We could all club together and collectively buy a roll of 1000 pieces for each required size in the MVS series and split them amongst ourselves

Regarding the JX505 and the 2V caps, yes I did find that it was a tight squeeze to get them in, but nowhere as bad as some AIWA models I have seen. For those models lacking in space, an alternate approach is required to shoehorn the replacement capacitor in.

@bub - Regarding Element14, I found out that their main warehouse is based in Singapore, which more than likely accounts for the free shipping. 7% tax is nothing. We pay 20% here for virtually all sales.

@Cosmos99 - So now that you've replaced the capacitors how much of a difference has it made to the audio on your JX303? In terms of sound quality on capacitors, it is quite a subjective experience. However given that there is such a limited range of capacitors available in the sizes needed, it may be difficult to do any true comparisons from make to the next.

Yes a group order would be fine why not ?

Well , about my JX303 , i've already done just a part of the job , swapping the two longs caps that were in the PB3 area with those new tiny caps ,it now looks better even if all was inside and hidden and i no longer use those PB3,also changed the big vertical cap that had leaked all over the board,and a good cleaning with baking soda(i've forgotten to brush) but i have used a small paintbrush then dishwashing soap and some bathing , i managed to do this without desoldering the flexible cables , i wasn'y confident to do so... In term of sound quality , i gain deeper basses especially with DSl activated.Later i'll change the other caps and tell but actually the sound is pretty good ,yet it wasn't that bad before but i wouldn't have imagined how dangerous leaked acid was , thanks again for the good advices and help ! Now waiting new belts for my lovely JX849 wich is an excellent combo too , you loose the HX head ,a bit of tuner sensitivity but you win a better sound ,say a different sound, more aggressive ,i love both anyway.I really wonder why i had found "my" JX505 so bad ? May be it had issues with something but it sounded like a $10 walkman ,i remember telling me that this was the end of Aiwa quality , going smaller and smaller but going worst too.This was not cap issue  ,almost i don't think so since i bought it new at its release. I will try to get one to see. There is another one that i'd like to put my hands on ,it as a nice desingn , the JX869 series(879/899) ,see how nice it is:

http://www.5bcl.com/Article/Class14/200903/3155.html

Sound is better , now i'm sure !I wonder if it would again improve if i change the other ones ?

Some caps changed , the big horizontal and the two next to the PB3 battery holder , originally smaller 2v replaced by 4v , see ,exactly same size than the original 4v laying here.It requires to be placed properly to fit.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-...somecapschanged.jpg/

Perfect closing !

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-...60/itcloseswell.jpg/

Better looking board isnt'it ?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-...boardandnewcaps.jpg/

Say hello to friends !

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-.../sayhellolil303.jpg/

Back view

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/560/303back.jpg/

A nice pouch for protection.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-...es/600/303pouch.jpg/

the remote

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-...s/842/303remote.jpg/

Let's see what we have inside:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-...s/831/303inside.jpg/

Fun but i find less difference now with the JX-849 ! those simply sounds different.

I just realized I had a JX303 derivative, a JL303 lying at the bottom of my parts stack! I forgot about this little guy for quite a while, as I remember I broke a trace trying to change a cap on it a long time ago. It is very similar to your unit, except a different lid with an analog instead of digital radio. I'm going to try to restore it and see how great it sounds.

You seem to really like the JX-849 series. Perhaps then you would be interested to see my collection of Aiwas from that series, and the differences in each model.

The JL303 was surely sold in Asia only ,it was not in the french catalog ,i discovered it a few days ago in the japanese catalog.I don't know how does it compare on the radio side but you can try a tape , although i remember my J08 to have an excellent analog tuner.

I didn't knew there was a "series" for the JX849 , yes i'd be greatly interested to see! One thing i'd like to know too is each JX models with year and eventually the area where it was sold.I include the J08 because it's the first with logic controls ,wich was the last ? The JXM2000 ?

By the way ,how to remove the surface mount caps ? I'm not too confident with hot air in this case , the board is very thin , lots of plastic parts almost everywhere , small parts to the back could easily drop... any idea ? I suppose gently with my iron , pulling it up side by side with patience ?

@cosmos

Repairing and restoring my early 90s AIWA has helped me rediscover just how amazing AIWA were at producing these wonderful machines at the peak of their achievements back then.

The later models such as the JX849 and JX869 are more Sony and much less AIWA. I salute you for championing them all the same. However if you were to sample more of the AIWA from the early 90s you'd never want look forward to the AIWA/Sony models again. By the mid 90s AIWA was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony and no longer innovating merely borrowing secondhand tech from Sony.

@bub

Don't worry. I think that guy in USA will be trying to sell his boxed JXM2000 again on eBay soon at the ridiculous price of ~$888 USD. So you will have another chance

Edit :

I found his latest attempt to mug someone off on ePay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBa...mp;item=120756234180

To replace surface mount capacitors there are two trains of thought.

1. Lever off the metal cans and desolder the legs.

2. Heat the solder pads and lift off.

I have employed both methods and in both cases the copper traces have lifted off. This is not due to carelessness, but because the glue bonding the copper trace to the PC board is usually weakened by the acid.

If you decide to heat them off with a soldering iron, you will usually need to apply more solder to melt the lead as most of the tin will have oxidised raising the melting point.

I like the 849 bio-design and colour, that changes a bit of the black design they used for years. I still see a high tech. design inside a 849 yet i'm not too familiar with Sony walkmans.I don't know them all(of course) but never heard one that would satisfy me ,as you can see i'm a JX enthusiast and i'm pretty sure there's no equivalent(as good-as slim-as what you want) in any other brand.

Do you consider the JX869 to be part of the JX849 series ? It's not at all the same design. It's like if you would consider the JX505 to be the sampe lineup as the JX303 ,yet those have common points ,but i would consider the 505 successor to the 303 and so on. The 869/879/899 have the same design with a few changes like a backlit remote on later models.

This is what i usually did before i bought an hot air station.I managed to remove leaked caps this way on a NEC Turboduo without damaging the board.

Why do you like specifically the JX type? Do you do a lot of recording on a portable tape recorder? The JX was to primarily denote the ability to record.

I originally had an AIWA T06 (I think), but I missed having the radio so I sold it as I did not have many cassettes then. I then fell in love with my ultra compact J101, I used that everyday I was in school but that was very fragile and eventually it broke. In fact it broke so many times I got bored sending it to the AIWA workshop. I then got a JX707. I used it everyday in college it too eventually broke. By then I stopped listening to music by headphones as I had a car and a stack hifi. But I never got over the loss of my JX707 so I bought my first of many second hand JX707 on eBay. Then I got into AIWA Dolby C walkman, The more I delved into top end AIWA walkman from early 90s the more I wanted to hear from other models and that is how my collection has grown.

I have since come to realise that although AIWA made many models some with all the bells and whistles, the ones with the bells and whistles were in reality not the best that AIWA had to offer. They were all rounders. Even the mighty JX707 has its shortcomings. The recording AIWA are actually pretty rubbish at recording, especially when you compare them to a Sony WM-D6C. The playback from a recording model is good, but not as good as some of AIWA's player only models such as the legendary PX101, PX303 or PX505.

I agree that most Walkmans are terrible recorders (most cannot even record on type2/4), the only truly good recorder is the D6C. My T06 has a radio. I actually prefer non-recorders as well, but most of the Aiwas I come across are from the JX series.

Sadly by the time the later Aiwas were released, cassette as a medium was a dying technology, so even if Aiwa stayed independent, the likes of the older machines like the 707 will never be seen again.

I will consider the 869 and such the same family as your 849. This series all share the same heads/transport, the differences being mostly cosmetic or features like LCD screen design, type of battery accepted, presence of a radio, Jazz/Pop/Rock EQ, and in your 849's case, the addition of BBE. I do not think it is a Sony design though.

$888 ?!? Why not $666...

Someone here catched this one ?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230656913935?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Look at a 899(869/879) here :

http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=jasminok&logNo=105996023&redirect=Dlog&widgetTypeCall=true

To my opinion there is a lot of differences with the 849 ,the few things those may share is the chassis ,the bio design and surely the tape transport. The board is really different , the board now features the lcd screen ,the remote connector , the battery pack connectors...

Why am i stucked to combo walkmans ? Well i've always been , at the time i used tapes as all of us ,i only use them today for FM recordings ,i still listen a lot to FM ,and the record feature is welcome. Sure the record feature is not as good as my hifi system but not too bad and stays enjoyable ,sure it sounds better played those walkmans.To be honest i mostly used my Aiwa(s) now and since years ago as a portable radio but i'm glad playing a tape sometimes.

What do you think about the PX1000 ? This is the player i'd like to buy if i would buy a single player.I've heard good things about it.

Same family or not ?

Same tape transport. IMO arguably one of the best tape transports that AIWA ever made for their walkmans. One picture features the earlier bi-azimuth head assembly, the other - a newer fixed azimuth. Used on all their high and top end models in the late 80s and early 90s.

If you look carrefully at the JX869 series , it's only one board including the tuner now.I suppose it's slimmer.

Yup, 3 of my units in this series uses a second board for the tuner while one places the tuner board on the door. That 869 also has an improvement over the 849 as it uses all brass flywheels.

I've just opened my JL303 and had a peek inside as well. Very similar to your JX303, the board is nearly identical. I will consider it the same family and era as the 505, I also have a couple other Aiwas that use this 505 transport, such as an RX705.I hope to get my JL303 fixed up and see how good it sounds.

As for the 849/869 series, I have been digging out my machines and one of them already has a similar mainboard as your 849, the only difference being that some of the chips are mounted on the other side. It is an RX748. I'll try to find the rest.

I'll post the photos later, and when I'm done recapping I will compare it to my 505, so indirectly you can compare your JX303 to a 505 as well.

I am most certain that once your JX303 is fully cleaned and re-capped, it should sound much better than your 849. (Or the rest of the Aiwas from this series for that matter). You may very well be surprised!

While I have not started work on the JL303 yet I have a photo of the board now. The difference seems to be a narrow flex cable (after all, mine has an analog radio on the door). Otherwise identical.

This board will also need a good clean. I have located a trace I broke causing loss of sound from the right channel (this is one of the first units I worked on, so soldering experience was a bit crap). This will need to be fixed, as well as a complete capacitor change. The audio levels are low and there is a a lot of motor hum. With a good fix it should work great. The exterior case is in great condition, but not as nice looking as your Jx303 or the 505.

And without that flash reflection it would surely look like better.

When you'll be inside don't hesitate to take a shot !

These are very similar indeed !

It's the daylight- I almost never use flash. I'll also be getting pictures of the exterior so you could compare it to yours.

I was talking about mine.

Read first post !

There is also this fine guide index.php?board_oid=193392314111653483&content_oid=217178235650847317

I have all these caps. The values i require are for the micro smd's.

These don't usually fail, unless something really catastrophic has happened to the unit in question, or someone has removed them not knowing what values they were in the first place.

Thay have been damadged by acid leakage. There values are no longer visible. I ordered a manual from manuals in pdf.com and they sent me a user manual. These people are numbskulls. Truth is, they didn't have the service manual and tried to fob me off with a user manual which i already have. $16-18 is a rip off for a manual in the first place.

Can you locate them on a photo please ? May be i have a photo on which we can see the values or next time i open mine i'll take some closer photos of them.

edit: may be you want a photo of them all ? Yet show me exactly what you need ,i suppose all those with a value on it ?

Thank you my friend. My JX-303 is away being repaired. I really need the service manual, which i have ordered again. This i can then forward to the person who is repairing the unit for me. I think i may have been harsh on manuals-in-pdf.com. I may well have ordered the wrong manual myself.

Also, if anyone requires a service manual for a JX-3000/3000D/707 please send me your email address and i will forward the manual to you.

I think it's a better option ,shooting those tiny things requires a good camera.

Bad news- mine is quite dead. After a full cleaning and re-cap, there is still a ridiculous amount of motor hum and even the radio does not work. I think I've got to let mine sit for now.

Bad news indeed. Surely some electronic parts somewhere ,sure it remains too complicated to locate.

New shots of my JX303 without flash.

I have just managed to bag myself this today. Will let you all know what I think of it when it arrives.

Nice catch ! Where did you get this ? Ebay ?

It's another purchase from Japan.

Guess what's arrived in the mail today ??? 

A boxed JX303?

No! A JX505 !!!

Well forgive me, this is a thread on the JX303.

If you've got a JX505, then start a new thread to discuss that.

Is it a boxed one, or is it the one from Germany that you were previously expecting? How does it sound?

Yes this is the one from Germany ,unboxed ,it sounds good but more very soon.I'll talk about it in the right thread OK.

Then Plop , have you received that nice JX30 ?

It is still in Japan, as I had a couple other walkman to add to the shipment. Still waiting for a final price from my contact there.

@cosmos

I received my boxed JX30 on Monday. On initial inspection it played ok, but there were a few tell tale signs that there were problems.

Upon opening the JX30, it was obvious that there were some problems with the electrolytic capacitors. The capacitors were all checked and all the faulty ones replaced. I've also replaced the memory battery and cleaned the clutch plate too as the pick up reel was not spooling tapes correctly. I'll start a new full "restoration thread" for the JX30 when I have the chance later this week.

The sound on the JX30 is very good, quite like the JL303 I previously listened to. The radio tuner is very sensitive to weak stations.

The JX30 (Japanese model of JX303) was bought from Japan. I have a contact there who is able to get me the walkmans that I want. I will be eternally grateful to them for some of the finds that have come up.

The JX30 is a nice walkman, but IMHO AIWA made even better ones from that period of time.

Interesting point : the door of the JX30 has plastic frame with a metal centre. The JX505 has a similar design logic, but the composition is reversed with the plastic in the centre. The reason for the plastic I believe is to allow the AM antenna to receive a signal. I prefer my AIWA with the metal backs and metal doors such radio models include the JX505, JL303, JL505, and RL50.