You can't just fake a sticker like that... it has to be earned through extremely hard work and diligence to excellence. The Sticker Police would throw you in jail if you put that sticker on something of only satisfactory quality. Ahhhh, simpler times. [THIS COMMENT IS THE HIGHEST QUALITY]
The sticker is an extremely advanced engineered EMF shield that prevents fluorescent lights from influencing the Dolby C function. Apparently, the sticker on this example must've been damaged.
I actually like your outro. I find it to be well done, and the music coupled with the simple grace of the machines you've chosen makes me somehow recall an intangible feeling of well-being.
Aiwa tried to compete with Sony with features. They couldn't get their electronics and mechanisms to match those of Sony so they went full out on sleek design and features. Want a featured packed walkman? Get Aiwa. Want one that's near indestructible and sou d's amazing? Get a Sony.
That could explain why I had a similar issue with a Realistic cassette deck in the early 1990s. Cassettes played back on the machine they were recorded using Dolby C on sounded heavily noise-gated. In the end I just turned off Dolby and put up with a bit of extra hiss. I was never really sold on the old Dolby NR stuff.
This is absolutely true. Dolby C uses both the pre-emphasis and compression of the higher frequency bands. It works incredibly well on the machine you recorded it on (until you re-align the heads on that machine...) Once your playback level is off, the expansion system gets out of whack. With your bias or head alignment off, the pre/de emphasis gets out of whack. DBX is my favorite noise reduction system (it works well on both my DBX cassette recorders) closely followed by DNL (Philips' playback only system, try it out if you get the chance, works surprisingly well). I've never bothered with Dolby B or C. Never sounded right on my portable machines.
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DBX-recorded cassettes were incredible; of course, you HAD to play them back on a DBX machine. But, that was as close as cassettes would come to sounding like higher-quality reel-to-reel. I never liked any Dolby NR....just never sounded that great to me.
The fun really starts with semi-professional cassette decks that run 9,5cm/s. My Tascam 234 running at 9,5cm/s surpasses most reel to reels running at 19cm/s, approaching 38cm/s quality.
The outro always makes me feel slightly sad. It reminds me of a time when technology was fun and physical, rather than the boring boxs of incomprehensible magic available today.
As someone who repaired stuff then and still does now, the modern equipment is neither boring nor incomprehensible. It's just that back then, miniaturization was done to the point where repair became difficult but not impossible, and then they stopped. Today, they glue them together so that taking them apart does more damage than whatever was wrong to start with.
Mal-2 KSC: Yep...quite so! I was selling similar gear, and Hi-Fi/TV's, Cameras etc way back from 1979 in a retail sense, and even back then we were thinking that we'd reached a 'peak' - how much further can this equipment go? And then of course, the 'next' newest thing turned-up...but we could never have imagined that a complete hi-fi rack system could basically be reduced down to an extra feature on a mobile phone! Y'know? Bluetooth your phone to a suitably equipped receiver, or even portable speaker, and you 'can' get full and true hi-fi playback! Maybe not to the same levels that 'purists' would like, but it still beats some of the old systems that we sold back then in the early 80's - and I'm talking decent Technics, Sony, Kenwood-Trio etc....... so yeah.... much as I love the old 'tactile' feel of old analogue, I still love the incredible almost 'magic' of your phone being your hi-fi system! As an aside, I still have a decent modern Denon receiver, several good turntables - Rega, Pro-Ject, Technics, that I use for what I call 'proper' listening! That little Aiwa though brings back happy memories of my first 'walkman' - a silver aluminium Aiwa from around 1979/80.... that was fantastic quality through good headphones back then....it was one of the first 'walkman' types in the country!
Wow, that’s a blast from the past. This is the model I had back in the day and I really loved it! Great little machine and the metal and density of the machine makes it feel really premium.
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I was given a lovely Sony machine in the late 90s, which I would never have bought myself. I used it for quite a few years very heavily and absolutely loved it. It had a rechargable cell, but I generally used the screw on pod for batteries. I still have it and must see if it still works.
Hang on... if you used a time machine, how has it been sitting in its box for 28 years? 🤔 I'm now starting to question whether Mat even has a time machine!
I really doubt the problem is with Dolby C itself. It's going to be a problem with low tape output level and azimuth differences between the machines. Dolby B and especially C will compound any playback problems caused by other issues. If you can do an azimuth check on both machines I suspect you will get closer to the real problem.
In the case of AIWA I found back then that the magnetic head didn't come out enough and it didn't have enough pressure on the tape and that muted some high frequencies. some manufacturers did this because they argued that metallic tapes wore out the heads, so metallic tapes played better on those players.
Awia were quite good back in the day. I think I had 3 while I was at school, and all the other kids had Awia's as well. Had to be fancy ones with Graphic Equalisers on the front lid panel !!. Back in the day when they were brand new, and with some decent branded earphones the sound quality was not bad at all. At least from what I can remember from wayyyy back in 1982-88 my school years.
Techmoan is monumentally great. Got to say, I love the minimal design of the Aiwa packaging, very classy. I'm nuts about the packaging of audio-viz products. There was a shop in Rusholme, stuffed to the rafters with all kinds of stuff of that ilk. Going there was a thrill!
I never knew that BNIB stood for "Brand New In Box" until this video! I used to have an Aiwa walkman with built in radio and full recording functions. It was a great piece of kit for its time (early 1990s) and really was never superceeded to this day. Even portable minidisc recorders didn't include FM radios - I had to wait until the 2010's to get a Sanza Clip Zip MP3 player to have truely portable FM radio recording once again.
Great video as usual, now you have forced me to buy one of these, as I have been watching that listing for some time! But I wanted to say that the Azimuth is set differently/incorrectly on the Aiwa, compared to the Sony deck, it was very obvious during your demonstration. I suggest an alignment on the Aiwa, and possibly the Sony as well, if it has never been done before, assuming you have an Azimuth alignment tape, which you really should have anyway, if you are reviewing tape decks and sharing tape between machines. Azimuth alignment is absolutely critical for good Dolby C tracking/playback.
The "change the caps" mantra only really applies to electrolytic (metal can) ones which have a liquid electrolyte, and they're generally through-hole. Other styles will generally be just fine as there's nothing to leak/dry out. It's rare that you'll need to touch a surface mount capacitor unless it has physical/liquid damage. Deep stirrings of recognition when you showed that Aiwa line up, no idea where it is now, but that was a great ally at the time!
My aunt bought me an Aiwa for one of my teenage birthdays (14th I think), having only owned really crappy tape decks before then it was quite an eye opener to see how well tape could sound.
I always loved Aiwa cassette players, I bought a lot of their Walkmans and found they had both great playback & record. I got an aiwa all in 1 hifi & the doggystyle CD for xmas 1993 and to this day I am impressed how great the recordings were on it no matter what deck I play them back in. The same went for the recordable ones I got, I found the added functions would often reduce overall quality in most other brands even including the ubiquitous Sony (I think there was a lot of exaggerated hype with a lot of Sony products, certainly not all, they made incredible stuff and also badged a lot of crap as if it was equal quality to their best stuff)... Aiwa had some great Walkmans with record, radio and beautiful playback even with Dolby B & C. My guilty pleasure is recording with Dolby B and playing back with Dolby disengaged 🤫 In the last decade I’ve managed to get a long coveted Nakamichi and also discovered the excellence of Marantz of which I’m now a bit of a hoarder lol. I also have a friend who recorded the brilliant Tribe Called Quest show at Subterania in 1994 and he told me he used an Aiwa recording Walkman which was a lovely affirmation of 3 of my favourite things in the world (tape and tribe... plus the sp1200 which tip was performing with). I wonder if you have any experience with a beautiful Sony hifi I was incredibly fortunate to find on the roadside - the Sony V901 range. I was amazed to find that the amp sounded beautiful and had 2 x optical inputs which have no latency (unlike the Sony str-db840 receiver I recently got - unfortunately only analog is latency free). I like to use all these old bits of hifi to enjoy music but also really love incorporating it into my production rig so I thought this info may be of some interest to others like myself or big techmoan himself. Lots of love, merry Xmas Make a mixtape for someone you love
The problem with Dolby is the azimuth of the head, misaligned, that affect the high frequencies reproduction. Dolby is also very prone to fail if the level of rec and play are different from a deck to another, and anyway, the overall frequency response of the little Aiwa is not that great to allow a perfect Dolby C decoding.
I LOVE the Credits song and your timing of your videos to the song, especially when the automatic record player's tray closes! That's the best part of the closing sequence... don't take it out! :)
I found out about these on Tapeheads as well, and grabbed one. I still have it and it's still chugging along. Really impressed with it. No issues almost 5 years later!
The fact that the batteries are made by (read: in the factory of) Duracell, doesn't mean they have the same quality (control) as Duracell's. They just rent out their factory time to a different brand or use a cheaper procedure for a B-type brand of their own. This is very normal in the industry.
Hi Matt, I think I told you I was in the Hi Fi Trade in London many years ago. I use to be a Sony main agent and stoked Aiwa as well but not the Aiwa walkman's. I was invited on an one week all paid expenses paid trip to Singapore by Sony and as I had spent a few years living there as a child I was delighted to go. I was quite surprised when they took me round a Sony factory and they were making Aiwa products ? I then found out that Sony did in fact own Aiwa, or a large percentage of the company. I used to have a different Rep come round at least. I found Aiwa cassette decks were very good and when you only want to stock hi end equipment like Nakamichi dragon, the like Aiwa tape decks held up very well and gave you a price point where you could achieve a good rate of stock turn. I didn't stock the Aiwa walkman's because you can't stock everything and most of my costumers wanted Walkman Pros . Thanks for the videos. Jeremy Travis formerly Teletape Marble arch.
I still have a working AIWA cassette player, same model but without Dolby C. I stopped using Dolby noise suppression after I noticed some cases of audible compression with playback, on the same machine as recorded. Also the interchangeability was worse.
Love the video and even the outro. I've been going through your back catalogue of videos and I have enjoyed every one of them. You certainly should be proud of them. You even inspired me to buy a Nixie tube clock for my mom's birthday!
Thank you Techmone for posting all this great equipment you test brings back memories of some of personal cassette players I've owned back in the 80's and 90's
Hi Techmoan. I bought this not long after this video came out. Maybe I got lucky, but my HS-PC202 mkIII didn't experience any issues with Dolby C. I recorded some material on my deck with Dolby C, then played it back with Dolby C on the Aiwa, and it sounded pretty good still! Could it be your deck is not aligned? After all, if you play on the same deck you recorded on, of course it will sound right, even if the heads are misaligned. I'd say record a Dolby C recording on one deck, then play it back on the Sony deck with Dolby C to see if it still sounds good. I mean it's possible the Awia portable is the one with the wonky azimuth. If you're fortunate to have a couple decks (or more) that's been properly calibrated by a tech, you have some reference points. So far I have 3 decks that have been serviced by the same person, so it's the same alignment tapes/tools/scopes, etc. I created a speed-calibration tape on one deck, tested it on the other serviced decks to verify the speed. I am fortunate to own a Nakamichi ZX-7 which allows me to fine tune the azimuth of the recording head so I know what's being recorded to tape is nice and straight. Then I recorded a mono 10 kHz tone at -10 db. Of course this isn't perfect since I'm using a stereo head to create this azimuth alignment tape. I then played it back on all the serviced decks to check if all are also reproducing the signal around the same db using their VU meters (I don't have a voltmeter good enough to measure the output from line-out). Once I verified the tapes are consistent, I used it to calibrate speed and azimuth on my other decks (usually just inexpensive dual-decks like in my recent video where I repaired a Sony TC-WR701ES). Dolby C is very sensitive to the azimuth alignment. If it's off even just a bit, you're slightly out of phase, which can make it sound dull. Funnily, I use Dolby C to fine tune my azimuth on my decks because of this, lol. I find that without Dolby, adjusting the head azimuth is very forgiving (larger left and right turns before it starts to get dull from clear). With Dolby C, that sloppiness tightens up, and you have less left/right turns before it sounds bad. I find that very helpful for azimuth adjustments.
The amplifier in my Aiwa HS-J470 went bad a few years ago. I never recorded Dolby C because my Pioneer car stereo only had Dolby B. And I also liked the treble boost Dolby B gave.
...presume treble boost was playing a dolby b tape with dolby switched off. . noNR benefit that way, in fact noise floor would be higher-noiswill be higher-worse, that way.zo get azimuth match, record fm radio inter station noise, align playback head on all decks/players for max output (loudest by ear), if 2-head recorder used to make recording, the RP head will be in same position, so correct azimuth assured. adjust heads on other players to get max output(loudest signal. if mplaying pre-recorded cassettes, you want a good average setting, whereby most tapes play with good clarity. just like when setting up a phono cartridge on a record player, so most records track/reproduce clearly, with minimum surface/groove noise, miniminimal noisstorsion, across most of your records. my 2 cents.
Great video! To be honest having a long outro is not a big deal to be as you said “You can stop playback”. My issue is having a long intro and yours is short and snappy. All in all, perfect video.
My first personal stereo was also an Aiwa. I lived in Japan in 1983 and it was an amazing gadget. i watch videos with "next" on auto. i always see the vids to the end
I think the wiggling in the flutter is being caused by parts of the belt that have been stretched around the various wheels as opposed to being stretched between them. And I'd love a manufacturer to release some new quality mechanism for lesser used formats, even it is at high price and low volume. (Also, I switched to Edge for watching UA-cam as its frame skipping is better than other browsers, but if you try doing anything and watch a video at the same time, the Edge window with the video you're watching disappears. Something that doesn't happen on any other browser. It's almost as if Microsoft have forgotten that Windows is supposed to be a MULTITASKING operating system. Seriously, sort it out, Microsoft)
Dolby C needs very tight electronic tolerances to work well across decks. The rule of thumb, to my knowledge, is to use Dolby B if you're going to play a tape on anything other than the deck it was recorded on.
I always watch the outtro out of respect for those who can afford to support you through patreon. And because I like the puppets and always look for them...
A few years ago i had to replace all the electrolytic capacitors on a Aiwa Walkman HS-G35MkII from 1987. Sound was totally dead on the left, and barely audible on the right. The capacitors were leaky and already messing the pcb. Replacing them all brought this walkman back to life fourtanely. So yours might be in a similar condition.
I'm sure this has been mentioned, but my understanding was that the Dolby classifications were more or less about EQ curves than anything else. While cassette tape (or other tapes) provide a certain amount of compression because of the medium, switching the Dolby selector will not be engaging a hidden compressor in the walkman - it's just cutting the high frequencies.
I don't, even though I still have a working Sony cassette deck (with a Dolby C NR !) and most of the cassettes, the older ones (my first ones, already coded with Dolby C) being recorded as far back as August '83.
Cassette days are still here for me. I use them everyday in my car and even had to fit a Sony car cassette deck in my glove box as I couldn’t fit one in the dash!!! As for sound quality they don’t sound terrible at all especially when recorded on a decent deck. As I side point I never bother with Dolby at all I prefer the slight hiss on quite songs rather than having all the treble killed of and sounding flat.
Those BASF CSII cassettes are very satisfying visually: I recently got a few and while I'm yet to find a proper way to test them, they look rather amazing. On entirely another note it's interesting to see end credits addressed and over end credits, no less. I am, perhaps, one of those fewer people who watch the videos till the very end without skipping: it's my general attitude towards any media I watch, but in this case I also can't quite bring myself to stop or skip the credits because editing on those is top notch and the music is calming enough. And, of course, if anything happens to be on or after the credits, I enjoy that, as well.
At 6:55 ive got the MK. 1 unit and my Dolby C works effortlessly, perhaps your caps are bad in your unit or it’s your Sony which calibration for the Dolby circuit has drifted. I’ve calibrated my main decks Dolby C circuit according to service manual and my Dolby C works as stated. Great video!
I love your videos, when I'm free from work I sit in morning and enjoy them with cup of coffee. relaxing and interesting plus learn few new tricks and things. perfect
Im totally obsessed with your channel!! I do listen to them all the way through just so you know! Im so overjoyed about the electronics you review, i remember a LOT of them and learn about new ones everyday! PLEASE keep it up...you're the best!!
Long time subscriber , I also watch to the end in case of puppets .. LoL But I have a question! the beeps right at the end has always made me curious. Could you enlighten ?
I was thinking "source required" when he said that. I used some of them in kids toys and they seem to last a lot shorter than Duracell or Energizer, they start leaking a lot faster than branded batteries and they also cause more damage when they leak. I'd rather spend a little more and have batteries that work better and don't poop the bed as quickly or as much (and Costco sells Duracell branded batteries in large packages too, so you don't even have to go to a different store).
Source: Costco CEO Craig Jelinek - He states that Duracell make the Kirkland Signature batteries for them at two minutes and twenty nine seconds in this video www.wsbtv.com/news/2-investigates/costco-ceo-shares-tips-with-clark-howard-to-help-you-save-money/465720155 Also see this comparison of batteries. - Duracell & Kirkland results are pretty much identical. www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/855y7m/11_different_brands_of_aa_batteries_tested_in/ I do agree though that the Kirkland batteries do seem more prone to leakage if left in an unused device for a long time. I suspect they use a cheaper coating to wrap them in. So perhaps avoid putting them in things that you don't use regularly.
Just because they're made by Duracell doesn't mean they're built to the same standards. Typically, when you custom order your own brand from a major manufacturer, you have options to pick from as far as build quality.
I was thinking about purchasing one before this video came out. But now the price has skyrocketed, lol. Oh well. Great video, though! See if you can fix it as it sounds like it still needs a new belt (to reduce that W&F further) and maybe a head alignment or recap (it sounded dull, even without Dolby on, so something isn't quite right with it). I have a Aiwa HS-J35, and it's hard to work on, but I read this one is much easier to replace the belt and maybe even recap. I remembered it sounding much better than that. Hope to see you get ti serviced and revisit it in an updated video. PS: Actually he seems to be selling them in lots now. A lot of 2 for 199.99 EUR, 3 for 299 EUR. If getting the 2 pack, it's about $136 each shipped (total $266 shipped). I guess if you planned on getting two anyways, it's not that bad, especially shipped to the US.
Nice you reviewed an Aiwa walkman (or "personal stereo" as you called it since Sony has that trade mark claim on the 'walkman' term although it is the very same thing) they were the best you could buy in the 80's already and I had mine for years until I gifted it to a friend. - Aiwa were the first to feature a 'chromium' as well as 'metal' setting and it does not surprise me they had Dolby C as well. The reason why playing a Dolby C recording from a different machine may sound somewhat cut off in the treble (higher frequencies) may have to do with a variance of the so-called 'azimuth' or angle of the tape head towards the tape which differs ever so slightly from recorder to recorder. Interesting also how you observed a slight pitch or 'drift' increase of the Aiwa, a common phenomenon with many cassette players in general, a weakness of the format really as players were often not adjusted or tested properly at factory for correct speed. Btw. a wow & flutter of just 0.25% rms is more than acceptable, especially for a machine which sat in a carton for almost three decades. :-)
I always skip near the end when the credits come up to see if there is the puppets... I am disappointed around 75% of the time. But then again, if you added them to every video they wouldn't seems as rare and cool.
I think your outro is one of the best there is and I enjoy diving in it every time. Actually, I would like to see a video of only the outro without the credits. This could be followed be the outro with credits.
Good old Aiwa, they made some pretty decent and affordable audio tech back in the 90s, bought quite a few of their personal cassette/cd players, headphones and midi systems. If you couldn't afford a Sony then Aiwa was a solid second choice, this HS-PC202 was probably one of the last good personal stereos that rolled off the production line and it's always nice to see Techmoan unbox new old stock like this, brings back fond memories for a lot of people.
Mat, The issue your Aiwa HS-PC202 Mk III has is not likely due to faulty electronic components per se. It is likely caused by a somewhat different azimuth (head angle adjustment) between the Aiwa and your Sony deck or a lower playback level in the Aiwa that is feeding the Dolby circuitry, which is causing audible "mistracking". The Aiwa may even have both problems. Dolby C was a great selling point aimed at cassette audiophiles but it was not very good in practice because Dolby C-encoded tapes don't tend to travel well. All Dolby noise reduction systems are level-sensitive. That is, the playback and recording levels need to be matched as much as possible (a ± 2dB tolerance is considered acceptable). If the playback level of the signal is too low before it reaches the Dolby decoding circuits, the treble response will be diminished. If it level is too high, then the treble will be exaggerated. Any time there are any differences between recording azimuth and playback azimuth, the highs will be diminished. All noise reduction systems (Dolby, dbx, Super-D, High-Com, ADRES, etc.) exaggerate the loss of highs. Generally speaking, the more powerful the noise reduction , the greater the loss of treble. Another possible but less likely cause is a difference in playback equalization. Playback equalization should be standard but many manufacturers surprisingly stray somewhat from the standard. This last issue is unavoidable and can't be remedied. You can determine the cause of the issue is by recording 3 different versions of the same song on the Sony deck: no NR, Dolby B, and Dolby C. If all three sound muffled on the Aiwa, then the likely culprit is azimuth (this can easily be fixed but you'll need an azimuth test tape to do it most accurately). If the recording without NR sounds crisp but the Dolby versions do not, then the culprit is the internal playback level calibration of the Aiwa. You may be able to fix this if you can get a hold of a service manual, if you have a Dolby-level calibration tape (tends to be expensive), and if you have some form of metering to monitor your adjustment; otherwise, you can "earball" the adjustment to make an acceptable adjustment. In any case, if you decide to make any adjustments on your own, be sure to check azimuth first then move onto the level adjustment. You may need to remove the door to reach the adjustment screw. The azimuth adjustment is usually made on a screw on the side of the head. The screw is set in place using red, green, or blue glue. Another screw is for adjusting head height. Don't touch this one! The hint for identifying the correct screw is usually a hole or indentation on the frame of the cassette compartment that leads your screwdriver to the azimuth screw. If you don't have an azimuth adjustment cassette, you can do a fairly decent job earballing the adjustment, just by turning the screw until you hear the strongest treble response from your tape. If you don't trust your ears, then you need to purchase an azimuth adjustment tape on eBay. Virtually all of them contain test tones and require a meter or scope to allow you to monitor your adjustment but there is one made by "VisionQuest Works" on eBay that is occasionally listed that does not require metering of any kind; just a receiver or amplifier with a "mono" switch or a Y-adapter. Someone mentioned that inaccurate bias was causing the loss of highs. That is definitely not the case because bias is only used during the recording process. Anyway, I've rambled enough. Len
Aiwa from that period were very good, a little later on, as far as I'm concerned, they went very plasticky, and the quality took a sharp decline. I remember buying an Aiwa personal stereo from this later time as a student.....bloody awful build and dreadful sound, went straight back to Dixons the next day. Bought a Sony Walkman, dolby, mega bass, etc, absolutely brilliant
Major Mo you are right! Aiwa products from the earlier years were amazing, it was late in the ninties when all brands went for silver coloured plastic and all quality started to decline.
I'm always going back and watching your old content. Theres a lot of useful information in all your videos. And i use it as reference when i theres an interesting fact about something i want to share with friends/family.
The DC input is 2 volts, two batteries in series is about 2.6 volts when fresh. Does the change in voltage affect the playback speed of the tape? Personal players were notorious for this issue back in the day.
All my audio gear was Aiwa back when I was a teen and young adult. I had Aiwa portable tape players, portable CD players, multi speaker stereo systems, VCR, car stereos, and alarm clocks... some I bought new, some second hand. I bought a new portable tape player with digital tuner first and liked it so much I spent the money I worked all summer for on a 5 speaker stereo and sub for my room. $500 was a TON of money for a kid but I loved that stereo and used it from 1999 to 2008 when I upgraded to an Onkyo. I used the Aiwa sub for a few years more with the new stereo before it stopped working. I still have Aiwa units all over the house, including powering the speakers on this PC.
Back in 1988 I had the Aiwa HS-J600 (or HS-J09) which was an amazing walkman with a very sensitive FM tuner, Playback and Recording with auto reverse, 5 band graphic equalizer and feather touch control. It came with 2 AAA NiCD batteries and a dedicated charger which was also a power supply for the walkman. However, it broke after a few months and I moved on to portable CD players. A few years ago I managed to get that Walkman and repaired it, and now I have a working unit again :-) (too bad thought that there's nothing interesting to record off the radio).
I remember exclusively buying AIWA personal stereos back in the early 90's, as did all my friends who were music and tech connoisseurs. The best models were extremely well made and beautifully designed.
seeing you use it and give it the thumbs up was good enough for me....just got two... I NEVER had the change to buy them brand new and I LOVE cassette players... I'm tired of trying to fix them, fighting with belts hopeless soldering...I want something GOOD QUALITY that works and this illustrates that they work.....SO EXCITED
ok a couple of things.. 1. i had an aiwa hifi in the mid 90's and loved it.. also had an aiwa walkman.. such a shame you can't get them anymore and brilliant to see one featured. :) thank you. 2. the outro! haha do people really complain about stuff like that? blimey some people have really have nothing better to do.. i've got to admit i always watch the outro.. mainly because i find it very comforting.. sad I know but it gives me that cosy "tomorrow's world" type feeling. that thursday night at 7pm feeling. love it. as do all your videos.. short or long.. keep it up..
I really enjoy your outro it’s relaxing I’ll watch part of it scrub to end to make sure I don’t miss any thing. I subbed in late 16 thanks to a LGR colab. I hit your archives often. I really enjoy your channel.
Some of Aiwa's products were good but not reliable as Sony. Later Sony took over of Aiwa and maintained as inferior quality line of products compared to Sony series. Akai was an underdog compared to Aiwa but had some good audio equipment. We had Aiwa Boombox and the cassette mechanism failed. Later Aiwa discman with tuner which also failed. I only came to know your channels since a few months ago and do watch the older videos randomly.
EDIT:: I did some research on my own, last time I tried to find this model I came up empty handed but it seems the model I’ve been hunting is either the HS-P06 or the HS-U07. These came with a tuner pack that inserted like a cassette. Read the below for my original post. Original: Can you tell me if that model or perhaps a slightly older version of this model had an optional radio add on that you could get? It would fit in like a cassette and had an analog radio in it. The reason I’m asking is I’m trying to find this old model of aiwa, my grandmother had it when I was a child and she would let me use it on vacations. She said she got it at the px (shopping center on American military bases) when my grandpa was based in Japan while in the marines. It was an awesome unit. It had a case also. The tuner was visible through the slit on the door.
From experience, the main reason Dolby NR is remembered as simply muffling the audio is from people completely misunderstanding how it works. They would switch it on even for tapes that weren't recorded for it. This does indeed completely wreck the high end.
I always imagine Mrs techmoan rolling her eyes when another package arrives
Mrs Techmoan ? Oups....
@Galactic Traveller Mrs mainwairing, er indoors or maris
thats funny i always imagined Mrs. Techmoan was blind.
@@Halliday7895 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨
Isn’t it lovely how deeply women fail to care about men?
nothing screams "QUALITY" like a giant gold sticker slapped on the front
In the 90s, stickers were what sold everything!
80's Quality right there. Lots of stickers and fancy fonts. What more do you need.
You can't just fake a sticker like that... it has to be earned through extremely hard work and diligence to excellence. The Sticker Police would throw you in jail if you put that sticker on something of only satisfactory quality. Ahhhh, simpler times. [THIS COMMENT IS THE HIGHEST QUALITY]
The sticker is an extremely advanced engineered EMF shield that prevents fluorescent lights from influencing the Dolby C function. Apparently, the sticker on this example must've been damaged.
Seems like classic 80s tackiness haha, a lot of old things used to have that but tbh it didn't usually mean anything either way
I personally watch all Techmoan videos regardless of age.
Me too...i love this channel
yeah i gobbled up all the audio ones long ago. not haten' on the camera ones, just grabin' the stuff that's for me.
It's not like there's much danger of the featured retro-tech suddenly going obsolete.
its interesting you felt the need to share that with others
@@nikodemoka6585 ditto
I actually like your outro. I find it to be well done, and the music coupled with the simple grace of the machines you've chosen makes me somehow recall an intangible feeling of well-being.
0:52 - "... really, AIWA was the one to have as far as AIWA's concerned"
".....as far as I WAS concerned". LOL! (missed the connection the first time!)
Yup, good catch. I didn't connect it either at first. Funny!
I was just about to post this. I reckon this was a subconscious pun where Mat's brain made the link and caused him to say it without realising!
Aiwa tried to compete with Sony with features. They couldn't get their electronics and mechanisms to match those of Sony so they went full out on sleek design and features.
Want a featured packed walkman? Get Aiwa. Want one that's near indestructible and sou d's amazing? Get a Sony.
Walkmans break too.
Dear Sir, I must complain that the outro music was spoiled by some bloke talking! ; )
As I recall, Dolby C was very dependent on tape head alignment being exactly the same between machines to avoid the dreaded weird sounding playback.
Agreed. Dolby C is very sensitive of head alignment. With a slight misalignment Dolby C amplifies the reduction of high frequencies.
That could explain why I had a similar issue with a Realistic cassette deck in the early 1990s. Cassettes played back on the machine they were recorded using Dolby C on sounded heavily noise-gated. In the end I just turned off Dolby and put up with a bit of extra hiss. I was never really sold on the old Dolby NR stuff.
This is absolutely true. Dolby C uses both the pre-emphasis and compression of the higher frequency bands. It works incredibly well on the machine you recorded it on (until you re-align the heads on that machine...)
Once your playback level is off, the expansion system gets out of whack. With your bias or head alignment off, the pre/de emphasis gets out of whack.
DBX is my favorite noise reduction system (it works well on both my DBX cassette recorders) closely followed by DNL (Philips' playback only system, try it out if you get the chance, works surprisingly well).
I've never bothered with Dolby B or C. Never sounded right on my portable machines.
DBX-recorded cassettes were incredible; of course, you HAD to play them back on a DBX machine. But, that was as close as cassettes would come to sounding like higher-quality reel-to-reel. I never liked any Dolby NR....just never sounded that great to me.
The fun really starts with semi-professional cassette decks that run 9,5cm/s.
My Tascam 234 running at 9,5cm/s surpasses most reel to reels running at 19cm/s, approaching 38cm/s quality.
The outro always makes me feel slightly sad. It reminds me of a time when technology was fun and physical, rather than the boring boxs of incomprehensible magic available today.
I feel it was magic and still is, in 30 years they will tear an iPhone apart and will talk about how simple yesterdays technology was
Cheap new technology is allowing us to reproduce old technology.
Yeah! Exactly this!
As someone who repaired stuff then and still does now, the modern equipment is neither boring nor incomprehensible. It's just that back then, miniaturization was done to the point where repair became difficult but not impossible, and then they stopped. Today, they glue them together so that taking them apart does more damage than whatever was wrong to start with.
Mal-2 KSC: Yep...quite so! I was selling similar gear, and Hi-Fi/TV's, Cameras etc way back from 1979 in a retail sense, and even back then we were thinking that we'd reached a 'peak' - how much further can this equipment go? And then of course, the 'next' newest thing turned-up...but we could never have imagined that a complete hi-fi rack system could basically be reduced down to an extra feature on a mobile phone! Y'know? Bluetooth your phone to a suitably equipped receiver, or even portable speaker, and you 'can' get full and true hi-fi playback! Maybe not to the same levels that 'purists' would like, but it still beats some of the old systems that we sold back then in the early 80's - and I'm talking decent Technics, Sony, Kenwood-Trio etc....... so yeah.... much as I love the old 'tactile' feel of old analogue, I still love the incredible almost 'magic' of your phone being your hi-fi system!
As an aside, I still have a decent modern Denon receiver, several good turntables - Rega, Pro-Ject, Technics, that I use for what I call 'proper' listening!
That little Aiwa though brings back happy memories of my first 'walkman' - a silver aluminium Aiwa from around 1979/80.... that was fantastic quality through good headphones back then....it was one of the first 'walkman' types in the country!
Wow, that’s a blast from the past. This is the model I had back in the day and I really loved it! Great little machine and the metal and density of the machine makes it feel really premium.
I was given a lovely Sony machine in the late 90s, which I would never have bought myself. I used it for quite a few years very heavily and absolutely loved it. It had a rechargable cell, but I generally used the screw on pod for batteries. I still have it and must see if it still works.
What? Who can complain about such petty things? They should be happy you've doubled up the list of credits or it might be twice as long... ;)
Because of you Matt I have a dash cam in my car, a dedicated hi-fi set up, and love of cassettes. I am slowly turning into a hipster thanks to you :3
All hipsters have dashcams :p
I have a dashcam after watching many car crash compilations...
Thanks to Techmoan I have a DAT player and a breakfast sandwich maker.
Thanks to Techmoan I have a Rollie Eggmaster and a Tefifon.
Hmm... I didn't realize I had a problem until right now....
Hang on... if you used a time machine, how has it been sitting in its box for 28 years? 🤔
I'm now starting to question whether Mat even has a time machine!
I really doubt the problem is with Dolby C itself. It's going to be a problem with low tape output level and azimuth differences between the machines. Dolby B and especially C will compound any playback problems caused by other issues. If you can do an azimuth check on both machines I suspect you will get closer to the real problem.
In the case of AIWA I found back then that the magnetic head didn't come out enough and it didn't have enough pressure on the tape and that muted some high frequencies.
some manufacturers did this because they argued that metallic tapes wore out the heads, so metallic tapes played better on those players.
Awia were quite good back in the day. I think I had 3 while I was at school, and all the other kids had Awia's as well. Had to be fancy ones with Graphic Equalisers on the front lid panel !!. Back in the day when they were brand new, and with some decent branded earphones the sound quality was not bad at all. At least from what I can remember from wayyyy back in 1982-88 my school years.
Yeah! I used Aiwa cassette players in the early 90s in my College days.
What's Awia?
Is that like budget Aiwa?
You must be from Cumbria or East Yorkshire.
Techmoan is monumentally great. Got to say, I love the minimal design of the Aiwa packaging, very classy. I'm nuts about the packaging of audio-viz products. There was a shop in Rusholme, stuffed to the rafters with all kinds of stuff of that ilk. Going there was a thrill!
I never knew that BNIB stood for "Brand New In Box" until this video! I used to have an Aiwa walkman with built in radio and full recording functions. It was a great piece of kit for its time (early 1990s) and really was never superceeded to this day. Even portable minidisc recorders didn't include FM radios - I had to wait until the 2010's to get a Sanza Clip Zip MP3 player to have truely portable FM radio recording once again.
Great video as usual, now you have forced me to buy one of these, as I have been watching that listing for some time! But I wanted to say that the Azimuth is set differently/incorrectly on the Aiwa, compared to the Sony deck, it was very obvious during your demonstration. I suggest an alignment on the Aiwa, and possibly the Sony as well, if it has never been done before, assuming you have an Azimuth alignment tape, which you really should have anyway, if you are reviewing tape decks and sharing tape between machines. Azimuth alignment is absolutely critical for good Dolby C tracking/playback.
I always watch till the end to see if you used the puppets.
I always hover over the time bar to see if there are puppets, so I know whether to jump ahead or just stop.
Don't call them puppies that's offensive. Call them ventriloquist dummies.
How about the Panasonic range from the 90s too? They made some lovely premium Walkmans. I owned many Aiwas and Panasonics
The "change the caps" mantra only really applies to electrolytic (metal can) ones which have a liquid electrolyte, and they're generally through-hole. Other styles will generally be just fine as there's nothing to leak/dry out. It's rare that you'll need to touch a surface mount capacitor unless it has physical/liquid damage. Deep stirrings of recognition when you showed that Aiwa line up, no idea where it is now, but that was a great ally at the time!
I watch the videos to the end because of puppets and the relaxing music with technology.
When ever a quality cassette player is shown, I'm always surprised at the clarity of the sound.
Only it's converted to digital here and compressed to a low bit-rate
Loved the talk during the outro.
I'm hooked to your channel. Always interesting reviews
Just bought the Aiwa new, will be interesting to see how it works out. Great video, subscribed 👍
My aunt bought me an Aiwa for one of my teenage birthdays (14th I think), having only owned really crappy tape decks before then it was quite an eye opener to see how well tape could sound.
I always loved Aiwa cassette players, I bought a lot of their Walkmans and found they had both great playback & record. I got an aiwa all in 1 hifi & the doggystyle CD for xmas 1993 and to this day I am impressed how great the recordings were on it no matter what deck I play them back in.
The same went for the recordable ones I got, I found the added functions would often reduce overall quality in most other brands even including the ubiquitous Sony (I think there was a lot of exaggerated hype with a lot of Sony products, certainly not all, they made incredible stuff and also badged a lot of crap as if it was equal quality to their best stuff)... Aiwa had some great Walkmans with record, radio and beautiful playback even with Dolby B & C. My guilty pleasure is recording with Dolby B and playing back with Dolby disengaged 🤫
In the last decade I’ve managed to get a long coveted Nakamichi and also discovered the excellence of Marantz of which I’m now a bit of a hoarder lol.
I also have a friend who recorded the brilliant Tribe Called Quest show at Subterania in 1994 and he told me he used an Aiwa recording Walkman which was a lovely affirmation of 3 of my favourite things in the world (tape and tribe... plus the sp1200 which tip was performing with).
I wonder if you have any experience with a beautiful Sony hifi I was incredibly fortunate to find on the roadside - the Sony V901 range. I was amazed to find that the amp sounded beautiful and had 2 x optical inputs which have no latency (unlike the Sony str-db840 receiver I recently got - unfortunately only analog is latency free).
I like to use all these old bits of hifi to enjoy music but also really love incorporating it into my production rig so I thought this info may be of some interest to others like myself or big techmoan himself.
Lots of love, merry Xmas
Make a mixtape for someone you love
The problem with Dolby is the azimuth of the head, misaligned, that affect the high frequencies reproduction. Dolby is also very prone to fail if the level of rec and play are different from a deck to another, and anyway, the overall frequency response of the little Aiwa is not that great to allow a perfect Dolby C decoding.
I LOVE the Credits song and your timing of your videos to the song, especially when the automatic record player's tray closes! That's the best part of the closing sequence... don't take it out! :)
I found out about these on Tapeheads as well, and grabbed one. I still have it and it's still chugging along. Really impressed with it. No issues almost 5 years later!
The fact that the batteries are made by (read: in the factory of) Duracell, doesn't mean they have the same quality (control) as Duracell's. They just rent out their factory time to a different brand or use a cheaper procedure for a B-type brand of their own. This is very normal in the industry.
Hi Matt,
I think I told you I was in the Hi Fi Trade in London many years ago. I use to be a Sony main agent and stoked Aiwa as well but not the Aiwa walkman's. I was invited on an one week all paid expenses paid trip to Singapore by Sony and as I had spent a few years living there as a child I was delighted to go. I was quite surprised when they took me round a Sony factory and they were making Aiwa products ?
I then found out that Sony did in fact own Aiwa, or a large percentage of the company. I used to have a different Rep come round at least.
I found Aiwa cassette decks were very good and when you only want to stock hi end equipment like Nakamichi dragon, the like Aiwa tape decks held up very well and gave you a price point where you could achieve a good rate of stock turn. I didn't stock the Aiwa walkman's because you can't stock everything and most of my costumers wanted Walkman Pros . Thanks for the videos.
Jeremy Travis formerly Teletape Marble arch.
I still have a working AIWA cassette player, same model but without Dolby C.
I stopped using Dolby noise suppression after I noticed some cases of audible compression with playback, on the same machine as recorded.
Also the interchangeability was worse.
Andre Post Dolby S is the best but a personal cassette player with it never existed
Love the video and even the outro. I've been going through your back catalogue of videos and I have enjoyed every one of them. You certainly should be proud of them. You even inspired me to buy a Nixie tube clock for my mom's birthday!
The old tech didn't sound too bad really... good news that the device worked, right out of the new/old box :-)
Thank you Techmone for posting all this great equipment you test brings back memories of some of personal cassette players I've owned back in the 80's and 90's
I nearly always let the outro play 'cos I love the music, wouldn't be a Techmoan video without it.
I like the outro, it show tech thru the ages. Makes you appreciate the progress of technology.
i actually enjoy the outro and always look for the "six million dollar man" sound at the end...LOL
Hi Techmoan. I bought this not long after this video came out. Maybe I got lucky, but my HS-PC202 mkIII didn't experience any issues with Dolby C. I recorded some material on my deck with Dolby C, then played it back with Dolby C on the Aiwa, and it sounded pretty good still! Could it be your deck is not aligned? After all, if you play on the same deck you recorded on, of course it will sound right, even if the heads are misaligned. I'd say record a Dolby C recording on one deck, then play it back on the Sony deck with Dolby C to see if it still sounds good.
I mean it's possible the Awia portable is the one with the wonky azimuth. If you're fortunate to have a couple decks (or more) that's been properly calibrated by a tech, you have some reference points. So far I have 3 decks that have been serviced by the same person, so it's the same alignment tapes/tools/scopes, etc. I created a speed-calibration tape on one deck, tested it on the other serviced decks to verify the speed. I am fortunate to own a Nakamichi ZX-7 which allows me to fine tune the azimuth of the recording head so I know what's being recorded to tape is nice and straight. Then I recorded a mono 10 kHz tone at -10 db. Of course this isn't perfect since I'm using a stereo head to create this azimuth alignment tape. I then played it back on all the serviced decks to check if all are also reproducing the signal around the same db using their VU meters (I don't have a voltmeter good enough to measure the output from line-out). Once I verified the tapes are consistent, I used it to calibrate speed and azimuth on my other decks (usually just inexpensive dual-decks like in my recent video where I repaired a Sony TC-WR701ES).
Dolby C is very sensitive to the azimuth alignment. If it's off even just a bit, you're slightly out of phase, which can make it sound dull. Funnily, I use Dolby C to fine tune my azimuth on my decks because of this, lol. I find that without Dolby, adjusting the head azimuth is very forgiving (larger left and right turns before it starts to get dull from clear). With Dolby C, that sloppiness tightens up, and you have less left/right turns before it sounds bad. I find that very helpful for azimuth adjustments.
The amplifier in my Aiwa HS-J470 went bad a few years ago. I never recorded Dolby C because my Pioneer car stereo only had Dolby B. And I also liked the treble boost Dolby B gave.
...presume treble boost was playing a dolby b tape with dolby switched off. . noNR benefit that way, in fact noise floor would be higher-noiswill be higher-worse, that way.zo get azimuth match, record fm radio inter station noise, align playback head on all decks/players for max output (loudest by ear), if 2-head recorder used to make recording, the RP head will be in same position, so correct azimuth assured. adjust heads on other players to get max output(loudest signal. if mplaying pre-recorded cassettes, you want a good average setting, whereby most tapes play with good clarity. just like when setting up a phono cartridge on a record player, so most records track/reproduce clearly, with minimum surface/groove noise, miniminimal noisstorsion, across most of your records. my 2 cents.
Great video! To be honest having a long outro is not a big deal to be as you said “You can stop playback”. My issue is having a long intro and yours is short and snappy.
All in all, perfect video.
Blather or no blather, I'll keep watching unless I have something better to do, which I don't. And as Eric says.... there may be puppets!
My first personal stereo was also an Aiwa. I lived in Japan in 1983 and it was an amazing gadget. i watch videos with "next" on auto. i always see the vids to the end
I think the wiggling in the flutter is being caused by parts of the belt that have been stretched around the various wheels as opposed to being stretched between them.
And I'd love a manufacturer to release some new quality mechanism for lesser used formats, even it is at high price and low volume.
(Also, I switched to Edge for watching UA-cam as its frame skipping is better than other browsers, but if you try doing anything and watch a video at the same time, the Edge window with the video you're watching disappears. Something that doesn't happen on any other browser. It's almost as if Microsoft have forgotten that Windows is supposed to be a MULTITASKING operating system. Seriously, sort it out, Microsoft)
Dolby C needs very tight electronic tolerances to work well across decks. The rule of thumb, to my knowledge, is to use Dolby B if you're going to play a tape on anything other than the deck it was recorded on.
I always watch the outtro out of respect for those who can afford to support you through patreon.
And because I like the puppets and always look for them...
A few years ago i had to replace all the electrolytic capacitors on a Aiwa Walkman HS-G35MkII from 1987. Sound was totally dead on the left, and barely audible on the right. The capacitors were leaky and already messing the pcb. Replacing them all brought this walkman back to life fourtanely.
So yours might be in a similar condition.
I like the outro tangents because it's a few more minutes of Techmoan.
I'm sure this has been mentioned, but my understanding was that the Dolby classifications were more or less about EQ curves than anything else. While cassette tape (or other tapes) provide a certain amount of compression because of the medium, switching the Dolby selector will not be engaging a hidden compressor in the walkman - it's just cutting the high frequencies.
I miss the cassette days.
At least you were there. I was born after that era 😔😫
As kids, our hi-fi had a dedicated biro.
I don't, even though I still have a working Sony cassette deck (with a Dolby C NR !) and most of the cassettes, the older ones (my first ones, already coded with Dolby C) being recorded as far back as August '83.
Cassette days are still here for me. I use them everyday in my car and even had to fit a Sony car cassette deck in my glove box as I couldn’t fit one in the dash!!! As for sound quality they don’t sound terrible at all especially when recorded on a decent deck. As I side point I never bother with Dolby at all I prefer the slight hiss on quite songs rather than having all the treble killed of and sounding flat.
Under care, you can easily replicate CD quality on a good tape. New old stock works rather well..
Those BASF CSII cassettes are very satisfying visually: I recently got a few and while I'm yet to find a proper way to test them, they look rather amazing. On entirely another note it's interesting to see end credits addressed and over end credits, no less. I am, perhaps, one of those fewer people who watch the videos till the very end without skipping: it's my general attitude towards any media I watch, but in this case I also can't quite bring myself to stop or skip the credits because editing on those is top notch and the music is calming enough. And, of course, if anything happens to be on or after the credits, I enjoy that, as well.
I bought an AIWA HS-PX101 new, it's great, it cost a lot of money at the time, i'd just started working, but it was worth it.
At 6:55 ive got the MK. 1 unit and my Dolby C works effortlessly, perhaps your caps are bad in your unit or it’s your Sony which calibration for the Dolby circuit has drifted. I’ve calibrated my main decks Dolby C circuit according to service manual and my Dolby C works as stated. Great video!
Next up? Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi, Sanyo...
I still have my 80s Fisher…
I love your videos, when I'm free from work I sit in morning and enjoy them with cup of coffee. relaxing and interesting plus learn few new tricks and things. perfect
Good lord. People always think they know better how to run YOUR show.
Im totally obsessed with your channel!! I do listen to them all the way through just so you know! Im so overjoyed about the electronics you review, i remember a LOT of them and learn about new ones everyday! PLEASE keep it up...you're the best!!
Long time subscriber , I also watch to the end in case of puppets .. LoL But I have a question! the beeps right at the end has always made me curious. Could you enlighten ?
*There's a bit more information about this in the video description text box.*
It does sound like Slow-scan television or data transfer.
I remember the beeping from another video, some kind of data encoded on a tape
Seems I was wrong
ua-cam.com/video/5M3-ZV5-QDM/v-deo.html
Techmoan is a Genius! Thanks Jochen Stacker for the Input! = ]
I generally watch through the end of the videos because I keep hoping there will be a puppet skit at the very end. I love those puppet skits.
didnt know about the Kirkland Duracell batteries, thanks
I was thinking "source required" when he said that. I used some of them in kids toys and they seem to last a lot shorter than Duracell or Energizer, they start leaking a lot faster than branded batteries and they also cause more damage when they leak. I'd rather spend a little more and have batteries that work better and don't poop the bed as quickly or as much (and Costco sells Duracell branded batteries in large packages too, so you don't even have to go to a different store).
Source: Costco CEO Craig Jelinek - He states that Duracell make the Kirkland Signature batteries for them at two minutes and twenty nine seconds in this video www.wsbtv.com/news/2-investigates/costco-ceo-shares-tips-with-clark-howard-to-help-you-save-money/465720155
Also see this comparison of batteries. - Duracell & Kirkland results are pretty much identical. www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/855y7m/11_different_brands_of_aa_batteries_tested_in/
I do agree though that the Kirkland batteries do seem more prone to leakage if left in an unused device for a long time. I suspect they use a cheaper coating to wrap them in. So perhaps avoid putting them in things that you don't use regularly.
Just because they're made by Duracell doesn't mean they're built to the same standards. Typically, when you custom order your own brand from a major manufacturer, you have options to pick from as far as build quality.
Worth noting though that (as far as I know) Duracell are hardly the be all and end all when it comes to Alkaline batteries.
anononomous
So what is the best alkaline battery brand ???
I was thinking about purchasing one before this video came out. But now the price has skyrocketed, lol. Oh well. Great video, though! See if you can fix it as it sounds like it still needs a new belt (to reduce that W&F further) and maybe a head alignment or recap (it sounded dull, even without Dolby on, so something isn't quite right with it). I have a Aiwa HS-J35, and it's hard to work on, but I read this one is much easier to replace the belt and maybe even recap. I remembered it sounding much better than that. Hope to see you get ti serviced and revisit it in an updated video.
PS: Actually he seems to be selling them in lots now. A lot of 2 for 199.99 EUR, 3 for 299 EUR. If getting the 2 pack, it's about $136 each shipped (total $266 shipped). I guess if you planned on getting two anyways, it's not that bad, especially shipped to the US.
Watching this, I immediately thought of the Aiwa that Marty McFly had in Back to the Future part 1 :-)
You should be proud of all your videos Mat, they're all top notch!
I've always liked your outtro music. It's unique, oddly melancholy somehow...
Nice you reviewed an Aiwa walkman (or "personal stereo" as you called it since Sony has that trade mark claim on the 'walkman' term although it is the very same thing) they were the best you could buy in the 80's already and I had mine for years until I gifted it to a friend. - Aiwa were the first to feature a 'chromium' as well as 'metal' setting and it does not surprise me they had Dolby C as well. The reason why playing a Dolby C recording from a different machine may sound somewhat cut off in the treble (higher frequencies) may have to do with a variance of the so-called 'azimuth' or angle of the tape head towards the tape which differs ever so slightly from recorder to recorder. Interesting also how you observed a slight pitch or 'drift' increase of the Aiwa, a common phenomenon with many cassette players in general, a weakness of the format really as players were often not adjusted or tested properly at factory for correct speed. Btw. a wow & flutter of just 0.25% rms is more than acceptable, especially for a machine which sat in a carton for almost three decades. :-)
I always skip near the end when the credits come up to see if there is the puppets... I am disappointed around 75% of the time. But then again, if you added them to every video they wouldn't seems as rare and cool.
Lucifer Morningstar I always watch the end credits for my name.
I think your outro is one of the best there is and I enjoy diving in it every time. Actually, I would like to see a video of only the outro without the credits. This could be followed be the outro with credits.
Good old Aiwa, they made some pretty decent and affordable audio tech back in the 90s, bought quite a few of their personal cassette/cd players, headphones and midi systems. If you couldn't afford a Sony then Aiwa was a solid second choice, this HS-PC202 was probably one of the last good personal stereos that rolled off the production line and it's always nice to see Techmoan unbox new old stock like this, brings back fond memories for a lot of people.
Agreed. Sony and JVC stuff was amazing but generally overpriced. Aiwa cassette players were my mainstay for sure.
Mat,
The issue your Aiwa HS-PC202 Mk III has is not likely due to faulty electronic components per se. It is likely caused by a somewhat different azimuth (head angle adjustment) between the Aiwa and your Sony deck or a lower playback level in the Aiwa that is feeding the Dolby circuitry, which is causing audible "mistracking". The Aiwa may even have both problems.
Dolby C was a great selling point aimed at cassette audiophiles but it was not very good in practice because Dolby C-encoded tapes don't tend to travel well. All Dolby noise reduction systems are level-sensitive. That is, the playback and recording levels need to be matched as much as possible (a ± 2dB tolerance is considered acceptable). If the playback level of the signal is too low before it reaches the Dolby decoding circuits, the treble response will be diminished. If it level is too high, then the treble will be exaggerated.
Any time there are any differences between recording azimuth and playback azimuth, the highs will be diminished. All noise reduction systems (Dolby, dbx, Super-D, High-Com, ADRES, etc.) exaggerate the loss of highs. Generally speaking, the more powerful the noise reduction , the greater the loss of treble.
Another possible but less likely cause is a difference in playback equalization. Playback equalization should be standard but many manufacturers surprisingly stray somewhat from the standard. This last issue is unavoidable and can't be remedied.
You can determine the cause of the issue is by recording 3 different versions of the same song on the Sony deck: no NR, Dolby B, and Dolby C. If all three sound muffled on the Aiwa, then the likely culprit is azimuth (this can easily be fixed but you'll need an azimuth test tape to do it most accurately). If the recording without NR sounds crisp but the Dolby versions do not, then the culprit is the internal playback level calibration of the Aiwa. You may be able to fix this if you can get a hold of a service manual, if you have a Dolby-level calibration tape (tends to be expensive), and if you have some form of metering to monitor your adjustment; otherwise, you can "earball" the adjustment to make an acceptable adjustment.
In any case, if you decide to make any adjustments on your own, be sure to check azimuth first then move onto the level adjustment. You may need to remove the door to reach the adjustment screw. The azimuth adjustment is usually made on a screw on the side of the head. The screw is set in place using red, green, or blue glue. Another screw is for adjusting head height. Don't touch this one! The hint for identifying the correct screw is usually a hole or indentation on the frame of the cassette compartment that leads your screwdriver to the azimuth screw. If you don't have an azimuth adjustment cassette, you can do a fairly decent job earballing the adjustment, just by turning the screw until you hear the strongest treble response from your tape. If you don't trust your ears, then you need to purchase an azimuth adjustment tape on eBay. Virtually all of them contain test tones and require a meter or scope to allow you to monitor your adjustment but there is one made by "VisionQuest Works" on eBay that is occasionally listed that does not require metering of any kind; just a receiver or amplifier with a "mono" switch or a Y-adapter.
Someone mentioned that inaccurate bias was causing the loss of highs. That is definitely not the case because bias is only used during the recording process.
Anyway, I've rambled enough.
Len
I miss these mini cassette players
hey you know what? i love your end credits sequence. it's kinda mesmerizing. I usually find myself watching through the whole thing anyway.
Aiwa from that period were very good, a little later on, as far as I'm concerned, they went very plasticky, and the quality took a sharp decline. I remember buying an Aiwa personal stereo from this later time as a student.....bloody awful build and dreadful sound, went straight back to Dixons the next day. Bought a Sony Walkman, dolby, mega bass, etc, absolutely brilliant
Major Mo you are right! Aiwa products from the earlier years were amazing, it was late in the ninties when all brands went for silver coloured plastic and all quality started to decline.
I'm always going back and watching your old content. Theres a lot of useful information in all your videos. And i use it as reference when i theres an interesting fact about something i want to share with friends/family.
Outro music is PERFECT !!!
The DC input is 2 volts, two batteries in series is about 2.6 volts when fresh. Does the change in voltage affect the playback speed of the tape? Personal players were notorious for this issue back in the day.
Why not match Koss Portapros with these old cassette players? The design is ACTUALLY form the 80s and the thing is a decent headphone.
All my audio gear was Aiwa back when I was a teen and young adult. I had Aiwa portable tape players, portable CD players, multi speaker stereo systems, VCR, car stereos, and alarm clocks... some I bought new, some second hand. I bought a new portable tape player with digital tuner first and liked it so much I spent the money I worked all summer for on a 5 speaker stereo and sub for my room. $500 was a TON of money for a kid but I loved that stereo and used it from 1999 to 2008 when I upgraded to an Onkyo. I used the Aiwa sub for a few years more with the new stereo before it stopped working. I still have Aiwa units all over the house, including powering the speakers on this PC.
Your outro is ASMR for the eyes
ESMR
Back in 1988 I had the Aiwa HS-J600 (or HS-J09) which was an amazing walkman with a very sensitive FM tuner, Playback and Recording with auto reverse, 5 band graphic equalizer and feather touch control. It came with 2 AAA NiCD batteries and a dedicated charger which was also a power supply for the walkman.
However, it broke after a few months and I moved on to portable CD players.
A few years ago I managed to get that Walkman and repaired it, and now I have a working unit again :-) (too bad thought that there's nothing interesting to record off the radio).
I was waiting for you to pull that sticker off. I hate those kind of stickers on electronics, DVDs and games etc. 😆
I remember exclusively buying AIWA personal stereos back in the early 90's, as did all my friends who were music and tech connoisseurs. The best models were extremely well made and beautifully designed.
I suspect azimuth mismatch. Also the Sony deck needs at least a good cleaning as it wasn't sounded very good when played back its own recording
I found the exact same one in a thrift store for $5. And complete working good except it didn't have the box. I still have it today.
Blathering over the outro is way better in my opinion! Just stick with that.
But talking over the music is not optimal and outro music is way too cool to remove 😁 Either way these videos are awesome 👍
Outro Music is good, but outro talking is much better!
+1 outro blather. bonus hangout time.
Agreed, this “bonus content” is much appreciated.
seeing you use it and give it the thumbs up was good enough for me....just got two... I NEVER had the change to buy them brand new and I LOVE cassette players... I'm tired of trying to fix them, fighting with belts hopeless soldering...I want something GOOD QUALITY that works and this illustrates that they work.....SO EXCITED
fan from kenya,AFRICA
In case you confuse it with Kenya, CANADA. Ding.
One of my favorite videos you’ve done was the re-enactment of that Netflix show intro. Really well done.
I'm glad you liked it. That one was a major flop.
Constructive feedback is one thing, but quibbling over the length of the outro?! The mind boggles...
ok a couple of things..
1. i had an aiwa hifi in the mid 90's and loved it.. also had an aiwa walkman.. such a shame you can't get them anymore and brilliant to see one featured. :) thank you.
2. the outro! haha do people really complain about stuff like that? blimey some people have really have nothing better to do.. i've got to admit i always watch the outro.. mainly because i find it very comforting.. sad I know but it gives me that cosy "tomorrow's world" type feeling. that thursday night at 7pm feeling. love it. as do all your videos.. short or long.. keep it up..
Aww man, no puppets?
I really enjoy your outro it’s relaxing I’ll watch part of it scrub to end to make sure I don’t miss any thing. I subbed in late 16 thanks to a LGR colab. I hit your archives often. I really enjoy your channel.
I watch for the puppets
My dude I love how considerate you are to your viewers. Thank you.
Some of Aiwa's products were good but not reliable as Sony. Later Sony took over of Aiwa and maintained as inferior quality line of products compared to Sony series. Akai was an underdog compared to Aiwa but had some good audio equipment. We had Aiwa Boombox and the cassette mechanism failed. Later Aiwa discman with tuner which also failed. I only came to know your channels since a few months ago and do watch the older videos randomly.
Hey Matt thank you for putting together all your videos. I‘ve probably watched all of them by now.
If you can't stop a video you should be disqualified from the internet and given an AM radio receiver.
EDIT::
I did some research on my own, last time I tried to find this model I came up empty handed but it seems the model I’ve been hunting is either the HS-P06 or the HS-U07. These came with a tuner pack that inserted like a cassette. Read the below for my original post.
Original:
Can you tell me if that model or perhaps a slightly older version of this model had an optional radio add on that you could get? It would fit in like a cassette and had an analog radio in it. The reason I’m asking is I’m trying to find this old model of aiwa, my grandmother had it when I was a child and she would let me use it on vacations. She said she got it at the px (shopping center on American military bases) when my grandpa was based in Japan while in the marines. It was an awesome unit.
It had a case also. The tuner was visible through the slit on the door.
No matter how expensive the tape desk, all dolby ever did was to muffle the audio recording. Cheap tape decks just made this worse.
The first part of your post is completely false, but I cannot disagree with the second point.
From experience, the main reason Dolby NR is remembered as simply muffling the audio is from people completely misunderstanding how it works. They would switch it on even for tapes that weren't recorded for it. This does indeed completely wreck the high end.
I really enjoy your ending credits. Nicely synced music to captivating visuals.