Hello guys!
I have been fascinated by Panasonic walkmans for many years. I have had a number of models, namely SX3/33/71/72/73/75/20/91 and so on. Some were not that good but some were really superb. Smooth, elegant and most importantly, they sounded awesome.
Recently I was tempted at one particualar ebay offer and got the SX3/SX33 models for low price. They werer as good as new but my enthusiasm didn't last long... They both seem to have a problem. The sound is good only the reverse side. the front side sounds terrible. Though they are SX series, technically, they are more similar to older S series than the newest SX models. So okay, I though... they are ready for for the trash can, but I kept them anyway. Then I got an SX20. It is brand new and can you imagine my surprise when I discovered it has the same problem?
Okay, that was that. this far and no further! Now, where is my screwdriver... First a couple of pics so you can get the idea.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42194573@N03/?saved=1(if it doesn't work, just find my profile on flickr - my profile name is tunkika)
To open it up, you must unscrew 6 tiny screws on the top cover. Remember to set the swithes on the unit to the position you will remember. it will make for an easier assembly. I usually swith them all to off or default.
Now you can remove the cover. The pcb is now visible with 2 metal spindles. the right and bigger one is the motor. the smaller one on the left is actually part of the capstan itself.
Take a closer look at the pcb. There are 5 screws you must unscrew first. They are all the same so no problem there. Now, locate the thin film which connects the audio head with the pcb. It is located on the bottom of the pcb, more to the left. it is connected to the pcb in an interesting wy... The pcb itself has a connector so all you have to do is pull the film ozt of the connector. But be careful! It is very thin and can break easily (it happened to me). Hold the film by 2 fingers and gently start pulling it out. It will suddenly break free so be careful!
Okay, now we need to desolder the pcb from the chassis. There are 13 connections in total you have to desolder. 7 of those are right above the motor, 3 are located on the left side of the battery compartment and there are 3 more which are in the top left corner of the pcb.
I suggest you use a good soldering needle and a desoldering pump to remove the melted material.
Pcb actually rests on metal pins on the chassis below the pcb itself and those pins go through the pcb on it's top side. When you start desoldering and the silver melts, you will see them. The position of the pins corresponds to the places where you should desolder the pcb.
Also, the top left pins are soldered in an unusual way but it appears that this is actually better because it makes for an easier taking off the pcb.
Also, do not use any force on the pcb. Take your time. You must desolder the connections in a way that all the pins from the lower chassis are visible on the top of the pcb and especially that the holes the go through on the pcb are visible as well. You should remove the pcb with no trouble.
When I got started with SX33, it took me all day. I disassembled the SX20 in 15 mins.
If you have any questions, please ask
I am not an expert and I have never repaired anything this complex but I have done it. So can you!
Also, I have a question for you guys. If anyone has disassembled the newer SX series or older ones and replaced the belts, I would like to know the dimensions of replacement belts you used.
I like all my things to run smoothly so having a walkman that doesn't work is really not my thing... because I really do listen to music on a cassette walkman when I'm out and I like to use a different one every day
So please, if you know the belts sizes for SX20 or SX75 or any SX walkman, I would appreciate it very much!
i'm glad to here that you go with a different walkman everyday. i do the same thing and i don't care much for ones that are dead. i bought an older panasonic several weeks ago which was supposed to be working well. it was over 40.00 and DOA. i got my money back and the seller said just to keep it. i just threw it in a box with other very dead cassettes. for some reason the electronics were very bad even though the belt is ok. i do have an rq-sx35 which looks fairly new. all the screws are in the sides and i'm glad it is working great. i wish i could help you with the belt sizes but i haven't had to anything go wrong. it does have really great sound and better than most. my guess is you are dealing with those long and very thin belts which are difficult to measure. out of curiousity what are the approximate years of those cassettes you mentioned ?
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.do the same thing and i don't care much for ones that are dead. i bought an older panasonic several weeks ago which was supposed to be working well. it was over 40.00 and DOA. i got my money back and the seller said just to keep it. i just threw it in a box with other very dead cassettes. for some reason the electronics were very bad even though the belt is ok. i do have an rq-sx35 which looks fairly new. all the screws are in the sides and i'm glad it is working great. i wish i could
Hey! Well, here it goes:
SX75 - 98/99 (same as SX35)
SX20 - 97/98
SX3/33 are earlier models and I think 94/95
SX71 - 00/01
SX72 - 01/02
SX73 - 02/03
SX76 - 03/04 Last one that had dolby b nr and was produced by Panasonic
I had a couple more but they were not special in any way. Even some of these weren't. Generally, all Panasonic walkmans after the SX75/35 were scaled down versions and it was obvious in every way the quality was lower. The SX75 can be considered an apex of Panasonic cassette players. Iz had a rewind speed of 45 times which was faster than any cassette deck as far as I know. SX35 is a scaled down version but has the same components, just less features so take good care of it! Everything that came after it was not nearly as good. You mentioned the sound... yeah I agree. Though all the previous series had good SQ, there is something in the sound of the SX35. It was clear, warm and transparent. Actually, imo it betters all the top Sony players such as WM-EX7/9/20 and the 9xx based models (not the 921, was cheap and didn't sound as good).
I never had an SX35 but I had it borrowed for 2 months (I gave her an Aiwa) and I was very impressed by the sound and features. Can you tell me does it have a 45-times access speed? It was really long time ago since I saw one.
i just got it a couple of years ago from the ebay auction usa. it was just about new and came with the remote and i think even the ear buds. i didn't get any info like the owners manuel. it has a neat little battery testor on the front. push the button and it will blink once,twice or 3 times to tell you how the batteries are. it checks either the gumstick,the aa or both together. i use it alot to see how much is left in my gumstick batteries. it has a small white button in the bottom right corner which says " s-bass,,train and dolby nr. . i didn't mention that i do have the side car also. the sound +++ is i think as good as it gets. it's got a tone that is hard to describe,,,as i keep going back to it as it is that good. the base boost makes it even better on some music. i really don't know how fast the rew. and ff. are but it seems quick although i don't use those functions often. there's no radio or really not to many extras,,just really great sound which does beat out a wm-gx670 sony from the same year i believe.
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Originally posted by rerooted:
i just got it a couple of years ago from the ebay auction usa. it was just about new and came with the remote and i think even the ear buds. i didn't get any info like the owners manuel. it has a neat little battery testor on the front. push the button and it will blink once,twice or 3 times to tell you how the batteries are. it checks either the gumstick,the aa or both together. i use it alot to see how much is left in my gumstick batteries. it has a small white button in the bottom right corner which says " s-bass,,train and dolby nr. . i didn't mention that i do have the side car also. the sound +++ is i think as good as it gets. it's got a tone that is hard to describe,,,as i keep going back to it as it is that good. the base boost makes it even better on some music. i really don't know how fast the rew. and ff. are but it seems quick although i don't use those functions often. there's no radio or really not to many extras,,just really great sound which does beat out a wm-gx670 sony from the same year i believe.
Hi! Gan you do me a favour? Can you put a casette in your SX35 and rewind it the beginning. Then press fast forward and start your stopwatch and stop it when the tape reaches the end. For a 60 minute cassette it should fast forward it in about 45 seconds. The rewind time is the same also. Just make sure your gumstick battery is full and do not use an external AA battery. Can you do it for me? I am really interested in that. I was considering of getting it on ebay also but it has to have that feature. I like all my walkmans to have one feature that separates it from the rest.
well that was interesting. it's not really that fast. it took 2 minutes and 15 seconds. off the top of my head that would be around a speed of 25 X...i used the 60 minute tape also, so there was no mistake. the tape also usually has a little extra so it would be slightly better than that.
just for fun i did my sony wm-gx670 to the test.it was a good bit faster at 1 minute 55 seconds. it was a full 20 seconds faster to go from start to finish. i used the same sony battery for both tests. it was a used sony NH-14WM. the battery was as fully charged as i could get it. so if it took one minute it would be 60X. so 2 minutes would be 30X.
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e test.it was a good bit faster at 1 minute 55 seconds. it was a full 20 seconds faster to go from start to finish. i used the same sony battery for both tests. it was a used sony NH-14WM. the battery was as fully charged as i could get it. so if it took one minute it would be 60X. so 2 minutes would be 30X.
Hmm. You have to take into account that the tape has two sides, each 30mins long. So if it took 2minutes, 30/2=15 which is the rewind time. So SX35 has 15x access speed! But thanks for the information! At least now we know the SX75 has obviously some kind of circuit inside which enables the motor to achieve a speed of 45x. One point of interest is that all modern SX series have twin-rotor motor in fact. It doesn't mean the motor has 2 rotoos but the rotor has separate magnetic coils. For instance, the motor can have 6 coils along it's axis but only 3 are used at a time. the other 3 can be bigger and if they are activated, the motor will run faster. This is actually a very old technology. All modern industrial motors have frequency converters which enable the motor to run at any desired spped. Those motors are brushless and use the principle of magnetic induction between the rotor and the stator. So no physicval contact except on the bearings and it also means longer motor service life. But I guess, for a walkman, an ordinary motor is satisfying.
thanks for analizing the results. now more people know how bad i am at math. of course it has 2 sides to make up the entire 60 seconds. it always was my worst subject. i guess, for one think, the motors will probably be one of the last things to fail. the exception being that some are locked up from lack of use for a quarter century and probably certain environments probably contribute also. i knew from reading somewhere that the sony was one of the fastest made in the 2000'ish production. VERY COOL,,AND INTERESTING....
