Sometimes, very rarely, a truly rare item appears suddenly like a jewel. I think this time I found some: the Sansui FX-W72R. This walkman comes under the name of a very respectable HI-Fi brand, which has made some quite remarcable devices, like the impressive SE-9 equalizer that I have in my collection: Sansui always focused in HI-FI devices and never made anything portable... except this one. The box shows nothing special. In fact it's a bit ugly to me. The unit is, however, quite beautiful in white. Not very usual color, indeed. But... wait, this FX-W72R has something that seems very familiar to me... That controls layout... Hmm, the Sansui has a quite identical controls layout than the SONY WM-F550C. Casualties? Or maybe a licensed model? If so, this could be the very first licensed model by SONY I see. It seems based on the same mechanics as the F550C (and many other models like the B603 or the 504). It includes radio in a different configuration than the F550c (which also has radio). Indeed an interesting model. It remembers me the Infinity Intimate, the only walkman made by Infinity (yes, the famous speaker brand) but licensed by other brand. I'm not sure why these brands did that and then forgot walkmans forever, but anyway I'm grateful that they did, because they made very collectible units indeed.
Not licensed unless they are credited for the machine itself while it's being outsourced. In our case here it's certainly a case not so rare, especially back in the day. Basically a company needs supply lines of bodies, electronics, mechanical parts. Spare parts are needed for: repairs, accelerating production without having to source the more expensive/tedious to produce parts, so in the end there may be discrepancies in the inventory, things that end up in large numbers, sometimes entire units and the best course of action if you can't make a profit by putting them in the market is to sell it. Take a hi-fi company in the middle of a golden age for plastics and in general, external parts in electronics and you may see a Walkman not assembled nor marketed by Sony but most certainly having their name written on the guts of the device. In the end it makes up for an interesting device. It uses patented technologies like Megabass in every way but in name, and it really has that distinctive Walkman look. If you perchance dissassemble it can you show us the insides to confirm this? Surely the PCB was at least assembled at the Sony plant.
This is closer to WM-190 based (has the updated 190 lid and hinge design), but with the addition of a radio on the back, which is the opposite of what Sony did to radio models of the WM-150 mechanism back in the day (they built the radio in the door). Does it have split gear problems like the WM-150/170/190 mechanisms?
