After having bought a Sony WM-101 and a Sony WM-DD33 (however, that one ended up badly, with a damaged circuit and the play button not always locking in), I decided to buy a new walkman, but this time an AIWA, both because I heard they were good, and because i'm just curious about them I've been going around some website, most Aiwa's sold are plasticy, 90's style walkmans which I have not a huge interest in, but I've fell on some of them which were both affordable and attracted me: AIWA HS-PX410 AIWA HS-PX510 AIWA HS-P204 AIWA HS-TX446 problem is, while I have some moderate of Sony's walkmans, I really don't know a lot about Aiwa's, so I hoped that some nice fellow could perhaps teach me more about each of these, and which i should be buying, but from what I looked at, the Aiwa HS-PX410, as it had Dolby C, but for all I know, some of those ones could be better than the PX410. Thanks for the replies
All those are good Aiwas except the TX446, but unless you have experience or are ready to learn recapping/desoldering Walkmans, stay away from Aiwas and stick to Sony. Nearly all the good Aiwas suffer from bad/leaking capacitors that MUST be replaced.
I have only two working Walkmans, both Aiwas, Love them but totally agree with @bub!!!!! Rechargeable Aiwa batteries are non-standard and even if found refurbished on eBay, they have to be pulled out to be charged off USB: totally Not cool!
AIWA HS-P204 is more collectible than other 3. I dont like the look of TX446 at all. well explained. So if you wanna buy an AIWA make sure it is restored or in good working condition.
also, if all capitals, AIWA means real Aiwa, if it is "aiwa" then it is from the ages when Sony bought them, forced to change Aiwa logo, and started pushing Aiwa down the drain into the low-end market (wish I could find OP with this info to give credit where it belongs!)
Not true. There are plenty of great lower case Aiwa models, such as the 4ZM series, and even 0ZM (JX929). Even their tail end lower end plastic models sounded quite good, compared to the plastic Sony models.
most probably @bub is right and I am totally wrong, esp since I am not a Walkman collector,... just re-posted something I picked up hanging around you guys at this site These last few months I started building bbox collection for my "fun times" of being outside, barbecuing/"beering". Could not help noticing that the early boomboxes are built to the standards of my Nak deck: all metal cassette mechanisms, quality plastics... but horrible specs of ~1.5+% W&F... then "they" must have learned how to pull out good specs but also figured how to cut corners and save on using cheap plastic instead of good ol' metal ... have yet to get The King, JVC M90 as a "sound quality reference" but as of now I am in Love with the early bbox models simply because of their build quality. Kinda applied this same line of experience to Aiwa line, also in love with AIWA early "Porsche Design" styling!!! and totally hate lower-case "aiwa" logo Long story short: just disregard my prev post, I am not going to delete it, it was my uneducated guess ! Another correction to my prev rambling: I do have one working Sony Walkman: WM-D6, restored thanks to @Deb64 and it beats everything I have portable (a serious collection of Discmans, two AIWAs, PONO, half-dozen modded iPods) in terms of SQ!!!
