Hi, this is my latest acquisition, a boxed WM-EX652 in pristine conditions and with all accessories, manual and box. [GALLERY=media, 240]Enryfox_wmex652 by enryfox posted Jan 6, 2017 at 6:09 PM[/GALLERY] It was sold as non functioning but in the end it was just a loose belt; replaced it with a similar one and it's working great again. It was the SONY TOTL of 1997 and it has brass flywheels, metal casing, remote control and a rechargeable NiCd flat battery (which is dead anway). It sounds good, but the DD-33 is better. My question is: the transport of this walkman has a weird belt tension mechanism so that when playing a tape the belt is relaxed to decrease power consumption and improve tape stability. But when in stop mode or in FWD/REW the belt is kept stretched to improve torque. Isn't that a sure way to quickly wear out the belt itself ? When storing the walkman for a long period, is it advisable to keep the belt loose to preserve it better ? thanks bye
My EX-560 has the same thing. From a mechanical viewpoint, the tension is used to essentially get the flywheels and drives up to speed before losing a minor amount of tension, as maintaining the speed doesn't need as much force. Think of it like pushing a heavy shopping cart; once you're at walking pace it needs far less energy to move it. I think it probably provides more "effective" life to the belt - if it's slightly less taught, it won't become more stretchy if left there for some time, like the WM-22 series with it's static flywheels.
Thanks for your reply; I would have thought the best way to preserve the belt would be to keep it relaxed when not in use and stretch it only when more torque is required. My fear is that with time the belt can lose elasticity and during playback can slipper causing way more W&F. I checked a picture of the tape transport of the EX-560 and indeed it is the same as mine EX-652. I will keep an eye on the current belt and likely buy a couple of proper spare ones from Marian, the one I'm using now might be slightly shorter than required. bye Enrico
The guy who sold me the walkman told me he bought it off a Mercedes dealer back in the 90's. Actually other than the logo stamped on the wlakman body, there is no other mention of mercedes anywhere, nor in the box neither in any of the instruction leaflet. Not sure why anyone would buy a walkman in a Mercedes store, he must have paid more than in a regular electronic shop just for a stamped logo ...
well, this makes your walkman very unique Probably Mercedes ordered this model from Sony to give it to employees or customers
