Very happy with this WM-DD100, I got it recently and it's the nicest one I've ever seen. Really 100% mint, cannot find any imperfection at all.
If you look at it rationally, it's not very different from a regular DD, however it's pretty iconic as it was the first one to feature DOL, the predecessor to Mega Bass etc
Inside, it's obvious how much work it was to manufacture these devices in this era. A lot of manual soldering and routing of wires.
The shielded wires from the head were fed through a hole in the PCB, then soldered individually with great care.
And yes, even though this DD-100 is in new-like shape, it cannot escape the cracked center wheel problem. It's just age that results in shrinking the black plastic gear around the metal inside, with such tension built up that it cracks.
It's an interesting stack of PCBs with - fairly novel at that time - SMD only with PCB interconnects at the side. No PCB vias, just soldered elements to connect both sides. I guess dual-sided PCBs and SMT components were pretty new back then.
Servicing the Boodo Khan so that not only the outside is new-like, but it will also play that way. The mechanism itself is fairly straightforward and the maintenance to make it new-like is not so tough. Taking the center gear out is not that difficult as long as you have some basic mechatronics skills, you're not affraid of the small stuff, and you keep precise track of what you do.
After the repair it plays very well and sounds quite good. I must say that the "hyped" DOL is, in my ears, actually real overkill. I listened to the Boodo Kahn with modern headphones, I used a Bowers & Wilkins P9 Signature, and with DOL off it sounds nice, like any DD, but with DOL on it's too bass heavy to my taste. I do have the original headphones as well and with those it sounds a bit better, but still unnaturally blown up. I guess it's a matter of taste and it will depend on the music genre you're enjoying. Well that's the legendary WM-DD100, a nice player in the line-up of the DD models. I think it doesn't come even close to the WM-DD9 which came later, but still I feel fortunate to own a new-like DD100.
Some years ago I was also able to make a direct comparison between a DD9 and Doodo Kahn. There was one for sale in my neighborhood and I was allowed by the seller to test it in situ. I took a DD9 with me for direct comparison. I agree with your conclusion. The DD9 with Mega Bass sounded way nicer to my ears. So I left it for 75 euros. Now I think I could better have bought it, because prices are becoming astronomic for these DD-100 walkmans lately. But in fact it was a good thing. The money I saved, I spend the same week on an extra DD9 for the same price. But for a real Walkman collector the magic DD-100 is a must have and a great score, congrats
A new daughterboard for other DDs (except the ones with MegaBass) would be awesome . And repurposing the B audio out as line out too?
The HS-JX705. A high end Aiwa you don't see so often. It's a fully featured model with tuner, recording and a lot of buttons: It has to be one of the highest number of physical buttons portable players out there.
Unfortunately it runs on the proprietary 2V lead acid battery, but it also takes regular battery power through the box. Mine is in very nice shape without any visible damage. The design may not be the cleanest, but it does feel solid and high end to the touch. The sticker "Aiwa's Best Quality" may also contribute to the feeling that we have a high end "subtop" model here. The sticker shows a certain pride. One could also say it insinuates that there's another side of the spectrum where Aiwa didn't show their best, so how would they call those?
