Happy 40th Walkman!!!

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by colinu, Jul 1, 2019.

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  1. colinu

    colinu I'm not lazy, I'm energy saving! Thread Starter

  2. Deuce66

    Deuce66 Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
    A revolution in portable music, I remember it fondly.
     
  3. Deuce66

    Deuce66 Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
  4. Monsieur Gadbois

    Monsieur Gadbois Senior Member

    Location:
    Hotel California
    Still got my Walkman Sports.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Sevoflurane and Paul_s like this.
  5. Curiosity

    Curiosity Just A Boy

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    I no longer have my Aiwa auto reverse player from 1986 but the ability to just listen to my music anywhere in decent stereo was a great innovation so thanks for the music.
     
  6. Floyd Crazy

    Floyd Crazy Senior Member

    Bought my first Sony Wakman
    In 1982 can't remember what model,
    used to wear it at work hidden under my
    Overalls and wear headphones under a large woollen hat, just in case the foreman
    caught me listening to Pink Floyd or Queen.
    Memories a wonderful thing, Floyd.
     
  7. Hollow Horse

    Hollow Horse To pretend to be happy could only be idiocy

    I've just bought one... you know... one of the new-fangled ones!

    [​IMG]

    It's okay but unlike iTunes it doesn't let you tag images to songs from your own library, searches for images, you choose one and then find that half the time it's tagged something completely irrelevant or the wrong song title!

    Now in the eighties we didn't have all this mumbo-jumbo to contend with. Our main worry was the tape getting chewed or having to change the batteries! Here's one of my old Walkmans, I've had several iver the years and lost one in the back of a taxi!

    [​IMG]
     
    Sevoflurane likes this.
  8. Instant Dharma

    Instant Dharma Dude/man

    Location:
    CoCoCo, Ca
    One can still buy a brand new Sony Walkman. That play cassette tapes. And have headphones. Amazing.

    In fact I had the original idea for the iPod back in ‘85. I was in Hawaii listening to No Jacket Required on a bus when I thought...”one day I want my entire music library on one handy dandy hand held device, and not ever have to change tapes again. Hey Steve Jobs, wheres my money??
     
    bru87tr likes this.
  9. The FIRST, in the US anyway, was called a SONY SOUND-ABOUT


    didn't follow that link, sorry if they mentioned this fun fact
     
  10. Carter DeVries

    Carter DeVries Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    My loyal companion hiking all over Britain and Mexico in the early 80’s. Made the miles fly by. I loved that thing so much!
     
  11. vwestlife

    vwestlife Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    As Richard just mentioned, Sony USA originally wanted to call it the Soundabout, fearing that the Walkman name was "too Japanese" and didn't make sense to native English speakers. But by the time it was officially released here, enough people had brought over Japanese-market Walkmans and the industry buzz about it had grown to the point that the name had begun to stick.

    And Technics' response to the Walkman was hilariously clumsy:

     
  12. Smackswell

    Smackswell Kossoff & Ralphs LA 76

    Location:
    Baile Atha Cliath
    I used to go cycling with my Walkman and had to stop every 15-20 minutes to change sides or a longer if my own c60, c90 - nope didn't bring c180s. I know, the headphones sat over the front of my ear- I could hear traffic. And now, I walk .....
     
  13. mmars982

    mmars982 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    My wife still has one of these. Still works OK too.

    Mine looked like this, but it sadly has been gone for a long time now.
    [​IMG]
     
    Shiver and Monsieur Gadbois like this.
  14. Hollow Horse

    Hollow Horse To pretend to be happy could only be idiocy

    O to the M to the G... those headphones! I wonder when the first earbuds came out... with SONY or anyone?
     
  15. I had an earbud with my first few transistor radios, mono. One ear.

    They all supplied them with the radios back then.
     
    ScottRiqui likes this.
  16. enfield

    enfield Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex UK
  17. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    I went through several Walkmen in the 80s. I was lucky if I could get one of those things to last a year. But then in 1988, I got an Aiwa, which was sleeker and better made than any of the Sony Walkmen I had, and that thing lasted approximately four years - an obvious improvement, but still kinda sad. Unfortunately I can't remember the model number.
     
  18. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    Killed the music industry
     
  19. Tremaindous

    Tremaindous Forum Resident

    I occasionally play my old Walkman just to make sure it still works. Model Wm-18 with lots of goodies: auto-reverse, equalizer, Dolby, Metal tape, AM/FM, etc. That was technology carried in my backpack.
     
  20. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    40 years! time does fly...I had a great Panasonic Cassette AM/FM portable...I still have it and the headphones are still intact!
     
  21. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    Hollow Horse wrote the following as part of a post:

    I have some experience with album art issues and the Walkman. Here are some tips based on my experience:
    • Embed the album art in each song's ID3 tag. Some programs, like Windows Media Player (WMP), put the album art in the form of a single graphic file in the album's folder (both on the player and in WMP's Music Library on your computer), and Walkman player's won't use that file for album art.
    • Save the album art as a baseline .jpg file.
    • When selecting the type of graphic the album art is, select "Front Cover" (MediaMonkey has many options, including Back Cover, and CD Booklet).
    I hope this helps.
     
  22. Hollow Horse

    Hollow Horse To pretend to be happy could only be idiocy

    It's much appreciated, thanks.

    However, I got fed up with it and binned it. Got a 32GB 4th Gen iPod Touch and it's awesome, proper big photos and so much better volume and sound quality.
     
  23. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    I bought many Walkmans because I played them so much for commuting by bus or train. Here are a few of the ones I bought (images from the internet):

    [​IMG]
    still in good shape, it was a bit bulky, so I rarely took it out of the house

    [​IMG]
    It stopped working after a year of use

    [​IMG]
    used this one until the headphone jack wore out and I soldered a new one on it.

    [​IMG]
    my favorite one, I used this one until the lid would not lock shut anymore

    [​IMG]

    The last one was my last cassette walkman. That is not the one I own, mine is in much better condition because I only used it for about 4 months before changing
    to a Discman. The remote you see on this walkman had an LCD display.
     
    Daniel Thomas likes this.
  24. Chilli

    Chilli Pretend Engineer.

    Location:
    UK
    [​IMG]
    Those were the days!
     
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  25. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    Glad to help. I have an iPod Classic but retired it because it requires iTunes and I didn't want to install it on my new computer. One of the things I like about the Walkman is that I'm not mandated to use specific software, and can even use drag-and-drop if I chose.
     
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