ended up in France is an interesting thought exercise. I really want to get this Walkman sounding it's best, as the machine in question is rather unique in my opinion. It shares no mechanism with any pre-existing walkman from Sanyo, as such I bought the only available service manual from the USA. I wanted to share with you all the service manual I bought and ask for pointers as to what might be wrong specifically with the unit. I'll upload recordings later showcasing it's sound. Furthermore it has 40mw output power at 32 ohms. To put this in contrast, it is louder than a sony wm-d6c (30mw) and only uses 2 AA batteries. With the stock machine as is, the wow and flutter is unimpressive, being worse than the Sony tps-72 (0.219rms according to @walkman archive's article). However if I can find the right replacement belt, clean and re-grease/lubricate all the gears/pulley , and re-cap everything, then I think this machine has alot of potential. If nothing else it fits perfectly with my 1979 Technics silver turntable What are your thoughts on this early pre-dolby walkman?
So opened up one of the two units I own. The non working one. The one that had been sitting on my desk semi-disassembled since December. It's the more banged up of the two that I own, got that one from the marktplats. what's sticking out is the motor control pcb. Flipping it over, we start by unsoldering the pcb as instructed in the service manual. As you can observe, the PCB was filthy: Removing the PCB we can see the mechanism, it is evidently high quality; three brass flywheels, all metal components, a good amount of capacitors. Next the pcb was properly unsoldered, then dumped in a bowl of soapy water, Followed by being baked for 4-5 minutes in my oven at 60 celsius. To get to the mechanism I had to remove a guard cover to one of the flywheels, of course a stripped screw just had to appear. my dremel magically turned that stubborn screw into a philips flathead. Also was able to fix the problem i previously had where the buttons wouldn't stay down. As you can see, the mechanism at work
Very nice! It's always nice to see the insides of these rarer models. The Toshiba KT-S2 also outputs 40 mW
This just shows how the “downgrade” path had started: with my own home-brew test-setup and Imagine Dragons CD as an example of an overcompressed at max loudness tune, I have never seen a Discman clicking over 35mW into 32 Ohm! Good’ol’Days!!!...
Ok so I dont know if its motor noise or broken gear teeth but the machines are making a ticking noise when I try to do recordings through either an aux cable or the built in mic. Advice would be appreciated. Also what kind of grease would I need for the gears? I plan to detach all the gears into soapy water then reassemble
Eurgh fixing Walkmans is so ugly it's not for the faint of heart. It makes you wonder eventually they'll come a point where there irreparable.band spare parts will dwindle what will happen lol.
Not really it's a challenge. Either you replace broken parts with spares from a parts unit or you find creative ways to fix what is broken. It certainly helps to use a service manual. If there is enough market demand, the community will find/make their own replacement parts.
Basic parts yes. But some things like Motors and etc that are specific to the product will be very difficult to reproduce
I know this is a VERY old post but I have a few of these rare Sanyo's and would love to talk more on the mechanics of them!
I believe that there are also more than 1 generation of these Sanyo players. I have a few and have noticed internal board differences from the early models to the later ones. I will have to report back on the exact serial numbers. Mine are all Sanyo MR-S1 Japanese domestic models however.
I bought one a few years ago after seeing this thread, they are definately rare and mine is also JDM. Mine is the silver version with a case, the case says "STEREO GAL" on it but not the player. It does have a door sticker with Japanese Kanji on it. I love this style, they might have outdone AIWA with the tiny buttons and switches.
somehow while searching for something completely different (...you folks know what i mean...), i found my M-G3 in a drawer. well, i remember i replaced belts, but that was easily 15 years (or more) ago, thrown some AA's and a tape in: it works, with a bit wow and flutter, but works. @ Command8: i don't need any measuring-equipment, to verify the results of your measurements: that thing plays loud and in really good quality
