Gadgets

Whatever happened to Aiwa?

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief January 16, 2011 · 2 min read

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Was driving in SSH this afternoon to go to church when I saw a billboard ad with the logo of Aowa. I’ve had bad experiences with their sales people years back but the name already reminded me of the electronics brand, Aiwa.

aiwa
Many years back, they were a growing and popular brand of cassette players/recorders as well as home stereo system (boasting power outputs as high as 16,000 watts PMPO). They’re supposed to be cheaper too compared to the bigger brand names.

I’ve never heard of them for a long time now nor have seen any of their products in home appliance stores. A quick search online gave me the answers I was looking for:

The Aiwa Corporation slid towards bankruptcy until it was purchased by competitor Sony Corporation. As of October 1, 2002, Aiwa ceased to be a separate company and became a wholly owned division of Sony Corporation.

Sony tried to revive the image of Aiwa and even re-focused it to the younger segment of the market. That did not seem to pan out as well.

Since 2004 Sony has seemingly been rolling back its support for the Aiwa brand and in 2005 Aiwa products remain on sale in only selected territories around the globe. In 2006, Aiwa products were discontinued and no longer sold in the market. {via Wikipedia}

Anybody out there still has an Aiwa cassette player or stereo system? Maybe that’s where the other Aowa brand came to be?

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

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116 Comments

gary · 15 years ago

before i have 3 units of aiwa tv and 3 units of mini hi-fi but gave some units to my brother, mother and my xgf. i still have with me 2 tv and 1 mini hi-fi and a obsolete vhs player. all working well.
i also have few pieces of cd lens for parts.
anyone in need may contact me, send me e-mail.

J-

J- Mack · 15 years ago

from south africa… i own an aiwa xr h1000 (2*80w rms, t bass, bbe). its super but now i wanna use it for studio monitoring, where can i get some more technical specs especially around t bass and bbe?

karmesh · 15 years ago

I have a home AIWA digital dolby surround system of 5700W PMPO with 5cd changers. Still work great… and its playback is much much better then any other brand’s system even today.
I still like AIWA above any other brand but its no longer available… so sad… :(

Louie Catamora · 15 years ago

mayroon po kaming AIWA…since 1997 pa po… iamgine.. 2011 na ngayun… gumagana pa rin sya… music is superb! lupet ng bass, compared to other brands.. d na nga lang gumagana yung 5-disc changer nya… ska yung casette… so i have to connect a dvd player to play cd’s on it… just changing video/aux.. yun na…

cha · 15 years ago

i have an aiwa fm/am walkman (super liit lang kasi hindi sya casette) since 1995 pa sya, but still works well. one aa batt lang, sulit! an altetrnative to ipod kasi walang ako nung attachment. sayang naman ang brand na ito

dimsum · 15 years ago

i still own an aiwa mini compo, bought in 1994, malakas pa rin.

pdpla · 15 years ago

I remember my mom bought an AIWA VHS recorder back in 1997 as a 2nd player at home. She bought it for me to watch educational TV shows. I also remember that you can see a big AIWA logo on Home Alone 2 – Lost in New York.

Joshua M · 15 years ago

AIWA-la na

golfgurl · 15 years ago

Had an Aiwa portable cassette player before that can tune into TV waves. I can listen to whatever local channel right from my walkman! It came with a rechargeable battery and felt pretty solid unlike newer Sony ones.

sandinfo · 15 years ago

my first Aiwa a 14inc colour TV..

aiwadong · 15 years ago

anu ba ang aiwa sa tagalog?

TEHC SUPPORT · 15 years ago

My first Aiwa was a 2,000 watts PMPO VCD audio component. Back then it was worth about 20k. Until now it still sounds great! :)

tootzkie · 15 years ago

BTW, my brother, a nurse also bought an AIWA dual-cassette stereo player a year later and is still working today… problem is, cassettes are collectors item nowadays and is hard to find. just uses the FM/AM today.

tootzkie · 15 years ago

I’m proud to be an owner of an AIWA NSX-V900 model stereo component with a modest(?) PMPO of 1800 watts which i bought in 1994 with my first x’mas bonus. it has the BBE for better sound quality and a DSP Surround or Digital Signal Processor. Still works today sans the cassette and cd player only the AM/FM but when my 3 kids sometimes use it as external speaker for the PC or laptop (even the TV), just imagine what happens to our small abode?!

AIWA Rocks Bigtime!!!!

butthead · 15 years ago

Kyowa may ginhawa ka!! HEHE

dee · 15 years ago

meron pa bang aiwa sa japan parang meron pa yata.

Droider · 15 years ago

Aiwa-la na. Hehehe

Jhay · 15 years ago

I think we used to have an Aiwa cassette player some four years ago. But it was replaced by one from Sony.

Remember their TV ad in which the person carrying an Aiwa TV was smothered with greetings from a horde of bikers saying “Aiwa! Aiwa!” haha

docalfred · 15 years ago

My sister used to work at Aiwa. I bought a couple of appliances from them, particularly, a stereo system, a tv, transistor radio and an alarm clock. All are still working today. Most of them are more than 10years old.

Peej · 15 years ago

My cousin had this Aiwa 1800W PMPO Component and this really rocks! Their technology called T-Bass (Thunder Bass) booms like a mobile sound stage especially those long low-frequency firing of pure bass when playing movies (VCD then) and with sound enhancement called BBE (Barcus-Berry Electronics) which enhances live sound quality somewhat the older version of popular High Definition for audio.

Bryan · 15 years ago

still have a working Aiwa Digital Audio System but kinda buggy na (buggy meaning the buttons doesn’t respond like its supposed to be for example when I press tape it’ll go to tuner something like that).:D I think collector’s item narin mga Aiwa products.XD

wendell · 15 years ago

Still using an AIWA 21″ colored tv.

uberover · 15 years ago

AFAIK, the Aiwa brand is more reliable brand than Sony..that’s why Sony bought Aiwa.

gary · 15 years ago

yeah, sony bought aiwa and intentionally kill the brand.
to avoid competition.

uberover · 15 years ago

aiwa is really a respectable brand.
their products are of cheap price but it has very good quality.
i really feel so sad for aiwa because they’re really good in making electronic products. my aunt used to have an aiwa since 2001 and surprisingly, it’s still working fine until now…not even a single defect or repairs!

why the heck aiwa chose to shut down?
it’s really sad to see a very respectable company gets closed, isn’t it?

John Ray Cabrera · 15 years ago

oh yes, aiwa used to have thos hifi system that you can put a DJ sound effect.

masarap libre · 15 years ago

aiwa commercial before. “aiwa may ginhawa ka” LOL

myke · 15 years ago

aiwa component + aiwa walkman

LOL · 15 years ago

WTF. LOL

froilan · 15 years ago

yes we still have one cassette with cd player.. the sound was very nice.. i even used it as my computer speaker back then, but someone killed it as it was a 110v machine and was put to 220v. damn till now its not yet fix.. but the speakers we still good. we used it as our own surround type speaker system..hehehe

Jeric · 15 years ago

We used to have a portable cassette player (commonly branded as walkmans) from aiwa.. plus headphones too! It was way back during the 90s, We wondered too what happened to them. I guess this explains the situation. They got bankrupt.

eRvN · 15 years ago

We have an aiwa mini component with 3 disc changer, maganda naman yun product and dinala sya ng father ko sa probinsya, until now gumagana pa rin naman.

jamie · 15 years ago

a distant relative gave me an aiwa walkman. it was awesome, i love it, but eventually got broken. i like their earphones. clear sound for a cheap price.

Juy · 15 years ago

Its now AIMA, with a similar logo ;)

jun de sagon · 15 years ago

Sir, Yung AOWA brand, sila yung mau modus SCAM sa msa malls na nang bibiktima ng mga may credit card. Kunwari ay nanalo ka sa promo nila. Mapapabili ka kasi daming freebees at kunwar ay discounts. Hahaha di mo alam, nabili mo na lahat, ubos credit card mo. Dami na pong reklamo sa AOWA na yan. Ingat sa SCAM ng AOWA mga kabayan.

Eason · 15 years ago

We had an Aiwa TV and Mini Component System until Ondoy came. Now the Mini Component speakers are still working, now used in a church :D

We also had Cassette Players, but I don’t know where are thoese now O_O

Maybe Aowa has a meaning? O_O I meam Japanese Word? Acroname?

Teknisyan · 15 years ago

I have a 8 year old Aiwa VHS Player… that’s accumulating dust but still able to play VHS tapes!!!

btw…Aiwa means “YES” in Arabic!!!

Benchmark33 · 15 years ago

I know I still have am Aiwa walkman somewehre hehehehe

I didn’t know it was acquired by Sony…if I only knew, I should have bought more units para lang ma-spare sila…NAKS! Feeling manyaman! Hahahaha

tantra2gadget · 15 years ago

I have minicompo ng aiwa i buy it year 2001 until n0w buhay pa din cya,ok pa fm am but disc player nya dna gumagana…

leeto · 15 years ago

I bought an Aiwa mini component on the year 196 as my first salary and gift to myself. It sounds very good and still alive until now. It was a tough and is of good quality, sayang wala na ang Aiwa now.

Randolf Arevalo · 15 years ago

We have an AIWA CD/VCD player! didn’t know na wala na pala yung mismong company. xD

Yogi · 15 years ago

Got an AIWA cassette player when I was still in college (1995). Still working pa din ang FM radio, cassette player is working but sound is distorted.

Cherry Mobile – first day of use ng fm radio, sira na agad ang headset at speaker. Tsk tsk!

jp · 15 years ago

buhay p yung aiwa component namin hanggang ngayon na nabili nung 1998 pero hanggang fm/am na lang siya dahil sira na rin yung cd disc player nya. Nauna pang nasira yung mga dvd player namin

gary · 15 years ago

hi jp
i have few pieces of cd lens for aiwa component.
you might be interested in rebuilding your aiwa component.
you may send me email.

thanks

agrimensor · 15 years ago

We won an Aiwa TV from Robinsons promo. Quality is comparable to the branded ones. Its almost 10 years and it’s still working great.

zelerick · 15 years ago

i have an Aiwa walkman : )

Pedro · 15 years ago

I used to have a Aiwa TV before it was destroyed by typhoon Ondoy…

RJCA · 15 years ago

The TV in our kitchen is Aiwa. ;)

masf · 15 years ago

I have my Aiwa mini component still working,i got this since 1998

Leo · 15 years ago

We still have the Aiwa TV, still running in good condition.

forgetmenot · 15 years ago

my first (1991) cassette player was aiwa and it was way ahead of the competition having a battery pack that you can plug on the side which uses a single triple A battery and it was really slim too(during that era)! it think it was rechargeable and just really nice

NemOry · 15 years ago

I remember Aiwa brand, my tita’s TV until now is Aiwa. ,hehe
@sir Abe, ask lang po when will I recieve the loot bag??im excited to let my family believe I won.ayaw maniwala e..hehe.thanks po