*Todays' roadside rescue * Hitachi CX-W700

Hi Guys,

Well, whilst doing my daily run today, I found another scrap heap boomer! This time it's a real ugly duckling!
This CX-W700 is probably one of the ugliest boxes I'd ever seen. After taking a quick look, it was obvious it was in good cosmetic condition apart from a pushed in speaker grill and was complete minus an antenna so I picked it up..... boy, this thing is heavy. It must have batteries inside..... nope, this thing is big and heavy - interesting!

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I noticed that it had something loose rattling inside the unit. I also noticed the front panel was loose on one corner so I assumed a screw post had come loose - no problem I thought.

Later, in the workshop at home, I discovered that all of the case screws were missing bar one! Luckily, I had a stash of original, period correct Hitachi screws in 'stock'. After taking off the front cover I found a dusty mess. I found that all the screw posts were in-tact so I then removed the speakers from the front panel. The sub speaker wasn't visible at this point so I then pulled down the sub box - now I realised what was causing the rattle noise - 4 hard clay wasp egg casings!
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According to a sticker on the back, the old girls' last professional service was back in 2007:
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The battery terminals are rusty but I've got some clean Hitachi springs 'in stock' so I'll switch those over tomorrow:
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The front panel then was given a warm bath. The volume pot was scratchy and the 3D & other sliders were patchy so they all got a slider contact clean and lube - what I difference that made.

All back to together and I have to admit, I was pretty surprised by the sheer amount of low volume & high volume bass this thing produces - amazing really considering that the 'sub' is only a small 8 ohm speaker and the main speakers are just light weight units. It has no tweeters either making it a mere 3 speaker boomer!

After a full 1 hour clean up!
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The CD player works fine as does the auto reverse tape deck. The other deck needs belts though. The Hitachi really thumps on FM with SW1, SW2 and AM working fine also.

This thing is loud, proud and really, really thumpy!
Although this Hitachi isn't a Hi-Fi box, it certainly challenges some 'grail status' boomboxes for effortless bass!

What a waste throwing a nice sounding and almost 100% fully working boombox in the trash!

Happy hunting!

James...

It´s a really loud one!
Congrats!

Congrats!
Hope, the original will not see this post!

Great box for a freebie! Wish I could find a boombox by the side of the road!!

No matter how ugly, you just cant leave a free boombox, if you stumble across one...

Well after getting the decks working, I had the big Hitachi booming at a get together last night and I must admit it sounded awesome. It really comes alive with heavy bass dance music. I just left it in a dark corner, turned it up and it just thumped the night away!
It's got good highs too.

As you'd expect, the CD sound is great but what was surprising was the quality of FM stereo sound -

I tried taking a video but couldn't capture the low, low bass rumple sound on my cheapo camera. :-(

I'm now on the look out for a roadside M90! Wish me luck!
James...

i used to have the cx-w500 and that thumped so this must be at least the equal. You've done a great clean up job.

Cant believe what some people toss out.

That radio sure cleaned up good. Nice work. It deserves better than sitting on the curb awaiting the trash truck!

Nice work!

Thanks for the comments guys. I've done a little web research on this model over at Stereo2Go and according to the guy responsible for designing various Hitachi 3D models, models fitted with the ASW system have the best sound and the CX-W700 / CX-W750 are the best of these.

In case anyone's interested, I finally took a demo video of the CD player of this Hitachi. Unfortunately, the video doesn't sound as 'bassy' as the real thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-4_xmSw-gM

James...

James,

Was wondering if you can help me with belts specs and belt configuration. I also have the same box and my belts came off....

MKS said:

No matter how ugly, you just cant leave a free boombox, if you stumble across one...

Click to expand...

It's true, I found a Sony Mega Watchman next to a trash can in an alley, I just couldn't leave it behind

Supernice find! These were pretty popular in Europe and for good reason!

had one of these myself-they are great sounding-to a point,but then all boxes have a volume threshold.and not bad for a box at the side of the road-very well done

Interesting. Should a grab the 750 model for $25 bucks?

I just done a buy it now for one of these with a faulty cd player for £25, last week i won an hitachi 3d8 i all ready have a 3d30 though that is a bit gutless i like the looks of these hitachi,s plus they are quite easy to take apart and work on .

This must be one of the most advanced, but still very budget oriented oldskool boomboxes out there. The 4" 7ohm woofer sits in a sealed 4th order bandpass enclosure, with the smallish port protruding from front bezel, left side of the "ASW" led logo. Looking at the shape of the bass box, it seems they were planning to do full blown 6th order, with dual ports. Hard to say why they didn't, because it could very possibly have been more efficient design in making big noise. Maybe the 4 incher wasn't up to the task. I think there are louder boxes out there, but the bass at low end hits very nicely. It's a bit weird they went with 7ohm woofer, never seen anything like that. It seems they used two indentical amps but the other is bridged for the woofer, I think the woofer is designed specifically for this application.

I bought one years ago from Germany, that was cosmetically in so-so condition, and CD wouldn't play. The bass had a very strange noise. I opened and examined the 4" woofer and seemed like it was otherwise ok, but sounded like the sound pressure under the dust cap made it sound "flappy". I went ahead and drilled a hole to the center of the backplate. But of course the metal bits went straight between the voiccoil assembly and the air gap. I somewhat let go of the idea and just tested some random woofers on the box, even in iso-baric configuration, but thats just about it. Then I just left the dissassembled thing sitting around at my folks house.

Last night I took some boomers from there, back for a small repairs and so on. For some reason I also took the CX-W700 and the failed woofer. I carefully removed the dustcap and tried my best to remove any metal from the center pole and the voice coil. After some time with packing tape and good nerves, it seemed it was ok. Started testing in the box and seemed to work ok. I added some damping material to both enclosures and it seemed to make the bass a bit deeper. Today I replaced one belt to the deck, and tried to get the cd to play with no luck. Cleaned it a bit and now the thing is once again playing nicely.

The Hitachi looks in good nick, great find. I have two of these, the first i found in the local municipal dump, it was lying amongst a pile of mixed electrical items. On getting it home i plugged it in and "hey presto" it worked, put a cd in and it played, the same with the other functions. The top panel was well scratched after other items being thrown on top of it, but what great sound, the best bass of my collection at the time (i since bought a new Sharp GX-M10) We live in a throw away society.

The second i got off e Bay for £15 described as untested non working as is, but in great cosmetic condition, sold by a clearance warehouse that don't even plug electrical items in. When this arrived it was working perfectly.