hello to all of you I own these two units. both suffer from ageing centre gear and potentially old capacitors. I like them both but need advice: if you had to choose between the two, which one will, once fully restored provide the best sound quality (head & electronics)? I can only compare the two in their current state, and this would be misleading as not reflecting their full potential. Please exclude the presence of Dolby in the equation. Additionally, how, once restored, would they compare to a Aiwa PC202 (I have 2 of them) thanks very much for your enlightening antoine
I would say go for F5 to get some experience. They need almost same amount of work. but DDII is a more valuable walkman compare to F5. so practice on F5 first and once you fix F5 then fixing DDII will be piece of cake in comparison to AIWA PC202 : changing belt on this model AIWA is considered easy work. accessing to belt mechanism for installation is easy. but if you have to change the capacitors on this model then you need to spend more time compare to F5 or DDII Basically its easy to change belt on AIWA PC202 in comparison to a moderate work and time needed to change central gear on DD walkman. But its easier to change capacitors in DD walkman compared to Aiwa walkman PC202
as for my experiance i disagree to Boodokhan, the F5 should have other issues as the movement and centre-gear are same as Wm-2 or Wm-5 and those do not suffer from cracking centre-gears (at least none of mine do and i have quite a few). the F5 is a pain in the a**e to open without damaging all those little screw-covers (besides that i personally dislike it because it‘s too bulky for me). one thing is for sure: you can‘t compare either Dd or F5 with an Aiwa Pc202 - two complete different pair of shoes and two complete different Walkman- eras...
thanks to both of you I completely get the point of the aiwa to be completely different and not comparable on a technical standpoint. I also understand that the F5 is more complicated to work on and more bulky But I am still unclear about sound quality: - once i have restored the sonys should i expect to sound better / similarly / worse than the aiwa (Assuming it is a full restoration, including capacitors)? - what about DDII vs F5 SQ once at their best ? thanks again
OK, last question: to replace the central gear, is desoldering mandatory or can one manage to dismantle the mechanism while keeping all wires in place ? Thanks
if you have done the job before you might manage it without soldering but it's easier to unsold the wires to the battery-department
desoldering is required for changing central gear in DD series. There are different spot that you can desolder to free the main board to expose the movement part, Easiest one is to desolder 3 wires from head. the reason I recommend you to work on F5 before touching your DD is, F5 is cheaper than DD walkman. If your F5 is yellow or black , practice on F5 since these 2 colors are cheap and always available. If you do not have experience with changing central gear you might not be able to get your DD walkman to full working condition. So be very careful when you disassemble any DD walkman. There are parts that you might lose during the process.
I have restored many DD and F5 before. The original center gear of DD series is almost certainly cracked. The original F5 center gear may or may not be cracked (50-50). F5 is a bit tricky to open but manageable. If you are prepared to replace the center gear, DD is a good bet. If not, bet on F5.
