Anti-rolling mechanism, it is not about braking the reels to stop them flopping about, inside you will see 2 flywheels, with the bely wrapped round them so that one spins one way and the other spins in the opposite direction. Without this, when running along a road with the thing strapped to your waist, as the walkman is rocked, the tape and music will speed up and slow down. With the 2 contra-rotating flywheels (Nice word for a Saturday!) the inertia of one flywheel cancels the inertia of the other, this cancels out the speedy uppy slowy downy effect of the walkman being rocked, so it still sounds good even when being rocked around.
A lot of people think cassettes sound awful. I highly disagree with them. Its the way tapes were originally mastered by the recording company that makes some sound bad. I (a 17 year old) still make mix tapes from time to time, and I must say, they are giving my CDs a run for their money when it comes to sound quality. Thats with Dolby turned off.
Still using my faithful old Philips N2400, stereo with built-in amp and seperate speakers, from 1970. Completely agree with you, cassettes sound good ! I've got quite a few cassette recorders and players, all of which were thrown my way for the most part.
Personally, MP3s (In general) sound a bit better than cassette HOWEVER, there is this satisfaction that I get from tapes that I will never get off an mp3, which is why tapes are my favorite collectable and music format
I had many when these were current, but my favorite was the WM-F18. Short of having AMS and AVLS, this had all the options you could have wanted in a personal cassette player. AM/FM and cassette, Auto Reverse, plus you could set it to play both sides and then shut off or play both sides in an infinite loop sort of thing until the batteries ran down, Dolby NR, Normal or CrO², AM/FM with FM sens and FM Mono or Stereo, Play/Stop and Rewind, Tape travel arrows, three band equalizer shoulder strap, and could run with batteries or via a external power supply. Incidentally, since I never did have a true power supply for it, I found out that the plug was the same size as one of my long since deceased Wahl personal groomers. All I had to do was cut the wires and reconnect them backwards because everyone else in the world uses the center for power and the side ground, but Sony does it backward and uses the side for power and the center for ground. Same size plug, but it's 3.5V instead of 3V, and you just have to remember to reverse the polarity before you plug it in. The diagrams on the side of the tape deck and on the charger will indicate whether it's necessary or not, but the odds are all but 100% that they'll be opposites of each other. Anyway, that F18 has always been my favorite and is the only one I have left. I no longer have the original headphones for it, but when I replaced them, I did make sure to replace them with something at least similar, that being the Sony TRH-1. The last deck I had left was a WM-FX42, which I gave to my at the time 9 year old son, and that was around10 years ago. He doesn't have it anymore. He swears I got it back, but that didn't happen because I didn't have any use for it and I didn't want it back even if I did need it. He just lost it somewhere and doesn't have a clue about where or when. Either that or his sister snagged it when he wasn't looking. Lol she's a little nerd about things like that and I can totally see that being an option.
You don't really even need a good player. You just have to maintain them every now and then, which consists of cleaning the playback head and the pinch roller. If you just do those two things, you can get good sound quality from even a mediocre machine. It's simple and literally anyone who is capable of operating a tape deck can quickly and easily learn how to maintain one.
Cassettes vary in quality, also the tape heads. so yes, some tapes were literal junk, some players too. not a myth. you can polish a turd all you want, right?
I have a minidisc player with a similar control panel to your silver walkman. The bezel pushes little plastic nubs onto snap domes. One of my buttons was erratic, sometimes even registering as a different button. Rather than change out the snap dome I put a piece of packing tape over it. Now it works almost perfectly. Best guess is that the tape smoothed out the button bounce. It was the next track button, so likely the most used.
Thank you for the nice collection and the beautiful and practical demonstration how to compare the cassette players to a prof.tape reader like the one you have got as a demonstration for us.thanks for the precious piece of advices you have given us in a very simple way.
A friend of mine had a Sony like the fancy one you have that had recording , separate L and R mic inputs and AMS it was awesome. Cost near if not $200 in the early 90s. As always nice collection!
Still love my cassette walkmans I just found two here in Ireland €2 each!! Sony wm fx 16 and a nice metal case Panasonic rq~x11 Sony working Panasonic needs a belt,,Great video thank you.
I'm 19 years old and I've never listen music with Walkman until 3 weeks ago and I shocked the sound quality I mean it wasn't that bad also there is no dolby nr or mage bass feature on the walkman. I'll get one with Dolby NR and Maga Bass soon. By the way great video(thanks to YT recomends)
I've run into a lot problems with vintage Walkmans. The belts tend not to last over 20 plus years. I finally bought a fully refurbished Sony Walkman on eBay that had the belts replaced, the speed re calibrated and head was cleaned. That's really the only way to be sure you have a working vintage Walkman. They are costly though because you are paying for someone's time to refurbish it plus parts.
I bought a "refurbished" WM-EX615 from ebay... Belts replaced, re greased, like new condition and so on. He also claimed he had corrected the speed but honestly in the end it had a pretty wobbly sound (high wow and flutter) and the battery door was heavily corroded. Well he gave me an AA adaptor that would hang up on the side of the unit but it pretty much ruins the aesthetic of the device so i prefer using the gumstick battery. In the end it needed a intensive cleaning on the battery door and areas around, a new belt and also new pinch rollers. The old pinch rollers were intact but failed to align the tape correctly, so the azimuth was a bit off. The new belt had less wobbly wobble sound but in all the player still had wow&flutter just over 0,4% which is a bit high, 0,2-0,3% would be ideal for this kind of player. So that´s it, a "refurbished, new belt, speed adjusted and like new" walkman. Oh btw. the speed also was a bit off, so i even re-adjusted the speed to my liking. Yeah do it yourself or hope someone did a good job. Most of the time, replacing the belts on the later logic-controlled sony´s is pretty easy and mostly the root cause of malfunction. Bought a few other models, another EX615, two EX674 and one EX670. They all share the same mechanism but the EX67x have all features avaiable from the device itself, so a remote is optional. They even have status LED´s that will show you which functions are enabled while you hold down the "function" key. The EX615 however has just basic controls on the unit itself, you should make sure to get it alongside the remote, mega bass, Dolby B and other features are only avaiable through the remote! But other than that, these are pretty high quality machines from the late 90s to the early 2000s.
Hello! I'm not driving a car, which is why i'm taking music with me when I'm on the bus going to work or somewhere and everytime I used to listen to music via my smartphone through wired earphones everytime I'm traveling by bus (cause I'm very annoyed by the fact that going by bus everytime is an issue of listening the outside noises of someone speaking loudly etc.) but recently I enjoyed so much when I took my Sony WM-EX382 with me instead of listening to music as usual from smartphone and that was something much warmer than "clean digital" sound from a smartphone. And also I'm really enjoying to sit down to my tape deck (which is also Sony) and record some albums myself that I'm enjoy to listen to. And now while I'm on the bus going somewhere I'm taking my WalkMan instead of smartphone 'cause that's pretty nice (of course if you listen to a decent WM and it doesn't matter whether it's a homemade mixtape or studio cassette - it's fun 😊) And also the Sony WM-EX152 was my first walkman, which I loved so much by how simple it is but yet it's absolutely amazing, and I would definetely recomend anyone who would like to have their own WalkMan to buy one of these if only You able to find that on Ebay, 100% 😁
One thing I don't like about most Sports Walkmans, not all though are that most of them had their switches inside the cassette compartment, often behind the cassette when they are loaded inside. That makes switching Dolby NR, PB EQ and several other functions impossible to switch while in playback. Therefore it is imperative to know what the functions are before inserting a cassette.
1998-2005 was a good time to buy any used electronics at cheap prices! Thanks to hipsters and stupid movies Walkman's like these skyrocketed from $5 to $30!
RustyX2010 don’t whinge just because a movie makes it popular, guardians is an amazing movie and while, yes, it has skyrocketed one particular Walkman in price couldn’t u: A: appreciate the new attention and access to Walkmans and cassettes the movie has given B: just get a different Walkman only 2 models of Walkman have been launched up in price (the TPS-L2, the one seen in the movie, and the WM-3, the black rework of the TPS-L2)
@@harleyokeefe5193 other walkman prices have gone up for ones that are not even working and mostly for parts/repair. I see both sides of this argument though. (sony wm-10 or wm-20 for example are pricey even if theyre for parts/ not working)
Just make sure it has a good belt, and line up the azimuth with a jeweler screwdriver, I work on these a lot. My unit I like playing right now is my Radio Shack SCP-52. Put work into it what the assemblers don't do, and most any of them will work fine, and sound great!
I have a one of the later Sony Walkmans that I bought new back in the early 2000's I plug into my car stereo's aux jack since it didn't come with a cassettes player.
I got a WM-FX288 out of the recycling, works good as new! My Coomber school cassette recorder broke though so I wonder if a modern Sony cassette boombox with line in would be good enough for making recordings. guess there is only one way to find out!
i´m just making a coment to say that tdk looked so good to me when they came out ,that i bought several and tdk improved in this series the quality of the cassetes in resistance,also used the normal bias ad-x and high bias sa,ma-xg with iron chassi. this last were very expensive 60 minutes 7.5 € at the time
Congrats! The WM-FX407 is one of the best in the "all plastic" family of Sony Walkmans. Yours belong to the 401/403/405/407 lineup, and only the 405 and the 407 have Dolby noise reduction.
I use to have the banana color Walkman. I just buy a Sony off eBay Sony Fx101 cassette, I believe they came out in 1994. It said the cassette and radio works well, I hoping it does. Not sure if it’s a top Model.
@databits tech Great video. I was wondering if you could put a few links on the description or something to some quality cassettes player. I've tried I few so far and none haven't work.
I like any of the Sony WM series or AIWA players. Don't buy any Walkman that doesn't have buttons on the side of the player. The Sony WM-F2085 is terrific.
my WM-EX615 has ams. think it was one of the top models when I bought it heavily discounted from the catalogue shop index in the UK just as the Walkman was a dying breed. well the cassette type anyway. That's why it was sold of cheap. Nice sounding unit. even has a revive sound setting that makes old worn out cassettes sound better than they are!
Hello I ask you if you have noise when playing your tape your sony walkman wm-af65. I have the same noise my sony walkman wm-af65 when playing the tape
I've been picking up a few of these over the last few years. Don't diss the radio. I've found it very handy to be able to gluck on the radio when out and about. I've also been enjoying the ones you can record on. Are you still using them today?
would seeking maintenance on a walkman be worth it i got a aiwa walkman in mint condition...cosmetically but it plays slow to where the music sound crappy
Such a shame my "fancy" Walkman doesn't want to work any more... It was a *Sony WM-EX512,* cassette only, that worked on _one_ double A battery, and would play for *hours* on it. Mine was about as thick (and as large/wide) as a cassette tape. It did come with a basic in-cord remote, and it _did_ feature AMS Music Search. So there you have one that did have it. I still regret that it doesn't want to work properly any more...
Jensen is making cassete players like that frequently. They are actually improving their models with new models and players coming out. There not as bad as people make them seem as “the cheepo, your first not very good player” They are starting to get better with the performance and sound.
i need help does anyone know what may be wrong i have a wm f10 walkman I've had it about 4 years no and one day i flip the tape and it just stops working the motor wont even run no noise at all and its not like the headphones being plugged in is the problem cause the radio works fine i tried new batteries different cassettes different headphones and ear buds but nothing i dont know what to do
TheRasdragon the tape head could be damaged. Before replacing it though, try buying one of those tape head cleaners from EBay. If it still doesn't work, you may have to replace the tape head. (Or it could just be a dodgy connection.) if it still doesn't work, you may have to replace a belt or some gears. If it still doesn't work, it may be a dodgy logic board. Hope this helps! 😇
7:10 ... tread lightly. Sure, Dolby removes some noise, but can also negatively affect the actual sound on the cassette, depending on the music/sound. Especially Dolby C, but not many cassette-walkmans have Dolby C anyways.
Dobly C are AMAZING BUT when used in a very good cassete deck. I have a nakamichi cassete deck 1 and tapes recorded in dobly B and C sound awsome. I think Dobly C sound best using the same tape deck for recording and playback....dobly B is not that picky. Dolby C requires a VERY calibrated deck. Dolby B pre-recorded tapes never sound good for me..normally i play them with dolby disabled. Dolby for me only sounds really good when i record them. And believe me...an high end deck with an metal tape recorded high + dobly C sounds absolutly amazing. Reconding +6 and dolby C on metal tape and you have a VERY GOOD dynamic range, and no noise in silent areas, is like playing a CD.
I need help finding a walkman. It must be an actual Sony Walkman, not any other brand, must be small, have dolby B or higher, auto reverse, AM/FM radio (doesnt have to be but would like it to play radio) , it can't look like that one with the round screen or be a sports walkman because I think they look garish, and it cant be kind of rare because I made that mistake last time when I bought a WM-16 and could not find any kind of documentation on it. Anyone have an idea what would work? I kind of like the wm-f10 but they're expensive.
Wow nice to all your collections....i love it can i buy one of your walkmans i like that silver one thank you i'm from philippines and i'm interested to buy
When I was young the Jensen would have been fine with me as Sony models were 2 to 3 times more expensive. This is a cool video though and I wouldn't mind having the sports model.
Aesthetically I like the sports Walkman… IDK what the noise was when you showed it, I have one like that although I wish mine had a radio… I wonder why they made some without radios 🤔
I just got a koss walkman that looks like a clone of your Sony sports model but with an radio and bass boost can't wate to test it out not listed to tapes since 2000 😮😊
Note: Walkman is a Sony brand, hehehe. There are also tapes that use azimuth recording or something. What does that mean? I'm in a need of a new deck(my Sony boombox died)
Best idea get A DCC Walkman. Reasonably priced on eBay. Full Logic Control. Auto Reverse. AMS. High quality portable deck and on top of that if you manage to find DCC tapes it sounds as good as a Mini Disc. Oh and did I mention. It is fully compatible with normal and Chrome Tapes?. :D
Very interesting video! It's pretty funny that the functions that you listed for an expensive Walkman (skipping tracks, nearly as small as the cassette, remote) are the functions of the player I found for a Euro on a flea market: The Panasonic RQ-SX41, which is my personal favorite of my portable players. Sadly the internal battery pack leaked massively so I couldn't use it anymore but I still got it with the attachable pack for regular batteries and a remote, which is attached between the player and the headphones. It also has Dolby Noisereduction and Auto-Reverse. If you manage to find one, buy it. I'm not an expert about cassettes but I think it's worth it. Greetings from Germany!
My priority is collecting records lol. I want to start to collecting cassettes, because they are super cheap, and cheaper than records for more basically. I need help choosing a Walkman so I can just listen everywhere. I'm thinking about the Reshow Cassette Player - Portable Tape Player Captures MP3 Audio Music via USB it's on amazon for about 20 bucks. Help.
I would run from any "cheap" cassette player or "retro" version. Just go to ebay and search for "sony walkman cassette" and find one in your price range.
Wish our mainstream goodwills had cassettes for sale, you can only find them (ALLOT) at the goodwill outlets, of wich the cassettes subjected are usually crushed and dirty
My Favorit is the Pioneer Deck then 2nd the Sony Mega Bass Walkman FM/AM in Norm or Mid Bass. The max Bass is to much! Also on this Walkman the High is crisp clear and the mid range is also good hear able. The Silver Sony 485 Walkman have something with the Head Azimuth there is something wrong (Pinch Roller).
Had a wonderful AIWA at one time, and Panasonic example that still runs well. Anything with just the Play/FF/Stop is best avoided as are later examples from China - they eat tapes. LOL .Remember the yellow Sony you have too. Happy days. Our supermarket chain, ASDA, is owned by Walmart, and still, this afternoon, had blank tapes on sale !
Some who are presumably in the know say that the first pre-recorded cassette sold in the U.S. that had Chrome tape with 120 μs EQ was 1981 album Synchronicity by the Police.
Uhhh I'm so pissed I found a version of the song called Home by Jincheng Zhang but it has Korean people randomly shit talking over it I don't understand where is the music from
They normally go for anything from £300.00 to £500.00 of Ebay but if they are completely unused them they have gone for over £1,000.00. It is certainly worth the money.
I am the proud owner of the Sony WM F-2081 Walkman with autoreverse, and I absolutely LOVE it! It was the best Christmas gift I ever got! :)
Anti-rolling mechanism, it is not about braking the reels to stop them flopping about, inside you will see 2 flywheels, with the bely wrapped round them so that one spins one way and the other spins in the opposite direction. Without this, when running along a road with the thing strapped to your waist, as the walkman is rocked, the tape and music will speed up and slow down. With the 2 contra-rotating flywheels (Nice word for a Saturday!) the inertia of one flywheel cancels the inertia of the other, this cancels out the speedy uppy slowy downy effect of the walkman being rocked, so it still sounds good even when being rocked around.
A lot of people think cassettes sound awful. I highly disagree with them. Its the way tapes were originally mastered by the recording company that makes some sound bad. I (a 17 year old) still make mix tapes from time to time, and I must say, they are giving my CDs a run for their money when it comes to sound quality. Thats with Dolby turned off.
+simtitan1 - thanks for your comment. I think I'll make a comparison video some time demonstrating the power of cassette audio.
Still using my faithful old Philips N2400, stereo with built-in amp and seperate speakers, from 1970. Completely agree with you, cassettes sound good ! I've got quite a few cassette recorders and players, all of which were thrown my way for the most part.
Personally, MP3s (In general)
sound a bit better than cassette HOWEVER, there is this satisfaction that I get from tapes that I will never get off an mp3, which is why tapes are my favorite collectable and music format
I have a cassette collection and they sound great
Even more satisfying "CLUNK"? When an 8 track switches programs! But yeah, the sound quality of cassette is pretty underrated!
I had many when these were current, but my favorite was the WM-F18. Short of having AMS and AVLS, this had all the options you could have wanted in a personal cassette player. AM/FM and cassette, Auto Reverse, plus you could set it to play both sides and then shut off or play both sides in an infinite loop sort of thing until the batteries ran down, Dolby NR, Normal or CrO², AM/FM with FM sens and FM Mono or Stereo, Play/Stop and Rewind, Tape travel arrows, three band equalizer shoulder strap, and could run with batteries or via a external power supply.
Incidentally, since I never did have a true power supply for it, I found out that the plug was the same size as one of my long since deceased Wahl personal groomers. All I had to do was cut the wires and reconnect them backwards because everyone else in the world uses the center for power and the side ground, but Sony does it backward and uses the side for power and the center for ground. Same size plug, but it's 3.5V instead of 3V, and you just have to remember to reverse the polarity before you plug it in. The diagrams on the side of the tape deck and on the charger will indicate whether it's necessary or not, but the odds are all but 100% that they'll be opposites of each other.
Anyway, that F18 has always been my favorite and is the only one I have left. I no longer have the original headphones for it, but when I replaced them, I did make sure to replace them with something at least similar, that being the Sony TRH-1. The last deck I had left was a WM-FX42, which I gave to my at the time 9 year old son, and that was around10 years ago. He doesn't have it anymore. He swears I got it back, but that didn't happen because I didn't have any use for it and I didn't want it back even if I did need it. He just lost it somewhere and doesn't have a clue about where or when. Either that or his sister snagged it when he wasn't looking. Lol she's a little nerd about things like that and I can totally see that being an option.
Music sample times:
Jensen: 14:43
WM-EX162: 15:55
Sports: 17:13
Dolby: 18:40
Computer-Controlled: 21:40
the jensen sounds really good lmao
Here’s one myth: Cassettes sounding bad.
That is false. You can get amazing quality from them. You just need a good player.
You don't really even need a good player. You just have to maintain them every now and then, which consists of cleaning the playback head and the pinch roller. If you just do those two things, you can get good sound quality from even a mediocre machine. It's simple and literally anyone who is capable of operating a tape deck can quickly and easily learn how to maintain one.
Cassettes vary in quality, also the tape heads.
so yes, some tapes were literal junk, some players too. not a myth.
you can polish a turd all you want, right?
yah |
EVERYONE KEEPS STEALING THIS FROM TECHMOAN. YALL JUST
I have a minidisc player with a similar control panel to your silver walkman. The bezel pushes little plastic nubs onto snap domes. One of my buttons was erratic, sometimes even registering as a different button. Rather than change out the snap dome I put a piece of packing tape over it. Now it works almost perfectly. Best guess is that the tape smoothed out the button bounce. It was the next track button, so likely the most used.
Thank you for the nice collection and the beautiful and practical demonstration how to compare the cassette players to a prof.tape reader like the one you have got as a demonstration for us.thanks for the precious piece of advices you have given us in a very simple way.
15:35 I still have Sony Walkman WM EX152. :)
A friend of mine had a Sony like the fancy one you have that had recording , separate L and R mic inputs and AMS it was awesome. Cost near if not $200 in the early 90s. As always nice collection!
Mike Cramp , I had one, my brother's girlfriend ripped him off after I lent it to him.
Still love my cassette walkmans I just found two here in Ireland €2 each!! Sony wm fx 16 and a nice metal case Panasonic rq~x11 Sony working Panasonic needs a belt,,Great video thank you.
I'm 19 years old and I've never listen music with Walkman until 3 weeks ago and I shocked the sound quality I mean it wasn't that bad also there is no dolby nr or mage bass feature on the walkman. I'll get one with Dolby NR and Maga Bass soon. By the way great video(thanks to YT recomends)
I have a 96 Panasonic one with xbs (extra bass system) and sounds better than most modern ones you can get of amazon
I have 400 of them and love the format
Thanks to your advices I ended up buying a Sony Walkman WM-FX193. I'll keep you posted! ;)
vassili87 how has it been
I've run into a lot problems with vintage Walkmans. The belts tend not to last over 20 plus years. I finally bought a fully refurbished Sony Walkman on eBay that had the belts replaced, the speed re calibrated and head was cleaned. That's really the only way to be sure you have a working vintage Walkman. They are costly though because you are paying for someone's time to refurbish it plus parts.
I bought a "refurbished" WM-EX615 from ebay...
Belts replaced, re greased, like new condition and so on.
He also claimed he had corrected the speed but honestly in the end it had a pretty wobbly sound (high wow and flutter) and the battery door was heavily corroded.
Well he gave me an AA adaptor that would hang up on the side of the unit but it pretty much ruins the aesthetic of the device so i prefer using the gumstick battery.
In the end it needed a intensive cleaning on the battery door and areas around, a new belt and also new pinch rollers.
The old pinch rollers were intact but failed to align the tape correctly, so the azimuth was a bit off.
The new belt had less wobbly wobble sound but in all the player still had wow&flutter just over 0,4% which is a bit high, 0,2-0,3% would be ideal for this kind of player.
So that´s it, a "refurbished, new belt, speed adjusted and like new" walkman.
Oh btw. the speed also was a bit off, so i even re-adjusted the speed to my liking.
Yeah do it yourself or hope someone did a good job.
Most of the time, replacing the belts on the later logic-controlled sony´s is pretty easy and mostly the root cause of malfunction.
Bought a few other models, another EX615, two EX674 and one EX670.
They all share the same mechanism but the EX67x have all features avaiable from the device itself, so a remote is optional.
They even have status LED´s that will show you which functions are enabled while you hold down the "function" key.
The EX615 however has just basic controls on the unit itself, you should make sure to get it alongside the remote, mega bass, Dolby B and other features are only avaiable through the remote!
But other than that, these are pretty high quality machines from the late 90s to the early 2000s.
Bought a later-model Sport for $5 at a garage-sale, with all the functions on it that your fav-model has.
Hello! I'm not driving a car, which is why i'm taking music with me when I'm on the bus going to work or somewhere and everytime I used to listen to music via my smartphone through wired earphones everytime I'm traveling by bus (cause I'm very annoyed by the fact that going by bus everytime is an issue of listening the outside noises of someone speaking loudly etc.) but recently I enjoyed so much when I took my Sony WM-EX382 with me instead of listening to music as usual from smartphone and that was something much warmer than "clean digital" sound from a smartphone. And also I'm really enjoying to sit down to my tape deck (which is also Sony) and record some albums myself that I'm enjoy to listen to. And now while I'm on the bus going somewhere I'm taking my WalkMan instead of smartphone 'cause that's pretty nice (of course if you listen to a decent WM and it doesn't matter whether it's a homemade mixtape or studio cassette - it's fun 😊) And also the Sony WM-EX152 was my first walkman, which I loved so much by how simple it is but yet it's absolutely amazing, and I would definetely recomend anyone who would like to have their own WalkMan to buy one of these if only You able to find that on Ebay, 100% 😁
Love this video, this definitely helped me out a lot :)
19:03 now that’s a good cassette.
One thing I don't like about most Sports Walkmans, not all though are that most of them had their switches inside the cassette compartment, often behind the cassette when they are loaded inside. That makes switching Dolby NR, PB EQ and several other functions impossible to switch while in playback. Therefore it is imperative to know what the functions are before inserting a cassette.
1998-2005 was a good time to buy any used electronics at cheap prices! Thanks to hipsters and stupid movies Walkman's like these skyrocketed from $5 to $30!
The ones I've found hit the $100's on Amazon
RustyX2010 don’t whinge just because a movie makes it popular, guardians is an amazing movie and while, yes, it has skyrocketed one particular Walkman in price couldn’t u:
A: appreciate the new attention and access to Walkmans and cassettes the movie has given
B: just get a different Walkman only 2 models of Walkman have been launched up in price (the TPS-L2, the one seen in the movie, and the WM-3, the black rework of the TPS-L2)
@@harleyokeefe5193 other walkman prices have gone up for ones that are not even working and mostly for parts/repair. I see both sides of this argument though. (sony wm-10 or wm-20 for example are pricey even if theyre for parts/ not working)
they are $5 if you look for them in good will
Tell me about it…I just bought a mint condition WM-FX493 and it was $54. It was a ripoff but I really needed one.
Just make sure it has a good belt, and line up the azimuth with a jeweler screwdriver, I work on these a lot. My unit I like playing right now is my Radio Shack SCP-52.
Put work into it what the assemblers don't do, and most any of them will work fine, and sound great!
I have a feeling one of the reasons cassette tapes are making a come back is because of Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy 😂
C4 The PunLord it actually is due to that plus hipsters
And now max from stranger things
the knobs and the headphone jack plugs on the classic Sports Walkmans tend to be really delicate and can easy break off.
I have a one of the later Sony Walkmans that I bought new back in the early 2000's I plug into my car stereo's aux jack since it didn't come with a cassettes player.
I got a WM-FX288 out of the recycling, works good as new! My Coomber school cassette recorder broke though so I wonder if a modern Sony cassette boombox with line in would be good enough for making recordings. guess there is only one way to find out!
Great video ! Quite interesting.. but i would like to know which music you played there ( on the hifi test)
How did you record it to us? Really great quality. Could you explain what and where was connected?
I have a Panasonic with the track advance feature on it and it's also one of the ones with the metal hinges and the tape heads in the door.
what is the music hifi test i feel like using the music for my videos
Really enjoyed your video.
i´m just making a coment to say that tdk looked so good to me when they came out ,that i bought several and tdk improved in this series the quality of the cassetes in resistance,also used the normal bias ad-x and high bias sa,ma-xg with iron chassi. this last were very expensive 60 minutes 7.5 € at the time
What's that tune on the cassette
I still have my Sony WM-60 from back in the day along with all of my cassettes. I preferred walkmans that had build in equalizers vs just bass boost.
Cool video dude. I just replaced the belt in my Sony wm-fx407. Sounds awesome now.
Congrats! The WM-FX407 is one of the best in the "all plastic" family of Sony Walkmans. Yours belong to the 401/403/405/407 lineup, and only the 405 and the 407 have Dolby noise reduction.
I use to have the banana color Walkman. I just buy a Sony off eBay Sony Fx101 cassette, I believe they came out in 1994. It said the cassette and radio works well, I hoping it does. Not sure if it’s a top Model.
@databits tech Great video. I was wondering if you could put a few links on the description or something to some quality cassettes player. I've tried I few so far and none haven't work.
I like any of the Sony WM series or AIWA players. Don't buy any Walkman that doesn't have buttons on the side of the player. The Sony WM-F2085 is terrific.
my WM-EX615 has ams. think it was one of the top models when I bought it heavily discounted from the catalogue shop index in the UK just as the Walkman was a dying breed. well the cassette type anyway. That's why it was sold of cheap. Nice sounding unit. even has a revive sound setting that makes old worn out cassettes sound better than they are!
That's pretty cool, I've not seen a revive setting!
@@databits I got a WM-EX674 that also have revitalize.
On my Philco tape player, you can play tapes with the lid open as well
this is a great vid! very helpful! thanks
I appreciate your comment!!
Muito legal saber que as funções de um radio walkman são muitas além de apenas AM FM...E também seu jeito de narrar e os novíssimos walkman2018
Hello I ask you if you have noise when playing your tape your sony walkman wm-af65. I have the same noise my sony walkman wm-af65 when playing the tape
I've purchased two cassette walkmans on ebay and so far, both are broken. Any recommendations on where else I can get them?
What the name of the track used in that blue hi-fi test cassette?
I picked up a Sanyo mg41 and it sounds pretty noice (albeit a bit of motor noise--cozy in my opinion).
I've been picking up a few of these over the last few years. Don't diss the radio. I've found it very handy to be able to gluck on the radio when out and about. I've also been enjoying the ones you can record on. Are you still using them today?
Thank you. Great review. Now who wants my tapes I can't keep.
Does anyone know if the Sony sports wm-sx34 (not the one in the video) has a radio on it? :)
t o b y t a r t I'm pretty sure it doesn't since most radio walkmans had an 'F' to denote the radio feature. ex. Wm-f63, wm-f45, wm-f15 etc.
My friend recently gifted me a wmex 152 off of e-bay. It has good sound quality but it plays a little slow. Would you by any chance know why that is?
Could need a belt replacement or a speed adjustment. Or just some new batteries.
hey! good vid.. have you ever considered buying new/unopened on eBay? costs a fortune but always worth it imho
Should I buy it a brand new vintage or just a used one?
One of my walkmans has Dolby B and C and it will play types I, II and IV, it is a Sony WM-D6C.
I want one!
would seeking maintenance on a walkman be worth it i got a aiwa walkman in mint condition...cosmetically but it plays slow to where the music sound crappy
Retroreviews Plus , there's a motor pitch pot either in the board, or near the battery compartment to adjust with a jeweler screwdriver.
can u make a vid on how to record music to cassette tape?
Such a shame my "fancy" Walkman doesn't want to work any more... It was a *Sony WM-EX512,* cassette only, that worked on _one_ double A battery, and would play for *hours* on it. Mine was about as thick (and as large/wide) as a cassette tape. It did come with a basic in-cord remote, and it _did_ feature AMS Music Search. So there you have one that did have it. I still regret that it doesn't want to work properly any more...
Jensen is making cassete players like that frequently. They are actually improving their models with new models and players coming out. There not as bad as people make them seem as “the cheepo, your first not very good player” They are starting to get better with the performance and sound.
i need help does anyone know what may be wrong i have a wm f10 walkman I've had it about 4 years no and one day i flip the tape and it just stops working the motor wont even run no noise at all and its not like the headphones being plugged in is the problem cause the radio works fine i tried new batteries different cassettes different headphones and ear buds but nothing i dont know what to do
TheRasdragon the tape head could be damaged. Before replacing it though, try buying one of those tape head cleaners from EBay. If it still doesn't work, you may have to replace the tape head. (Or it could just be a dodgy connection.) if it still doesn't work, you may have to replace a belt or some gears. If it still doesn't work, it may be a dodgy logic board. Hope this helps! 😇
very helpful video thanks
+daniel plotter - you're welcome
7:10 ... tread lightly.
Sure, Dolby removes some noise, but can also negatively affect the actual sound on the cassette, depending on the music/sound.
Especially Dolby C, but not many cassette-walkmans have Dolby C anyways.
+AAAZ2A - yes, I'm not impressed with any Dolby NR on tapes
databits I think Dolby S sounds quite nice. But hard to come by a nice deck with Dolby S. :)
+AAAZ2A Agreed. I find very few tapes that are encoded well. 95% of my collection is played with Dolby NR set to off.
Dobly C are AMAZING BUT when used in a very good cassete deck. I have a nakamichi cassete deck 1 and tapes recorded in dobly B and C sound awsome. I think Dobly C sound best using the same tape deck for recording and playback....dobly B is not that picky. Dolby C requires a VERY calibrated deck. Dolby B pre-recorded tapes never sound good for me..normally i play them with dolby disabled. Dolby for me only sounds really good when i record them. And believe me...an high end deck with an metal tape recorded high + dobly C sounds absolutly amazing. Reconding +6 and dolby C on metal tape and you have a VERY GOOD dynamic range, and no noise in silent areas, is like playing a CD.
Yeah I agree with you.
It would be even better to use Dolby S, but obviously it's not easy to come by :)
Great video. Now, that CDs are making a come back, have you thought of doing a video on how to a CD Walkman?
Are CDs making a comeback?
I need help finding a walkman. It must be an actual Sony Walkman, not any other brand, must be small, have dolby B or higher, auto reverse, AM/FM radio (doesnt have to be but would like it to play radio) , it can't look like that one with the round screen or be a sports walkman because I think they look garish, and it cant be kind of rare because I made that mistake last time when I bought a WM-16 and could not find any kind of documentation on it. Anyone have an idea what would work? I kind of like the wm-f10 but they're expensive.
I like the sony wm-ex512, uses 1 AA and has AMS
doesn't hav a radio tho
well I'd recommend the wm-24 its the same as the wm-22 but with Dolby b
i have a aiwa hs px101 and i dont have the AAA battery tray. nor the ac adaptor. where do i find those???
Try looking at eBay or maybe swap meets
Wow nice to all your collections....i love it can i buy one of your walkmans i like that silver one thank you i'm from philippines and i'm interested to buy
Is there an affordable one that has rewind?
When I was young the Jensen would have been fine with me as Sony models were 2 to 3 times more expensive. This is a cool video though and I wouldn't mind having the sports model.
Aesthetically I like the sports Walkman… IDK what the noise was when you showed it, I have one like that although I wish mine had a radio… I wonder why they made some without radios 🤔
the WM-D6C is the only walkman you need. There was a playback only version of it too but i cannot remember the model number
IneditoD'Agostino if you care about sound you will. People send more than that on a stupid phone
Sony WM-DC2
I just got a koss walkman that looks like a clone of your Sony sports model but with an radio and bass boost can't wate to test it out not listed to tapes since 2000 😮😊
Note: Walkman is a Sony brand, hehehe.
There are also tapes that use azimuth recording or something. What does that mean? I'm in a need of a new deck(my Sony boombox died)
What is the name of the song? It's pretty catchy
What was the hifi test song
Please, what is the name and artist of that song?
Best idea get A DCC Walkman. Reasonably priced on eBay. Full Logic Control. Auto Reverse. AMS. High quality portable deck and on top of that if you manage to find DCC tapes it sounds as good as a Mini Disc. Oh and did I mention. It is fully compatible with normal and Chrome Tapes?. :D
I am a child of the '60s and we had -8 tracks
High speed recording for mass tapes was actually the best way to get no wow and fllutter
I need to know the name of this song... It is so good
Hey Tyler, did you see my latest email?
What about the FX line?
What's the name of the song i want to know
I'd rather like to know more about the R2R Deck at the back .. ;-)
Very interesting video!
It's pretty funny that the functions that you listed for an expensive Walkman (skipping tracks, nearly as small as the cassette, remote) are the functions of the player I found for a Euro on a flea market: The Panasonic RQ-SX41, which is my personal favorite of my portable players. Sadly the internal battery pack leaked massively so I couldn't use it anymore but I still got it with the attachable pack for regular batteries and a remote, which is attached between the player and the headphones. It also has Dolby Noisereduction and Auto-Reverse. If you manage to find one, buy it. I'm not an expert about cassettes but I think it's worth it.
Greetings from Germany!
Impergatomon - thank you for your comments!
My priority is collecting records lol. I want to start to collecting cassettes, because they are super cheap, and cheaper than records for more basically. I need help choosing a Walkman so I can just listen everywhere. I'm thinking about the Reshow Cassette Player - Portable Tape Player Captures MP3 Audio Music via USB it's on amazon for about 20 bucks. Help.
I would run from any "cheap" cassette player or "retro" version. Just go to ebay and search for "sony walkman cassette" and find one in your price range.
There's also other brands of walkmans I recommend getting a portable cassette player with an equalizer
BellaTorresBruh , I've had Cassettes since Junior High School, I throw nothing away! lol!
@@williamhelms9942 wait till you get married LOL
Wish our mainstream goodwills had cassettes for sale, you can only find them (ALLOT) at the goodwill outlets, of wich the cassettes subjected are usually crushed and dirty
and sold at eBay prices!
i just built mine that way you can use the best drive system and build whatever circuits you want
very helpful :-)
+gzoolong - glad I could help!
I like items I miss you tape cassettes & walkman s
My Favorit is the Pioneer Deck then 2nd the Sony Mega Bass Walkman FM/AM in Norm or Mid Bass. The max Bass is to much! Also on this Walkman the High is crisp clear and the mid range is also good hear able. The Silver Sony 485 Walkman have something with the Head Azimuth there is something wrong (Pinch Roller).
Blast from the past!
Had a wonderful AIWA at one time, and Panasonic example that still runs well. Anything with just the Play/FF/Stop is best avoided as are later examples from China - they eat tapes. LOL .Remember the yellow Sony you have too. Happy days. Our supermarket chain, ASDA, is owned by Walmart, and still, this afternoon, had blank tapes on sale !
River Huntingdon, Any TDK D90? My Tape for recording since Junior High in the late '70s! lol!
I have a rca 1882 it is great for a budget Walkman and I bought it brand new for 45.00 bucks
I have some doubt about that Amy Grant being chrome. The EQ for chrome (Type II) should be 70us, not 120.
The8TrackChap Actually, it was common in the early 90s to have Chrome tapes that run at 120 instead of 70. Temple of the Dog is a good example.
Daniel Thomas MacInnes Not only the 90's, it started in the 80's although the decks that can record on them were from the 70's and early 80's.
Some who are presumably in the know say that the first pre-recorded cassette sold in the U.S. that had Chrome tape with 120 μs EQ was 1981 album Synchronicity by the Police.
@@ConsumerDV Ghost In The Machine, not Synchronicity which came out in 1983.
Many low-end WM-FX models share the same design as the WM-EX152 but with some minor differences.
Miguel Lee so true my wm~ fx 16 was made in Malaysia! but plays and sounds great :-)
The 20th anniversary walkmans are also quite good.
Not as good as their late 80's and early 90's Walkmans though.
Who needs a radio these days? Well, anyone who like FM radio broadcasts with classical music, for example. Or just catching up on the news.
What is the music？
Uhhh I'm so pissed I found a version of the song called Home by Jincheng Zhang but it has Korean people randomly shit talking over it I don't understand where is the music from
good song :D
Just bought the WM Ex152 on eBay. Says it's perfectly working. Let's hope it's true.
I just bought a wm702 with carry case, manual, charger, battery and headphones for $15 at a local thrift store. I just have to put in a new belt
@@victorreznov9940 just received my WMF1 it works! as the man said, but like you, just need a new belt lol
They normally go for anything from £300.00 to £500.00 of Ebay but if they are completely unused them they have gone for over £1,000.00. It is certainly worth the money.
I bought a few days ago a sony walkman wm-fx153 brand new in Portugal for 30 euros.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
i’m about to buy one too!!
wow! Brand new is awesome!