Well first of all, hi guys this is my first post on the site. I've been on the Tapeheads forums for two summers and since I just bagged myself my first portable cassette player from the bay, I thought it would only be logical to sign up here as you guys seem to have an awful lot more knowledge about these things.

From what I've learnt, the model in the title was one of the top Aiwa players during the mid-90s, and while it doesn't have Dolby C like the PX410, the body is all metal and the auto-reverse switch isn't concealed behind the battery compartment. In terms of the chassis its basically a facelift of the HS-P705 from 1992, the only real difference being that it has the electronics to operate the remote on the included earphones, and obviously the cosmetics. Mine is in pretty neat condition for its age, judging from the batteries installed when I got it it can't have been used for more than a few years.

However, like most Aiwa's from this period the capacitors have basically gone and leaked, it still works put only up to a certain volume and then the sound becomes all crackly. Could use a headphone preamp but I'd still get a lot more hiss than if I were to replace them, so I'd rather do that instead. I am clueless how I'm going to go about this, I have virtually no experience in soldering so I'm dead worried I'm going to wreck the unit somehow, maybe I'll practise on a cheap micro hifi which isn't worth as much IMO (I still use such a thing for my main stereo system and it has become a bottleneck in terms of sound quality, it lets all my separates sources down and the only thing holding back an upgrade to an amp is cash). Also, the choice between electrolytic, tantalum or polymer...I don't want to have another leak but I want better sound quality, and I can't find any info on other types of cap that might meet both those requirements. From what I've heard tantalums are the exact opposite of electrolytics, good reliability but poor sound. So if anyone could guide me in the right direction in terms of capacitors I'd be really grateful, learn a ton of stuff that I could use for future repairs as well.

The mechanism seems good but I'll probably replace the belt, I can hear faint W&F on some playbacks. The motor also seems to run a bit slow, perhaps a semitone lower in terms of pitch. There's got to be some sort of knob on the PCB though to adjust the speed though, so I'm not too worried about that. In terms of servicing it shouldn't be as difficult as for example the JX707, primarily because you haven't got a tuner and ICS to contend with, just the bare cassette player part, which is all I wanted anyway.

I intended to keep this description pretty short, but I got carried away. Regardless I would like to guide you in the direction of this thread, which in terms of info is pretty similar but there might have been something that I neglected to mention here.

Thanks anyway and, incase you didn't notice my avatar, love and tolerate.

Hello Paspie and welcome to this forum.

I am sorry to burst your bubble. However the PX610 is actually a very cheap unit churned out by AIWA. You will notice since you have taken apart the unit that there are some letters screen printed on the PCB. That's right it says HS-PL77. The PX610 is actually based on the original PL77, which itself was a pretty basic player, however it had an extra feature over the PX610, a battery indicator on the door panel.

The PX610 shares a common method of entry like all the other AIWAs of that type. ie you will need a soldering iron to gain access to the drive belt and the affected capacitors. Seeing you say you have virtually no experience of using a soldering iron, then I would suggest you refrain from testing your skills on it until you master at least the basics.

I actually do own a few PX610 and I use them mainly to farm off parts from. They sell for next to nothing in Japan and are best used for the parts to repair more rarer/valuable units such as PX1000 or JX707. This is a mod I did with the playback head from one to replace a worn head on a JX707.

index.php?board_oid=193392314111653483&content_oid=225482136282279660

If you are looking for capacitors then check the link below:

index.php?board_oid=193392314111653483&content_oid=217178235650847317

Putting HS-PL77 into Google Image surprisingly gives many results. However here is an example of one in red

When I say cheap, what I mean is that when AIWA designed this unit, it was very low cost and thus postioned very low on their model range. Next to no development has been done in producing it as it is a cobbled together unit from various other more expensive older models. What you have to understand is that AIWA at the time was in serious financial trouble. They had just been bailed out by their arch-rival Sony. Sony understandably would want AIWA to continue producing walkmans at the lowest cost, and also at a technical level much below theirs to prevent loss of sales and prestige from Sony's own range.

The PX410 is completely different from the PX610. It is based on a really old P505, hence the strange mix of manual rewind/fast forward and the logic controlled playback on it. The original P505 was an all metal case, but the engineers in doing away with the external battery clip were able to substitute the plastic back for the new case of the PX610.

There are better units than the PX610 out there. Have a look on this forum and you will see many more better models than it. Perhaps you will want to upgrade to one of them.

That PL77 looks great in red. While it (PX610) is a low-end model, it is worth saving. You can practice replacing the caps on another cheaper basic machine first.

Like plop said there are several points on the board to desolder to access the caps and belt, some of which (solenoid) can be very fragile. You will need to learn to desolder with a wick and remove surface mount capacitors. I used to do the twist and pull method, (still do in some cases) however I have replaced it with a less risky method of using two irons to heat up both legs at the same time, which gets the cap off in less than a second.

I actually rather like the Px410 mechanism simply because of its reliability and stability, even though it is another low end "semi-logic" model.

The PL77 was indeed repackaged for export from Japan, the export version was the PL777. It was certainly very low end but not the lowest of the 0ZM tape transport line at the time with lead acid battery. It was bettered by the PL70 (PL707) which had an  updated but older alpha tape transport instead of the horrid newer 0ZM transport and the PL70 had BBE too. The PL77 did better the P705 with the inclusion of a battery level indicator.

The PX610 was created later to satisfy a demand for more units from AIWA during a the time of it's decline, and you could say is a quick and simple re-hash of the P705. It would have been one of the last of the models to have come out with the lead acid battery before AIWA went over to the NiMH batteries.