To be released soon
To be released soon
To be released soon
To be released soon
 
 
 
Year: 1985 HS-P08

 
   
     
CONSTRUCTION AND FUNCTIONS
Body: Metal
Color and finish: Silver, Black, Red
Tape transport: IC Logic
Radio:
Recorder:
Remote control:
Auto reverse:
Battery: AAAx2
Ext. compartment:
Volume limiter:
Blank skip:
Case: PVC
Charger:
Price: 1985: 90$
2010: about 150$
Availability: Extremely Rare
Others: Remote control, Music sensor.
SOUND
Bass boost:
Equalizer:
Sound processor:
Noise reduction:
Head: Standard
Freq. response: 40-12.500Hz (norm)
40-14.000Hz (CrO2)
40-16.000Hz (metal)
Max. output: 20 mW
 
 

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION

When AIWA released the HS-P08 in 1985 it was a revolution because of the many advanced features that they achieved to fit in a small player. No other player from SONY or other brands could offer such a huge amount of features at the time; it was far more advanced than any other player in the world, except for it's bigger brother, the G08 and the J08 (this one was the most advanced walkman on 1985).

Features like feather-touch buttons, remote control and music sensor put it on a superior step over the rest, and the auto-reverse, Dolby B, hard case, new small earphones that doesn't have upper band and a body made almost full from metal, complete an incredible set of features for a player at the time.

AIWA released their players in the asian market under the "CassetteBoy" brand, which they are basically the same, except that they don't have the "0" before the "8". So in Asia they are called "P8" and in the rest of the world, "P08". All my units are from Asia, so you'll see the CassetteBoy logo in the gallery, below.

CONTEXT

80's was a very particular years and at 1985 many manufacturers were trying to offer an idea of breaking the old rules, to bring fresh ideas. And walkmans helped so much the idea to let the user to listen to music everywhere, but with not so much quality and comodity. The P08 was AIWA's first player with a remote control, to allow the user to take the player inside (for example in a very cold environment) and fully control it. The autoreverse brought the user the ability to not to take it outside to flip the tape, so I think it was a huge step ahead that set a new level of quality and sophistication, although the SONY WM-7 was the first to have autoreverse, feather touch and a remote, but in a pretty bigger size.

At that time SONY had the WM-101 that focuses in size, as it was a very small player, a succesor of the ground-breaking WM-20 released two years before. The WM-101 and the G08 have some common features, like: auto reverse, Dolby B and small earphones. The WM-101 also has an external compartment for an AA battery. But it didn't have IC logic control, remote control, music sensor or two outputs...

SOUND QUALITY

In terms of sound, it has a pretty good quality, although my unit has a bit high hiss. As many other players, with Dolby on, highs are strongly cut.

For rating the sound quality, we use a pair of high quality Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones, and a test tape (Maxell XL-II) with a high quality recording made with a SONY D6C portable deck. However, this is a personal opinion and it's not intended to be a precision rating.

Before testing it, it was taken to a professional technician for examine, repair and fine adjusting. Remember these are old machines and internal belts stops working properly after some time. Of course, head and rollers have been carefully cleaned before testing.

NOTE: If you have any useful info about this model, you can collaborate with us if you want to. Please send us an email and share your info. We will update the page with it.

 
 

The audio quality is bla bla bla

For rating the sound quality, we use a pair of high quality Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones, and a test tape (Maxell XL-II) with a high quality recording made with a SONY D6C portable deck. However, this is a personal opinion and it's not intended to be a precision rating.

D6C y Sennheiser 280 foto

Before rating this model, it was taken to a professional technician for examine, repair and fine adjusting. Remember these are old machines and internal belts stops working properly after some time. Of course, head and rollers have been carefully cleaned before testing

Frecuency response Frecuency response with Dolby
   
Background noise Wow & Flutter
Without Dolby -56 dB
-68dB
 

0,186% (RMS)

0,35% (Peak)

 
 

This is one of my favorite walkmans, by its design, technology and build quality. I thins that AIWA made the first BIG improvement over the competition with this '85 generation, leading by the extraordinary J08 and the P08's big brother: the G08.
In my opinion, a MUST HAVE walkman for any serious collector.

Overall score
Sound quality*
Sound w/Dolby
Ecualization
Features
Design
Build quality
Overall

*: Without Dolby and without any ecualization or sound processing.


 
 


   

Red version, which has a very powerful red. Extremely rare to find.

Blue version, far more difficult to find than the red one, which is far from being easy...
   

 

 

The music sensor (which detects the next or previous song) is activated by pressing FF or REW while playing.  

 

 
       

 

 

We haven't any info about licensed models from other brands. If you know anyone, please send us an email to share the info, and we will update the page.

 


AIWA P08 catalogue (page 1). AIWA P08 catalogue (page 2).
 

AIWA '85 Headphone Stereo catalogue (page 7)

 

AIWA '85 japanese general catalogue (crop of page 2).
Apart from the standard colors, AIWA offered also Pink, Green and Blue versions for Asian markets.
 

AIWA P08. Image: Shizaudio.ru
 
 

 

 

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