Walkman II : The Do-over
The Walkman was a nice surprise - the Walkman II was planned.
In recent years, the original blue and silver Sony Walkman has become an icon. Images of it can be found adorning countless items of retro themed apparel. But the hard truth is that it was always a bit of a half-arsed bodge job of a device (IMHO).
The Walkman II was Sony’s first proper attempt at making a personal stereo from scratch. The original may have introduced the idea but the WMII was the one that formed the blueprint for what followed.
It’s extremely unlikely though that you’ll find an image of the Walkman II on a teeshirt, so that’s why I’ve made this video about it.
If this description makes it sound like this is a serious video - it’s really not and it intentionally gets sillier as it progresses. I did anticipate this would be an easy, quick video to make. It ended up being neither due to the large number of elements that had to be assembled together. I think it all worked out in the end though.
After this rather intense, edit-heavy week, I could do with taking a day or two away from the computer screen to give my eyes time to rest - especially the dodgy right one which is giving me some gyp. So this would seem like a good opportunity to record something for a Patreon update. Perhaps we’ll see how that works out later in the week.
Take care.
UPDATE
There’s a re-edit below which removes one second of audio that was difficult to understand.
Comments (63)
Well I have to disagree! I had an aiwa device as a kid back in the 80s/90s that worked similar to original mechanism (but worse quality) and those sad on ear headphones. only much later I got in ears. but maybe we were just poor. 🙈
You’re agreeing, not disagreeing. 1) A kid with a hand me down - ✅ 2) Someone using a non-Sony - ✅
I love your deep dives...I did not know all those acc were available...of course, I was not rich enough back then to afford a walkman of any type.
When you showed the DD 2 that was what I always called a Walkman. That and the crazy colored CD players from the early 2000’s
I'm wondering if the "Walkman" knock-off my dad had was a Sanyo. It was definitely that cobalt blue colour and had a button to press to pick up sound from the mic. I'm thinking it was Sanyo as I still have his demonstration tape. It's funk on a stick... https://youtu.be/qjrrMiJmjVE?si=BrMlhPqAkhv9SEp1
One of these might jog a memory https://www.pocketcalculatorshow.com/walkman/sanyo/
The external battery pack wasn't just a Sony idea. I have one of these, still sealed in the package: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/717PNh50VwL._AC_SL1000_.jpg
Thank you Matt. Great video. I was always a fan of the Toshiba portable cassette players. I had three of them over years. One of them had a tuner, that plugged in instead of a cassette, and the final one I had was actually smaller than a cassette, and was a curious clamshell design, a bit like the Burger record player but for a cassette. It left the part of the cassette between the spool holes and the record tabs exposed. I found it a bit fragile for every day commuting on the tube.
I think I have examples of both the Toshiba devices you mentioned - and yes they both need repairing.
This was a fantastic video and hits home. I did have a no brand personal stereo that made horrible hiss with horrible home recordings. I didn't even see a Sony Walkman in the wild till 2001, when I went to university. As a kid, when my parents gave me the sned for my birthday, I thought that was pinnacle tech
What would my original Sony Stowaway be worth now I wonder? I wish I hadn't given it away to an uncle who never returned it. :-/
I suspect the Stowaway name would harm the value - but for historic reasons perhaps it should be the more collectible name.
My old Crown Walkman looked at lot like the original Sony. It used the slightly bigger form factor to house a FM radio. Useful for when batteries were too low to run tape. Oh it was cheaper brand so didn't have anti rolling and plus for the radio. Love these vids 😁
My brother and I got one of- if not the first- strictly Radio Walkmans in 1983. Just in time for our local rock station 99.5’s countdown of the top 99 songs of the year. Every Breath You Take being the number 1. I don’t think I took off the headphones for all of 1984.
The Walkman all my friends and I wanted in the mid-80s was the yellow "sports" one. More for the yellow casing and toughness than any actual need for water resistance where we lived. I only ever had Sanyos and other less expensive brands, some of which were really quite fantastic little players at least to my ears. It is funny to see how the 80s many of us lived through has been retconned into a weird technicolor parody of itself.
oh.. I really expected an image of you, wearing all these devices on your belt!
I used to roller skate ten miles to school in the freezing rain, uphill both ways, with my walkman, battery pack, dbx decoder and equalizer strapped to my neon pink cargo leg warmers. It was a simpler time.
Well darn it, your story beats mine - back in my day I had to walk 5 miles to school carrying my Sharp QT-50 with a backpack full of batteries, cassettes, and textbooks. Those were the days! (untrue story)
“Pass my tool belt and battery bag, I’m taking the train” :) thanks for finally correcting the history of the Walkman. 😉
Well you've solved a personal mystery of mine, we had a red "walkman" that my older brother and I both shared. I know it wasn't the original Sony, but never could remember the manufacturer as I was very young at the time. The magazine article you showed has it! So it was a Sanyo. Wasn't a bad little device, but I remember the battery life wasn't great, and my brother always handed it back to me with a completely dead battery. Eventually got my very own, which was a Sony, but a much later model in the very late 80s.
Every time you do a video, I think "Oh I've seen this before"... until you spring something new! Every time! An excellent video once again - and interesting add-ons....
You may have covered it before... but did all that Gubbins you attach actually make a difference? (not including the battery pack) I certainly had an Aiwa not a Sony by 1988. I think the legend was they were Sony components in different packaging. I know I had a Mark one walkman, but I think that was because they were going cheap because everyone wanted a Mark 2. The ear pads never lasted, but it was fun creating your own stereo mixes using the volume sliders!
There were so many oxidised connections and points of failure that it made the whole thing unusable. In isolation though each thing worked so I may return to the DBX decoder at some point.
I distinctly remember the first Sony Walkman I ever saw in the flesh. It was actually just the OG FM Walkman. A classmate showed up with one in school. I distinctly remember thinking "Holy crap...what the hell is a kid my age doing with something this freaking expensive?" I wasn't even envious...I was kind of aghast.
Guardians of the Galaxy's OG Walkman irked me for the reasons you described. I've occasionally been a source for actors and art directors on vintage tech and most of them pride themselves on being SPECIFIC as hell, because it totally reflects the character. So to see Quill with an OG Walkman that he definitely wouldn't have had in 1988 (unless it was a beaten-to-hell hand-me-down or yard sale find, which it wasn't), and indicated that he was an INCREDIBLY privileged child whose parents bought him super-expensive stuff...yeah, it irked me. Of course, it isn't even on the Top 100 list of Most Irksome and Lazy Choices In MCU Movies, so...whatever.
The only thing missing from your end-game charm bracelet: speakers! Even the ones with an amp were barely louder than just the stock headphones lying on your desk...
Servo mechanism on the controls, as I recall.
I remember that Sony had the reputation of having longer battery life. I'm not sure if it was true, or just hype. Still, you had to appreciate their engineering. Great video.
I do remember early alternatives needing 4 AAs and getting the same battery life as the Sony on two.
I had one of the dbx units. It did a good job. Technics RSB-50 was the source.
Anachronisms 101 - to sort of highlight what was actually going on, I was in high school in 1988 and writing for the school newspaper, working on writing a feature article on DAT. Discmans had already been around for several years although they we VERY expensive. "Any old" Walkman or walkman style player was fine back then. The big thing was dubbing tapes and making mixes. (I still have my Personics tapes around here. Anyone remember going to The Wherehouse and sifting through the rather scant offerings to make your own?). My fellow journalist was saying he would "wait" until recordable CDs came on the market, which he said would be in "a couple of years." He was quite right, too! 1990! DAT, of course... was DAT.
I was another who owned an AIWA instead of a Sony in the '80s. It was a nice black unit with a 3-band EQ. I loved it, but sadly it had become unusable due to the drive mechanism becoming very sluggish over time. Every tape started to sound like HAL after his lobotomy in 2001. The Walkman contraption at the end would've been a perfect visual gag for the original Ghostbusters film. I could just see Egon strapping it on as a complement to his proton pack. Then again, as a tech nerd, maybe he would've already ditched cassettes for CDs.
Interesting video, Metal Tape might be worth it's video in itself.
I would be interested in that as well. When cassettes were still commonplace, I never had access to equipment that could handle metal tapes properly. I'm still curious how they compare to type I or II tapes. Equally fascinating to me are the even more obscure ferrichrome tapes. A rather exotic tape formulation, basically a ferric tape with a thin CrO2 coating, which was coerced into the official IEC 60094 standard by Sony, where it was referred to as "Type III". Quite rare, and very few tape decks have a setting for it, as the format was pretty much dead by the end of the 70s. In my youth, I always wondered why tape decks had settings for type I, II and IV, but never type III. Suspicious!
The hypothetical reason you gave why the film makers might argue the boy would have the original Walkman in 1988 is the actual reason why I did have the original Walkman in 1988! It was handed down to me by my grandfather when I was 7 years old. It had the leather case on it as well. I remember wondering what that hot line button was for!
See there are monthly cassete subscriptions like vinyl ones. Great video still use tape mainly for audiobooks that have never been released on other formats inc audible
Love the video Mat, especially the Electro cassettes, which I had in vinyl (and latterly digital) formats. I think there is far too much rose tinted glasses going on as some of the original tech was very underwhelming! 100% correct, the idea was the most important thing and drove a lot of miniaturisation of electronics that we enjoy today! Shame that has meant repairability and increased landfill are by products of this!!
Very well done! I will be watching this video over and over again. I almost forgot about that EQ accessory and dbx for tapes. I know you did a couple videos on dbx for albums but not for tapes. Maybe in the future? And I too did not know what anti-rolling mechanism really meant. I just assumed it reduced wow and flutter. Anyway, great job!!
DBX was going to be a bigger part of this video, but during shooting I decided it would be better if I went into it in more depth in the future.
Way off topic and I know you are deaf in 1 eye but have you seen the Kandao QooCam EGO 3D camera? It's almost like a modern day Mattel View-Master.
It’s completely passed me by - I’ll have to read up on it.
I can personally state that I never owned a Sony cassette player, I was another person who had an Aiwa. (But it had FM station presets and an equalizer for treble, bass, and SUPER BASS.)
My history of them isn't rosy either. I think I had a Boots walkman at one stage (It had auto-reverse and 3 band EQ) and was ridiculed by one of the "hifi enthusiast" kids. Except I had an Amiga 500 to buy games for, so wasn't going to be able to drop £80 on a Sony. I was definitely in the "it's good enough" camp when buying personal stereos. I can't ever say I had a player that sounded awful to the point of being un-listenable.
These luxury kinds of Walkmans were much too expensive... My mother had an Aristona (Philips of course) Street Machine, as large as the TPS-L2, and also heavy, all-metal insides, 4 (!!!) batteries, but also extremely durable. I actually looked around on the internet, I cannot find any picture of this Aristona version, but I found the Philips D6621 "Sky Way" which seems to be exactly the same model but with a different cassette door and printing on it. It was quite common back then for Philips to sell its consumer products in a slightly different design under the Erres and Aristona brands. The story is that my mom sent me to sleep over somewhere and I could take the cassette player, and she told me "and you bring it back working!", I must have been about 7 years old. Of course, it broke down... My mother a bit angry, but we immediately opened it up and found out that the driving belt was broken. The one from my Lego Technic kit fitted, problem solved! My sister and her best friend both had the WM-33, definitely not that well built, all-plastic and manual knobs. It had an EQ selector (70/120 µs) and 3-band equaliser built-in. I've also seen the WM-31, basically the same model without the equaliser. But those fancy small ones with electric steering and the head assembly in the lid, they were far too expensive...
I'm not sure I want to know what "jock itch" is. Should I?
Now this is mobile hifi
Certainly can't imagine anyone lugging all of those daisy-chained accessories around so they could experience a high-quality Walkman sound experience while they rode the bus to work or school back in those days. It is possible, I suppose, that for folks back then who couldn't afford a proper stereo rack system that they would string all of those gadgets together at home in order to experience better audio quality. Anyway, thanks for giving us the straight stuff rather than the Hollywood version of Walkman history.
I think that was Mat playing a joke on people who call records "vinyls" :D
I’m very grateful for your extremely accurate historical information about what the average personal stereo user was lugging around in the 1980s! Did Walkman come with Sony-branded wheelbarrows? 😂
Reminds me of how SEGA had so many Genesis accessories that they had their own power strip with outlets on every side to make it easier to plug all of the stuff into.
Future video idea : Battery life I wonder if there's enough of a video in looking at battery life on Walkmen and similar players over the years. The 7 hours of early machines on 2 X AA compared with the amazing (60 hours??) claims on 1 X AA at the tail end of the Walkman around the turn of the millennium.
I bought the original - the Orange headphones were a status symbol. When the II came out, I thought Sony had lost the plot - it felt like cheap plastic tat and (for me) heralded the end of cassette personal players - I still have it somewhere, you’re right it is iconic in a way the plastic wannabe’s never could be! PS Hope the eye settles down! R
The Tomorrow's World review back before the TPS-L2 was launched in the U.K. is interesting (and on Stereo2Go somewhere). The presenter spends about 30 seconds on the small cassette player and then over five minutes going on about the incredible headphones. even going as far as putting them on a dummy head incorporating microphones and showing how much better they are than most much heavier headphone due to the rare earth magnets. I will put a picture of some pre-Walkman upmarket headphones in the member posts area.
I enjoyed the increasing silliness very much. I had no idea there was such a thing as a portable dbx decoder. My memory of the Sony Walkman was that of disappointment. In around 1988 I bought a budget Sony Walkman (can't remember the model, probably around £39) and was underwhelmed with the sound quality. Mentioning this to a work colleague, he showed me his Awai personal stereo that was smaller and looked more advanced. This had also cost him around £40. I out my tape in it and couldn't believe how good it sounded compared to my Walkman. Great video as always, just a kite tho : is it my TV or is the red a bit high in this video? The headphones are really popping at times, and skin tone looks warmer than usual. Ian
In my experience Sony cameras rarely handle red properly - it usually shows as orange. I was just happy that this time it looked red - even if it's now too red.
Great video (as usual). I immediately wanted one (as usual), and went straight to eBay (as usual). They're expensive, but there's one auction that's currently cheap but it states there may be a gear problem (as usual). I'm handy with a screwdriver, so I went to YouTube to look for similar repairs (as usual). The repair does not look simple! I closed the eBay tab (which is not usual).
I must have been wealthier than I thought at the time, as I bought a silver Walkman ll in the very early 80s so I could listen to music on the bus going to and from work when I was an apprentice engineer. I didn't know about all the attachments though, otherwise I would have been laden down with them as well.
• I'm now imagining a very young 17-year-old Mat with his Aiwa on the train. 👍🏻 • This is a very tightly edited video, well done. I didn't notice audio problems at 1:20. • This iteration of Walkman is what I immediately envision when I think of a Walkman. Your red version really pops, very nice. • I noticed and appreciated your red CBS cassette (well-matched) and your glitter cassette. • That D-cell accessory is a monstrosity - I had no idea such a thing existed. • What do you have propped up there next to Headphone Headman? You really give me a lift of spirits every time I watch one of your videos. Take care. 🤍
I don’t hear the audio thing at 01:20 - perhaps it’s because I know what I said - although my speech in that section was probably too rushed. I’d have a go at fixing it, if I knew what the exact bit was that is the issue. The thing next to the head is an album that a group was kind enough to send me but I can’t find a use for in a video - so it’s a way to let them know that I did get it.
The Walkman II design is pretty impressive for its time. I didn't think the buttons appeared on the front of personal stereos until much later.
Yes indeed. All (cheap) walkmans I ever used, from Philips and Sony, have the buttons on the side
At 1:20 it sounds like some audio was not correctly edited or at least I can’t really understand the words you’re saying
If that’s the only bit you find - I’m happy.