Hello there ! In the open market of my country they give away walkmans almost for free, I paid 5 Euros for all. From top to bottom : Walkman Panasonic RQ-P44 Vintage Sony WM-FX413 Sony-walkman-wm-ex180 Sony-Digital-Tuning-FM-AM-Radio-Cassette-Tape-Walkman-WM-FX271-M Sony Walkman WM-FX251 I have created a poll, which one should I repair / refurbish and use as my main one ? Thank you !
Not the "holy grails" of Walkmans, I would start with the one which has the cleanest pinchrollers: if left at Play when discarded these get a dent from capstan pressure. Then check which one has a set of new belts available. Then pray that recap is not too difficult!!
These walkmans are considered as basic walkmans as Jorge mentioned. As a general rule Sony walkmans are easier to repair (AIWAs and PNASONICs are more difficult ) So start with one of Sony walkman and you will learn more once you start working on them My best recommendation is to look at service manual when you decide to work on any walkman.
recap means the exchange of all capacitors it might sound very rude, but i.m.e.for those 5 units above it's a waist of time
recap means removing the old capacitors from main board and replace them with new capacitors. It need excellent level of expertise to recap a small component like walkmans for certain type like SMDs There are some topic in the forum that explains about capacitors and @bub has excellent experience and expertise when it comes to recapping.
Those may be low end units, but are worth practicing soldering, recapping or working on before you try a more valuable, complicated model.
Thank you so much for the feedback ! I have done recap work in different stuff, the problem for me is to acquire correct belts and open the sensitive walkmans without breaking them. I want only to hear cassettes (no need for a radio), do you believe that the combo walkman solutions have inferior audio quality compared to only-cassette players ? Also what is a "pinchroller" ?
With a bit of luck, those walkman's will not require recapping, they seems to be fairly "recent" after the dark age of failing capacitors. What might make things difficult is that those walkman's were not meant to be repaired: to save the costs of screws, very likely they are hold together with clips and hooks. Either you know where to press and have the right tools or they will break. Once you have them open, if the pinch-roller is in good shape and there is not a tons of dust and dirt inside, a new belt is all that is required.
Al least Sony in the low/mid ranges designed a common walkman's tape section and then release two models, with or without FM tuner. The FM tuner itself is typically housed in the cassette lid so that the two models have the most common parts. Of course for the price of a mid range model with tuner, you could buy a better tape only walkman, but that is a different story.
The pinchroller is the rubber wheel that presses against the tape. The capstan is the metal shaft that goes though the tape and revolves. The two should pull the tape at a constant speed. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=c...AhUH3KQKHbrCAlIQ9QEIKzAA#imgrc=9ecjpjt9_M0Q8M: I agree with Bub completely. If you didn't pay much for the Walkmen then have a play around and see if you can fix them. Even if you can't fix the first one you may learn enough to maybe fix one of the others. My only comment would be not to use a tape you value when trying them out. 90% of the time all that is required is a new belt. A member here sells sells belts. As you have so many different models I would start with a mixed set like these. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Set-of-1...920083?hash=item1e96cb3a93:g:w6sAAOxyrM5THJPv I also agree with Enryfox. Failing capacitors only affected the first miniaturised Personal Stereos (and Camcorders and the Sega GameGear) when then started using surface mount components but the capacitor manufacturers didn't really know how to make them.
Since you don't need radio I'd say to fix the Panasonic RQ-P44 then you can toy with the XBS-Bass-Treble separate level controls which might be interesting, also it seems to me that it is a less common model than the others.
Thank you guys ! I believe that I will go with panasonic RQ-P44, these bass and tremble options seem to be interesting indeed, also it has screws and will be easier to open.
Another thought about this. See if you can undo the units and see how easy it is to do things like change belts. My recent experiences. Old Sanyo. Belt was directly under the back cover. Time to replace belt 3 minutes Newer Sony . Belt was under a couple of circuit boards but these could be removed with a screwdriver. Time to replace belt about 10 minutes. Newer Panasonic. Circuit board was over belt and soldered to motor. Time to replace belt about 1 hour, with a fortnights interlude as when I unsoldered the board I found I had the wrong belt set due to there being two variants of the same model. If you search through the topics I started I documented the Sony and the Panasonic.
I have a full box of them that I got for like $1 each, they are fun, the Sony low and mid range 0nes have a really simple mechanism, and most use the same size for the belt, and they are good enough, I have a few cheap ones with Dolby B and MegaBass that I have given to friends or significant others with a mixtape.
