Here some pictures of my Osaka Hi-teen HT-404. The headphones are the HP-404. Its the same sort of unit like the old Astraltune, so I think its also a pre-tpsl2 Walkman unit.

Inside there is a pack of NiCd batteries, the unit is rechargeable. Sound of the machine is great. No motor hum at all! Sadly the headphones aren't working because of wire breakage in the plug. It uses a special bent plug, so its gonna be difficult to find a replacement. There is tone control, balance and Fast Forward on the unit, but no rewind.

I must say the concept placing the player on the chest works great. Its very comfortable and super easy to operate the unit. The weight of the player is no problem at all this way.

Enjoy the pics and let know what you think. Would love to have more info about the player!

This is very nice Michiel good score!

Collectors tend to forget the sound quality so it's good news that this one sounds so good.And these headphones look serious

If it is pre-tps-l2 ,the "Osaka Hi teen" bold color lettering on the bag and (white) on headphones ,shows that the designer knew the importance of a logo when the user is walking in the streets and that ,before "walkman" logo show the way.

The rechargeable batteries is also a feature from future ,especially if there isn't an option for normal batteries ,from the mp3 era.

It's indeed quite an unique player. It has a 5 cell Sub C Eveready batterie pack inside. That says with big letters "Made in USA". There is no room for normal batteries. Only jacks in the player are the charger port and a 6.5mm output jack.

From the inside it looks old fashioned. Strange heavy duty motor and the electronic boards look like they are hand made, so is the soldering.

Sound is good. It's also very powerful, but that's maybe because it works on 6 volt. It is for instance much better sounding than the Grundig Beatboy 100 or other westman clones. Having tone control makes this a great sounding unit.

Well I hope someone is able to shine a light on it.

I have an Acoms as250, it seems it is build with the same principle but it has different controls configuration,it also has the all important blue metallic paint and orange buttons,dual headphones sockets,hot line to be a proper tps-l2 look-alike so must be after that.

Some pics for comparison:

And a Canon motor!

Ow that's very nice Sotza! Cool to see the inside of the Acoms! Agree that it also looks like a post tpsl2 machine from the inside. I will take some pics of the inside of the Hi teen too

The motor of the Osaka is branded "Silk Motor" btw. Ever heard of it?

I do not recall "Silk motor" as such but maybe I have seen it and didn't notice, a photo will help.

I didn't mention that the Acoms is made in Japan, Acoms is making servo mechanisms for R/C but I don't know if it is the same brand though.

It does look Acoms. I have several of their transmitters/receivers for my vintage Tamiya cars and the way the plastic housing is formed, looks like the way those transmitters are build. They are from around 1979. Did Acoms make more Walkmans?

Aah.. didn't see pics had been send!

More or less the same configuration inside but all components are different between the two players.

Strange to see a rechargeable battery pack inside a walkman!

The motor seems to be covered with some sort of jacket the only clue is the bottom side but now I know how it looks like if I come across it.

Impressive observation Michiel!

Sadly the only information on the web for the subject is only a listing for this player in Radiomuseum and here in s2g from member *TPR* : http://REPLACEMENT ERROR/topic/a-weird-acoms-walkman but don't go there unless you want a quick laugh ,something is wrong with the pics.

Yes it's the same brand as the transmitters. Here a pic of one of my 1979 AP-227 transmitters. It also says "Manufactured by Asahi Communications Inc". Probably they also made the AS-250?

Thats quite an investigation! They sure made as250 ,the fonts of the word ACOMS on your transmitter and my player are exactly the same:

And probably ACOMS is acronym from Asahi COMmunicatioS.

That's very smart Sotza. I didn't notice the accromym! Think too it's the only Walkman Acoms ever made, as I never saw the brand make transmitters after about 1981. Cool collectible unit! 

Thanks for the help MIchiel although I think we hijacked a little bit your own topic for Osaka High-teen but I'll be back if I find any info on it.

Thanks Sotza, it was fun to analyse the Acoms I like the brand. In the RC world it's very collectible because it came originally with the first Tamiya RC car grails. I'm going to keep my eyes open for one!

I tried to avoid your first mention about Tamiya.....have bought back then many Tamiya kits and  (less) R/C  (monster beetle) that I still have today .....the great colorful year Tamiya catalogs that were the holy grail of information on that pre Internet era .....but I guess that is an off-topic discussion !

Lol, yes it's kind of off topic. I got my first used Tamiya Sand Scorcher around 1981. Looking back it played a big role in my life. Ultimately it appeared to be a core event of my decision to study mechanical engineering many years later. Thats the main reason I still collect them. I got most of the metal SRB types, including my original ones. And my original Willy's M38 and a very rare Opel Ascona. Those catalogs were awesome indeed! Nice memories!

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The main topic itself is confusing I guess.... most likely it's about the mother of all nowadays personal music players, including the Sony Walkman. Agree its a very sensitive subject, especially among long time collectors.

Some history about this particular player; I got it from a very nice older guy that inherited the player from his former boss. His boss was the head of a big chewing gum factory. According to the last owner his former boss got the player when he was on a trip in the USA, long time before anyone heard of Walkmans or other personal music players. The man was a big gadget freak, probably with a good network to score such a device. As far as the previous owner remembers, the player was later always revered to as the first "walkman". A very remarkable and special machine at the time. This was in The Netherlands, a very gadget crazy and up front country at that time.

The unit itself operates and looks like it was build yesterday. It has really been taken care of. It's clear that it was never abused and was handled like a museum piece. I must say its a privilege to own it, especially because it's still working and complete. It's awesome to listen and experience yesterday's sound

The interests of a true collector can not be isolated to one field only.

Because  collecting is not just to possess  things, is also about history,human interests and behavior at specific times, technology evolution,art,personal memories and so many other things.

Whats important in cases like Osaka Hi-teen HT-404 is that it shows that its not difficult to materialize a good idea, of course to make it big you have to be a Sony.

Acoms on the other hand tries to mimic something that is already success and gets no points for that but they had good quality and diversity in their products  as proved by this topic.

A nice piece of history Michiel.

I don't know about the others but Mr Spock must wonder why she doesn't wear it like his tricorder!

I don't think Mr. Spock represents the proper active teen lifestyle  

As you know a lot of first generation post-tpsl2 Walkmans came with the facilities to carry the Walkman like Mr. Spock does. It only works when you are doing nothing physical. That's why they left it out in later models I guess...

Ok this is fair enough.Lets see where this set-up is useful, I can think of a young man in 1978 riding a BMX bike or a skateboard ,a skier at a downhill listening to Iron Maiden at full speed! , a common biker, a jogger (?)

In other words in any activity  that the body of the user is in constant movement and his hands are occupied with that activity except swimming and maybe something else that I can't think of.

It's all about dancing on roller skates in those days

Nice pick Michiel I was wondering who's gonna pick up the hi-teen on marktplaats

Haha, yes it was there for a long time. I got in contact with the seller more than a year ago. No results. Until he contacted me this week with the message I could have it