Hello all, I do hope it's OK to introduce myself with such a post, sincere apologies if not! So this is my first post in this wonderful forum.

I've been owning several walkmans over the years, starting with a Fisher (I think it was a PH S250? It played cassettes and radio, that's all) that I didn't like at all at the time. So after having collected enough money, which took about years, I could offer myself a Panasonic  RX-SA77 of which I have fond memories. It sounded really good as far as I can remember, though it was a little big. I gave it to a friend after having bought new stuff.

By that time, my mother had bought an AIWA HS J101 that I have always found really very nice. I should soon ask her if she still uses it, as I know she kept it in absolute mint condition ;-) .

I bought an AIWA HS JX505 with my first summer-job salary, and I still have it, though I'm in the process of changing the internal battery and the caps (as the sound is now totally awful... the acid indeed has leaked and crusted, but it seems to not have damaged the pcb yet. I will be more sure about it when I will have un-soldered the caps, but I will only do it when I have ordered and received new ones). Strangely enough, the belt is still perfectly OK. Fortunately, it's an early model with the bi-azimuth stuff. Unfortunately, the leg of the right joint (right of the head and capstans) is broken.

Some ten years ago, one could easily find interesting offers on Ebay and I was able to find a nice HS JX101 of which I had always dreamt, and it still works perfectly apart of the belt I need to change. It could do also with a new internal battery. Since I have it, I always felt the sound was quite flat, and I wouldn't be surprised if the mediums were in fact a bit more present than the bass an trebles... It could also be that I'm too familiar with the good BBE sound of the JX505. I opened it to be sure about the belt and the caps, and apparently there is no problem with any cap.

I also had found an HS JX707, which at that time was still perfectly working. But now it also needs new caps (though they didn't leak), new belt and new internal battery (the ic logic is quite mad with over-drained battery: the other day I heard the voice-in-it saying "TV sound", though it's a 707 so it shouldn't have ever said such a thing! ;-) ). In fact I had started to open it before I was aware of stero2go to even exist, and so I didn't know Plop's excellent threads... I was able to understand alone that I had to unsolder the four points of the motor, and the two points of the recording solenoid, but I didn't know the two points of the playback solenoid and I clearly trashed it :-( . The two pins are still soldered to the pcb, they have left the corpse of the solenoid. I don't know if I will be able to repair it.

Next thing for me is to order new caps for all those beasts, and new belts. I already ordered new internal batteries.

Welcome Ball000 !

You sure know your walkmans !

Thank you deech! 

For what it's worth (though I understand it's not the right topic)... I forgot to speak about my boombox: it's a JVC PC-X200. Well... After about twenty years of good service, it's still used almost every day because it sounds a lot better than my TV set (no home cinema here yet), and surprisingly the line-out also acts as a line-in when the source selector is put to CD, so I can use it to listen to whatever I want. The 3D hyper-bass sound does provide a really good sound imho, reasonably featured with bass as long as the volume doesn't need to be set too high, and it can be tweaked with the equalizer. But it will need some love some day: the lights for the LCDs aren't working anymore, and the CD player fails to read any CD (not a problem with the line-in tweak). The cassette part is still very efficient, with this incredible autoreverse system that I have not seen anywhere else (not that I pretend to know a lot about those systems... here the whole head mounting rotates itself in a lightning, allowing the azimuth to be good in either way).

About walkmans, if ever my finances allow me in the coming months, I think I'll try to find a HS-PX303 (or a PX101, not sure yet) and a HS-G08. Well let's first finish the repairing of what I have got already!

yep. just think that our favorite reading is "the system of dr. tarr and prof. fether" by edgar allan... 

http://poestories.com/read/systemoftarr

Thank you retro and samovar! :-)

I didn't think about lunacy on my side until yet indeed... Though my wife would probably argue... But she'd better not, as I could think about tarr and feather now ;-)

Hi Ball000 and welcome here. You have some of the most interesting walkmans from AIWA. We love to see photos of them so post some when you wish :-)

That JVC boomer is quality.

Welcome to s2g ball000  

Thank you Walkman Archive and isolator42!

Here are some pics I made while dismantling the beasts... I'm a bit ashamed of them now that I saw yours! And man, that's incredible how dust shows itself on photos! They're not at their best there, really!

Let's start with the JX101:

And now the JX505:

And then the JX707:

Welcome to S2Go Ball000!

Thank you Brutus442! :-)

You surely heard that hundred times, but I did have the same turntable in your avatar when I was a child, with those colored disks too. Fischer Price IIRC? Time flies!

Welcome to one of the best sites on the internet Ball000

It's still the centre piece of my HI FI 

welcome aboard Ball000.

Thank you santos75 and driptip! :-)

OK so I finally ordered and received replacing caps. I have then un-soldered previous ones, and there was only one that hadn't leaked. So I had to clean the pcb and I did my best. Though I must have not been careful enough, and a little chip left the pcb unexpectedly. I have made photos during the cleaning/soldiering process and I'll post them soon, but I can't here and yet. I am not skilled at all in electronics, and I don't know what the name of the chip is, nor its purpose. And BTW I wasn't able so far to find JX505 service manual. So I'm using one of my previous photos to show the little chip in question, in the hope that someone will be able to explain:

But alas I tried to re-solder it, and it was a bad dirty failure... Now I know I won't be able to repair it myself, so I'll need to send it to one of our skilled fellows here.

I have now reassembled the walkman and it proudly shows the time, thanks to the new battery (at least this part of the work went well). But unfortunately and as expected, it's all it does, and actually it doesn't work at all, none of the buttons/switch has any effect. I'm not even sure if the chip I trashed is the culprit (was it related to the commands logic?), as there could also be disrupted traces somewhere.

Sorry to hear about the problem Ball000. I'd fire off a Dialog (top right corner of page) to either Dottor Walkman or Retrodos.

Either way you're in great hands.

Keep us posted !

Yeah thank you Brutus442 for your kind words. I'll do that soon, but before I'd like to know if I can go anywhere alone with the JX707 (needs a new belt, a new battery, and some love about the problem of the solenoid I trashed): I'll have to send either one, or two walkmans! :-/

And I'd really like to know more about the chip in question... After some googl'ing I guess it could be an opto-isolator but I am not sure at all. And in fact I'd like to know why it's there.

At least the JX101, while it's the oldest of the three, really seems to only need a new belt...