Hello peoples, I've not new to cassettes, or home decks, but I am very new to Walkmans and would like your advice on some units I'm looking at. I'm looking for something that can handle chrome tapes and has Dolby B NR. Auto-reverse would also be nice, but not a deal killer. These are all within the same price range which is about $200 USD, which is pretty much my ceiling on what I'm willing to spend. 701c - "Belt replaced, head demagnetised." No accessories, no battery, battery cover missing. 702 - "Fully refurbished with original headphones, AA battery pack, and headphone adapter. Works perfect with no issues I can find." 703c - "Playback is too fast, need adjust speed tape for play and need replacement one pinch roller rubber." No accessories, no battery. 150 - "Belt has been replaced and the clutch wheel restored." Comes with charger and one 'gumstick' battery. From these forums I've found out that the 150 has a terribly unreliable mechanism, but some parts have been replaced on the unit I found and I like that it's a 'dumb' unit when it comes to just plugging in headphones and not having that silly inline controller. Plus I love the look of it. However it seems the 70x units have far greater build quality and less issues. I'm not at all afraid to take things apart and bust out the jewelers screwdrivers , multimeter and soldering iron either if that changes your viewpoint. Which one of these units would you recommend considering the above notes?
I'd go with the 701c. You'll need the headphone adapter if it does not come with the original headphones. Personally I would get the adapter.
None of the above if you can wait. I voted for the 2nd option but Overal I do not recommend you to buy these models. You need a solid player that can serve you for a long time. 70x series are better than 150 for sure. But none of the above models are solid players. In my opinion find a D6C which is an excellent Walkman. I understand about your budget limit but you can wait a little bit, save more and when the times comes own a D6C. You will never get disappointed by a D6C
I've seen some D6C's on Yahoo Auction go for around AUD 250 - 700. Be prepared to pay extra for commission (if you use a third party like Buyee) and shipping which can be quite dear. I normally buy in bulk to save on shipping.
Hi guys! Which one from the list works with Senn or AT h/p (without this crazy (and pretty much unobtanium) 3.5mm adapter? I vote for that one...
Are replacement parts still available for these units? Or are these units so well built they only really need belts and rollers?
Definitely No spares for the list... For D6C set of belts and a tire available from @mihokm and should you hit the wall with resto, @Deb64 is a King of D6/D6C to walk you thru or fix it for you... Awesome machine, but definitely Not "portable", a Walkman for my SweetSpot when family asks me to shut up my stereo and its time to put on big Senns, fire D6, close my eyes and imagine that The Family magically disappeared
Yeah, D6 is a Walkman for the couch-potatoes like myself... When Im on the Go I do not care much about SQ and take my Pono, in balanced mode it does not hurt my sensibilities too much, and gives a chance to listen to freshly downloaded tunes
There appear to be a couple of D6Cs on ebay at the moment for slightly higher than my budget. If they stay below $300 USD I'll grab one. Am I right in assuming the earlier versions with the amorphous head are the preferred units?
Another option is to buy a D6 instead of a D6C, But you should know 2 major differences between 2 models. first Dolby C option that only available in D6C The 2nd major issue which is to me is the most important is D6 lacks the option of "line in" which is very important if you want to use your walkman as your only recording device. But if you a have a good deck for recording ignore this option. There is another issue that some believe earlier versions of D6 have better quality Head and I leave this part to other members who have the knowledge about it.
to be fair to the poor old D6, it does have line-in option which it shares with Mic in. An extra switch controls the gain. Not as good as separate line-in though, or so I was told by those who care (I don't, use Walkmans for playback only: Nak LX3 does all my recordings)
I own quite a few D6s and D6Cs and, although there isn't much difference in the sound quality between them, I find that the D6 has a bit more presence and detail on playback. I don't do any recording apart from when I'm testing repaired machines so I'm not too bothered by the combined socket. The D6 does not have the 20dB attenuation button found on the D6C. The drawback with buying a D6 is that they are older than the D6Cs and will almost certainly need some work doing. As well as new belts and rubber tyres, the 34+ year old potted hybrid modules will be starting to fail so expect to replace the mute module and two recording EQ modules and to repair the motor servo module. Some of the early D6Cs are starting to suffer from mute and EQ module failures as well but they don't use a hybrid board for the motor servo. When I wrote up the repair method for the CP602 module on the D6, I had an interesting reply from @Longman, complete with video, stating how a similar problem was occuring on Juno synthesisers from the same period. WM-D6 - CP602 Module Repair I now have a Technics SL-XP5 portable CD player which has gone faulty (it won't read CDs). It failed gradually and I think it could be a problem with potted modules. I'll try and investigate that one over the winter.
@Deb64 SL-XP5 is a bitch to fix, even the King of Discmans at kaosuncd.com refuses to fix them!!! The good news is that they are unbreakable and there is a bunch always available off eBay for $60 without power supplies
