AIWA JX704 cassete recorder player!

AIWA JX704 cassette recorder player!

One of the oldest here gadgets!!We have bought this very nice designed model 12 years ago , whern tripping in Singapore. The main reason was to use two cassette players in order to record as much as possible from the  Singaporean radio waves.It was similar  to what i did on 89 when i recorded with another i think bought again there cassette recorder


And this is possibly the only gadget protected in its cover box :

as noticed in the picture  this radio includes: (with short comments  inside )

• AM (ie MW ) and FM tuner  with PLL synthesis. [the tuning is made with two very small buttons on the left of the player just left of the mini display ]
• reverse recording. [indeed  it does it ! ]
• remote control .[it uses a  provided cable with a handy remote control system tere will be a photo of it ]
• 30 stations preset [via  3 banks . the system car audio uses ]
• super bass . [from the LCd display controls ]
• auto reverse playback [yes , that was something used in most models of the time ]
• 25 hours of operation ,using alkaline batteries  !!

Here is a picture of the left part of this player . You see how small are the tuning controls . At trhe left 'bottom' there is a mains plug with 3 V. This plug is too thin. Is compatible with Nokia plugs though it requires  3 V to operate .Just look that this player in not so thick as other older models and it ca 4 cm.

Here is the opposite  side. Volume control, an operation   LED  (able to show battery level a bit ) , an oscillator (for trashing out the whistles  carriers  while recording )a microphone  input and earphones

and here is a belt base , though of plastic  design.  fore this reason I do not trust it.

and here is a photo of the remote control . Just look at the  format of the plug: all controls are amde with the third pin :

and hre is a picture of the remote control :

• On the base of the triangle there are two grey buttons :the FF (fast forward) and the REW (rewind ie fast backwards ) that act also as preset memory changers> The middle button (with the blue colour) is used to reverse the  cassete direction and stop the radio
• the small button near the edge is to start  radio  or change the radio band
• quite  sophisticated system, huh?

adn here is the side view of the control :

This is the attenuator (ie volume control that attenuates from the maximum levels ) and a  switch tht locks  the player

and this is the stereo microphone that connects  to thee player via the mic plug . it is a  dynamic lapel microphone

Here is a description of the front view

Left  button starts  radio and changes  the bands: two  for FM and one for AM(each band with 10 memories )
reset deletes every thing
MENU  :menu operations followed by  mode/set
The adjustments are :
SEL (normal - hi for bias ie standard or metal tape)
BASS : standard bass or super bass
DIR :  paly once the tape play continuously
FM stereo or mono

Hold: cancels all button operations
Middle button : changes  cassette directionality
FF REW  for fast forwarding /fast back-warding . Don't think is quite fast . It is below  2.5X  the normal cassette  speed
REC : for recording . Though you can expect  a high  fidelity recording , most trebles   are lost


And some comments on radio playback using the Carefour earphones  :

FM  : listening FM  is quite  treble-y , having more treble than Bolong radio . Seems  not very sensitive  as most stations have some hiss
AM: quite good sensitivity  with nice and clear audio. Filter is quite wide  so that inter mod whistles are  heard . this is the reason of using the OSC  while recording


I found that the AN 200 antenna  can be quite helpful for enhancing MW reception. The best point to locate the player is this :

And for cassette audio playback :
Using again the same (Carrefour) earphones (and tested also with Sennheiser's heads)  by using original cassettes (with Dolby ) audio sounds great!