FEATURES

The DD30 is one of the members of the small family of Walkmans with Direct Drive transmission gear, a rarity in the world of portable cassette players. This feature makes it last longer because typical models have rubber belts that loose tension and tape speed, resulting in wow&flutter, ending in a unpleasant sound. In addition, the DD30 as some other models of the DD series are a controlling circuit the speed of the tape, to keep very accurate as well as stable.

The metallic housing and their clean design makes the DD30 a stylish and elegant model, that is often considered a top-line member.

This model is a successor of the DD100 (Boodo Khan), but without the DOL system. The line out was replaced by a second headphone output. The DD30 model was the first DD model with MegaBass, which makes it one of the best sounding machine of all walkmans. This system derived from the high-end DOL (see glossary) that was present on some hi-fi systems and in the legendary DD100 BOODO KHAN.

This model suffers from a known problem that affects almost the whole DD line and causes it to make a repeated "click" while playing, due to a design flaw in one of the internal gears. This problem was corrected only in one of the successors, the flasgship DD9, which is considered the best sounding walkman ever made.

CONTEXT

In that year, AIWA released the HS-PL303 & PX303 which both had Dolby B, DSL, feather-touch buttons, remote control, auto-reverse, a PB-3 external battery. More on, they also were much more compact, had an Amorphous HX head and the PX303 also had Dolby C, so AIWA's models were far more advanced than SONY's one. However, the DD drive system still sounds better without ecualization.

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I have to admit that this is one of my favorite players, because although it hasn't so many features, sounds like being in heaven: clean, well balanced, crisp and has a very low wow&flutter, thanks to the DD system.

The MegaBass system adds the precise quantity of bass it's needed to make you feel "into" the music, but not an excesive quantity so you really feel "into the bass" and not into the music. The next model that SONY released a few years later, the DD33, has an more powerful MegaBass, with a soft "mid" position but a massive "max" position, so this is why I prefer the DD30.

With Dolby B on, like many other models, it cuts off highs, but less than is usual on many models, making it even usable, with an appropiate tape and recording. However, personally I prefer to leave it off.

All this makes the DD30 one of my favorite Walkmans, which is far ahead most models and being a member of the very best of the best models, like the SONY DD9, AIWA PX101, PX303, PX1000...

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

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

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 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.