What is the difference between all the AIWA Compo Boxes?

By looking at the catalog pages, they were sold ala carte, basically you were buying the mini-compo system, and the box, if you wanted to make it portable. It looks like the two units on the first page were different year models, the smaller CS-5 and the larger CS-9. There's confusion because sometimes they're labeled with the part number for the case (CB-20 is the large case, and CB-1 seems to be the smaller case). It looks like the speakers with the square tweeter are the basic models and the speakers with the round openings are the upgrade option. There's very few photos on the net of the small box with the round speakers but I think I've seen some.

The most popular option is the battery case that you have Patron, the CS-5 on the first page has a plastic plate in the slot where that battery box would go, the other options would be an EQ or a preamp, with the preamp being more popular, the eq's never show up for sale. I'm crossing my fingers that hopefully I'll know a lot more in a week...

 

Here's a photo of the large box with a preamp, the other options would be an eq or battery pack. It must be around 50 lbs when fully loaded.

 

This one has the battery pack and the preamp, it has to weigh a ton! And look at the price in the corner....3000 yen, that's like $30.00 USD. The Japanese don't go after these units like the rest of the world does.

 

It looks like the battery pack isn't as "finished" on the larger unit. The CB-20 Case fully encloses the units when closed and looks more like a soft-side case compared to the smaller CB-1 Case. I think AIWA called their late 70's high end boomboxes "Compo" because they were as close to a real stereo component system you could get with a portable unit.

 

One of the things I like about walkmans and boomboxes is that the designers were not afraid to try any combination. I have to believe the guys at AIWA were saying "how do we make this portable?" and they made up the flight boxes and battery packs to make it possible. All of these units from the different brands seem to be at the high-end of the boombox lineups. There's some old threads that discuss these a little more but the actual boxes are few and far between.

 

In 1981 the "My Pace" Series replaced the Compos. There's no portability options in the catalog but the wire basket is an interesting option and I have to believe extremely rare. Here's a YouTube Video of the catalog. I have a partial My Pace 80 System and can vouch for the more delicate components.

 

One is in, I just got it a few days ago! Number two is coming on Wednesday! I'm starting to get busy with work again so I haven't been as active. I bought the big CB-20 in the first photo, it's really 50 lbs and it doesn't have a battery pack or separate preamp. I'm also trying to move/store some of my boxes as I'm running out of room.

 

So I went all in and bought both AIWA Compos; this is the first photo together and I've done zero cleaning or maintenance. This may be the only photo of these two units together on the internet, unfortunately the photo is not high quality.

I bought the big CS-9 here in the US and the smaller CS-5 came from Japan, both of these units are just under 50 lbs each. My mule from Japan brought the CS-5 over in a hard shell suitcase, he said they throw a lot of stuff out in Japan as they like everything to be shiny and new and if it gets scratched or old they throw it out. He found the suitcase on the curb for trash pickup and it was the perfect size for the smaller Compo. One of my biggest questions was the size of these units, the larger AIWA CS-9 is 30" across, the smaller AIWA CS-5 is 24" across. The closeness in the weight is due to the case construction, the smaller CS-5 has a hard case, 3/4" of plywood with plastic protection. The larger unit has a case made with thinner wood? and covered with pleather. It has nice stitching around the edges and straps that button up the front and back. The antenna is wound through the case cover while the CS-5 has a dual more traditional telescoping antenna.

The internal stereo components are not interchangeable with the cases, the components in the smaller CS-5 are 2" tall, while the larger CS-9 are 3" tall. The speakers are upside down on one of the units and they can be easily flipped but the speaker wire is too short so that will be first on the detailing list. They both work but they look like they haven't had use in years, the Japanese Unit has the smaller FM dial but it still pulls in stations really well. I'll try to get some more photos when I get these cleaned up.

 

Thanks Patron! The little one like yours is 100v, I bought one of those 120v to 100v wall warts recommended in another thread for $24.00 USD so it works fine on home power. I don't have the awesome battery pack so mine are portable but they do need to be plugged in. My components do not have the zero on the part number so the amp is an "A1" instead of "A10" that must have to do with the voltage? and I only have the smaller Japanese FM Band on the little unit.

One of the bonuses with the larger CS-9 Unit is the huge strap that you can barely see in the photo. The strap is barely used but must have been a welcome addition for the guys that did want to lug these around.

 

Did you get that huge stack that had everything on the bay?