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?
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.
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)
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.
It’s all a matter of subjective taste, but the Walkman EX line in particular past 1996 or so look pretty good, nice sleek designs and very compact. If you prefer the boxy and sharp 80s aesthetic I totally understand, but the ugly and cheap plastic look on Walkman only really plagued it in the early 90s.
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.
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.
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% 😁
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!
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.
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.
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!
yeah the "mega bass" ruins it! good i dont have that option on my walkman. as poor Micheal Jackson would get ruined and all the bass would destroy it for me. but I mainly got a walkman as I want to listen to audiobooks on there as well as audio dramas from the BBC for the doctor who audio stories.
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.
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.
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.
Never ever, ever get those cheap Walkmans on Amazon. You know what I mean: Super USB Cassette Capture. You're better off with something that is 30 years older.
I made that mistake last year when I was first getting into cassette collecting. I went through THREE often between the months of May thru January before I relented and invested in a vintage Panasonic walkman that was miraculously still sealed in the box
Only good thing of Super USB Cassette Capture is the auto-reverse heads have multitracks instead of a rotating head as well as the cassette form factor being easy to clean the heads, much like some Sony's like their YPPY series. But even cheap 90's Sonys have better speed stability than the modern 2020 cassette players.
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.
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!
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
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
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'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?
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.
My advise : do not buy the Ch8nese crap that are floating and even some new ones that are not made in China Buy a vintage one but before you do that find an experienced Walkman technician and then buy the vintage Walkman
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
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 !
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 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.
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.
if you are really into tapes but accept only the best of the best, get yourself a sony walkman with a "DD" in it's typename. those are not beltdriven have gears. you'll also need to consider having those gears replaced by an expert because the plastic becomes brittle after 30years, there's brass options for the gears. those walkmans are the most stable running and have the best soundquality. one of the best is the D2S, but you won't find those in any working condition under 500€
Full forward and rewind can stretch tapes even playing them, there are 60, 90, 100 and yes even 120 minute tapes, the 120 minute tape were subsebtible to stretching and breaking.
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! 😇
Also as a child of the 80's, one thing I learned quickly is that cassette's were a waste of money when you could buy the vinyl equalivent for the same amount & if you looked after it - it would still sound the same today as the day you bought it. Cassette's on the other hand deteriate after not being played and are affected by the climate surrounding them. LP's will last forever if you play and care for them correctly and you get much better sound, providing you have a good set up, plus much larger art work & inner sheets. PLUS - if you must have it on cassette, you could simply copy it to blank tape and play it in your Walkman or car and if it chewed up or melted - you still have the original safe and sound in your collection. Cassette's, even high end decks with Dolby S and Metal cassettes - STILL can't hold a candle to vinyl. Hence the reason vinyl "isn't making a come back" - it is back in FULL SWING! Long live the LP : )
vinyl deteriorates a lot more than cassette does and vinyl isn't portable. cassettes are not only portable but the care and equipment needed to play them is not as expensive or tedious compared to vinyl. vinyl just looks nice on wall
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...
No; I like 2 make ‘em. I/t 70s/80s it was all about admiring ur vinyl, recording them onto cassette or open reel. It became an “arms race” 2 c who could make the best recordings. Walkman’s? Walkman Pro D6, D6C. Btw; on-board radio was useful 4 dubbing favourite tunes from OR dubbing audio documentaries (I still have tapes I made i/t 80s/90s). Saturday used 2 b The Goons @ noon followed by Robin Williams Science Show off Radio National in Adelaide.
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.
Had 2 cheap Aiwa players, back in the early 90s, one had noticeable motor noice, 2nd had useless sound processor (eq presets) so I was disappointed of it's sound. Later I bought an inexpensive Panasonic RQ-V80 and it was way better, loved it.
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).
the problem is, and i know i'm just being fussy, but i just keep seeing either really nice ones that don't to the job i want them to, or are really expensive, or really cheap but really really ugly
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
fad seems to be over. finding these again at thrift stores for 1.00 to 3.00 no ones grabbing them up I got six Sony's today 2.00 each. different problems. belts and one has no sound and shows tape then 0 on it's screen. using the same sports one as you got on vid as my personal player. had to adjust speed as it sounded like old men singing lol one won't power on kinda sad about that but 2 dollars isn't a big loss.
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
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)
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
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 😮😊
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
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.
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.
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 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! :)
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
I have a 96 Panasonic one with xbs (extra bass system) and sounds better than most modern ones you can get of amazon
15:35 I still have Sony Walkman WM EX152. :)
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
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.
I just hate how walkmans got aesthetically uglier in the 90s compared to designs from the early 80s
It’s all a matter of subjective taste, but the Walkman EX line in particular past 1996 or so look pretty good, nice sleek designs and very compact. If you prefer the boxy and sharp 80s aesthetic I totally understand, but the ugly and cheap plastic look on Walkman only really plagued it in the early 90s.
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.
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.
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% 😁
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.
19:03 now that’s a good cassette.
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.
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.
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!
yeah the "mega bass" ruins it! good i dont have that option on my walkman. as poor Micheal Jackson would get ruined and all the bass would destroy it for me. but I mainly got a walkman as I want to listen to audiobooks on there as well as audio dramas from the BBC for the doctor who audio stories.
What's the name of the song i want to know
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.
Bought a later-model Sport for $5 at a garage-sale, with all the functions on it that your fav-model has.
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.
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.
Never ever, ever get those cheap Walkmans on Amazon. You know what I mean: Super USB Cassette Capture. You're better off with something that is 30 years older.
I made that mistake last year when I was first getting into cassette collecting. I went through THREE often between the months of May thru January before I relented and invested in a vintage Panasonic walkman that was miraculously still sealed in the box
Only good thing of Super USB Cassette Capture is the auto-reverse heads have multitracks instead of a rotating head as well as the cassette form factor being easy to clean the heads, much like some Sony's like their YPPY series. But even cheap 90's Sonys have better speed stability than the modern 2020 cassette players.
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 :)
What's that tune on the cassette
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
Sports was made water resistant so you can workout and sweat or jog and if it 🌧️ it plays on...without water damage.
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.
I have 400 of them and love the format
Bryan adams is awesome
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
I've purchased two cassette walkmans on ebay and so far, both are broken. Any recommendations on where else I can get them?
what is the music hifi test i feel like using the music for my videos
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.
Thanks to your advices I ended up buying a Sony Walkman WM-FX193. I'll keep you posted! ;)
vassili87 how has it been
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
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 picked up a Sanyo mg41 and it sounds pretty noice (albeit a bit of motor noise--cozy in my opinion).
I am a child of the '60s and we had -8 tracks
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?
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
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.
My advise : do not buy the Ch8nese crap that are floating and even some new ones that are not made in China
Buy a vintage one but before you do that find an experienced Walkman technician and then buy the vintage Walkman
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
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!
Please, what is the name and artist of that song?
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.
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 must have buying the really crappy cassette players. Every portable player I bought played tapes at the wrong speed.
Josh Derak they quite possibly just have to have their belts replaced
I'm sorry but how are we supposed to do a listening test if you aren't recording line in? The quality of your camera mic is a complete bottleneck.
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 the magnavox skymaster 4 and i cant find anyone else who owns this am the only one
I like items I miss you tape cassettes & walkman s
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.
Jensen is trash. I have the sony walkman back then. Didn't come with mega bass.
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.
On my Philco tape player, you can play tapes with the lid open as well
For 10 bucks or 1000, the belt is gonna snap or wear out. 2 cent piece o shit.
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.
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.
Exactly one million, no more, no less?
if you are really into tapes but accept only the best of the best, get yourself a sony walkman with a "DD" in it's typename. those are not beltdriven have gears. you'll also need to consider having those gears replaced by an expert because the plastic becomes brittle after 30years, there's brass options for the gears. those walkmans are the most stable running and have the best soundquality. one of the best is the D2S, but you won't find those in any working condition under 500€
@25:00 it looks like laundry machine.
I think Dolby has the best sound quality
Love this video, this definitely helped me out a lot :)
Rewind your cassettes as this can cause damage and drop outs on it.....
Full forward and rewind can stretch tapes even playing them, there are 60, 90, 100 and yes even 120 minute tapes, the 120 minute tape were subsebtible to stretching and breaking.
You need the box and the card to help further instead of just leaving the tape in rewound, otherwise its not going to do much protection.
What is the name of the song? It's pretty catchy
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! 😇
My Walkman is that Sony sports Walkman
mixtape? tutorial make mixtape ?
Is there an affordable one that has rewind?
Also as a child of the 80's, one thing I learned quickly is that cassette's were a waste of money when you could buy the vinyl equalivent for the same amount & if you looked after it - it would still sound the same today as the day you bought it. Cassette's on the other hand deteriate after not being played and are affected by the climate surrounding them. LP's will last forever if you play and care for them correctly and you get much better sound, providing you have a good set up, plus much larger art work & inner sheets. PLUS - if you must have it on cassette, you could simply copy it to blank tape and play it in your Walkman or car and if it chewed up or melted - you still have the original safe and sound in your collection. Cassette's, even high end decks with Dolby S and Metal cassettes - STILL can't hold a candle to vinyl. Hence the reason vinyl "isn't making a come back" - it is back in FULL SWING! Long live the LP : )
But they're HUGE
vinyl deteriorates a lot more than cassette does and vinyl isn't portable. cassettes are not only portable but the care and equipment needed to play them is not as expensive or tedious compared to vinyl. vinyl just looks nice on wall
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...
How old were you in the 80s?
in my teens!
What was the hifi test song
No; I like 2 make ‘em. I/t 70s/80s it was all about admiring ur vinyl, recording them onto cassette or open reel. It became an “arms race” 2 c who could make the best recordings. Walkman’s? Walkman Pro D6, D6C. Btw; on-board radio was useful 4 dubbing favourite tunes from OR dubbing audio documentaries (I still have tapes I made i/t 80s/90s). Saturday used 2 b The Goons @ noon followed by Robin Williams Science Show off Radio National in Adelaide.
wrong patch wire
I have a rca 1882 it is great for a budget Walkman and I bought it brand new for 45.00 bucks
I have the fancy one, I got it off eBay then dropped it and it’s broke ☹️
OHHHH NOOOOOOOO!!!!
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.
Aiwa is top quality walk man really
Had 2 cheap Aiwa players, back in the early 90s, one had noticeable motor noice, 2nd had useless sound processor (eq presets) so I was disappointed of it's sound. Later I bought an inexpensive Panasonic RQ-V80 and it was way better, loved it.
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).
the problem is, and i know i'm just being fussy, but i just keep seeing either really nice ones that don't to the job i want them to, or are really expensive, or really cheap but really really ugly
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
fad seems to be over. finding these again at thrift stores for 1.00 to 3.00
no ones grabbing them up I got six Sony's today 2.00 each. different problems. belts and one has no sound and shows tape then 0 on it's screen.
using the same sports one as you got on vid as my personal player. had to adjust speed as it sounded like old men singing lol
one won't power on kinda sad about that but 2 dollars isn't a big loss.
Honestly, I cannot tell a difference in sound quality coming through You Tube's compression algorithm.
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
heavy is good, heavy is reliable... if it doesnt work you can always hit them with it
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)
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
How did you record it to us? Really great quality. Could you explain what and where was connected?
High speed recording for mass tapes was actually the best way to get no wow and fllutter
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 🤔
hey! good vid.. have you ever considered buying new/unopened on eBay? costs a fortune but always worth it imho
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 😮😊
the knobs and the headphone jack plugs on the classic Sports Walkmans tend to be really delicate and can easy break off.