Hello folks,

I am based in Leicester, UK and having read the brilliant articles regarding leaking capacitors and re-capping them I decided to try to resurrect my ancient HS PL300 which for my ears produced the best sound that I have ever heard from a personal machine of any format. Certainly the later PX747 was not even close!It only needed caps; even the belt was still as good as new!

I established that the layout and cap values of the PL300 were the same as the PL303 and ordered a set (plus a set of spares) from Digi-Key and a couple of days later had a go.

It would be fair to say that after a few hours I realised that ; a) My eyesight was not good enough, and an appointment at the Optician was arranged. b)My nice temperature controlled soldering iron had too large a tip for this delicate work. c) The solder points on the PCB are too flimsy for my ham fisted approach.

Bottom line: Fail. Very sad.

I have just bought an HS-P303 (mechanical controls) and it is as new. It is a complete boxed package and does not appear to have been used. A snip at £26 I thought! The motor runs silently and perfectly and reverses sweetly but as I expected, the sound output on the right channel is weak so It will almost certainly need re-capping.

The question is; Is there anyone in the UK that could do this job for me? I dearly want another machine to use and enjoy but I don't want to wreck a mint machine like i did my pride and joy.

Any guidance would be hugely appreciated.

Nick

It's a shame, hopefully you can find another PL board to replace your dead one. These old Aiwa boards are rather fragile and I've torn traces in my learning stage as well.

I do experience quite a challenge as well..as expected over age of 40, I couldn't perform repairing on my walkman without a pair of long sighted spectacle. 

Is Retrodos in the UK?

No. He is in Ohio USA.  I think.

Thanks. I will keep him in mind if I can't find anyone in the Uk.

Have you ever gotten your Walkman recapped and by whom?

yeah, what happened to that guy?  last logged in about 7-8 months ago.  Funny how the 2nd most prolific poster just vanishes.

Asked myself the same. Plop has so much knowledge. Also the first guy that welcomed me here I miss him.