I think I may have a sony SRF-42 somewhere or one similar. I will have. Look and see if I can find it .From memory it has some marks on the casing but it works well.anfd we in the Uk still have AM and FM available
I thought you guys went to digital in the UK? Longman, I think the technology in the DAT player crossed over to video and data storage, if they were using it back then. It's too bad it never got a foothold here outside of professionals, the music industry was not going to have it.
That was the plan. However; It got postponed until digital listening figures are higher. The original plan was still to have local "community" stations on FM I have seen better presented information but the fact that only 33% of cars have digital radio illustrates the problem https://www.radioworld.com/trends-1/majority-of-uk-radio-listening-is-now-digital-rajar-data-shows Personally I can understand why Digital Radio is good for somewhere like London where the FM band seems to be full of pirates interfering with each other, but in more rural areas it isn't difficult to find places where DAB reception is on the wrong side of the Digital Cliff. I find it amusing that some stations like Smooth Radio are, and have only ever been available on Digital and AM. You are right about the computer storage so I guess there was some re-use of DAT technology . However, I was thinking about that particular Walkman. I wonder how many they sold ? It certainly wasn't a mass market product like a camcorder where the development costs were spread over millions of units.
Isn't the technology the same as VHS or Beta? That drum was probably used in an 8mm video recorder or some of the small Sony Video Cameras. I've haven't seen one up close, just guessing. Over here DAT was mainly used by radio and TV production, I don't know of anyone that bought it for home use, CDs were just to shiny and fresh, they came in with thunder, tape seemed so 1970s.
They all use the same helical scanning technology. However the thing that amazed me about the Sony Portable DAT was the 15mm head drum. A standard VHS head drum is 62.5mm. Video 8 is 40mm. Comparing them is like comparing a Mantle clock to a Wristwatch.
Some cool gems from the Chicago Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 1984 The full magazine is here, there's some cool information and products in here. While monster recievers were done, some of the equipment for the digital age is pretty cool looking. I'd love to find either this Epson or Seiko Watch, just beautiful examples of 80's technology. Portable anything was the rage and miniture TV's, audio, and computers were selling big time but look at those prices $500 USD each, minimum wage, which I made, was $3.35 an hour, it would take over a month of saving to get either of these. https://archive.org/details/DigitalAudioMagazine091984
The Sharp JC-K99, the lightest portable cassette player in 1990, usually this was a bad sign but at $249.00 USD, it's probably a nice model.
The Best of the Smallest (CD Players) 1990 Stereo Review A portable CD player has the cover! https://www.americanradiohistory.com/HiFI-Stereo-Review.htm
The Sony D-5 vs Technics SL-XP7, it's a battle royale! Audio CD Edition Special Issue, December 1986 https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Audio-Magazine.htm
Here's one for Techmoan, another oddball tape format, sounds like a mini version of 8-track. The deck with dual stacked tapes is priceless. From Billboard Magazine 1971
The Walkman II 1981 New Scientist Magazine https://books.google.com/books?id=g...Z4KHa7dAgcQ6AEwAHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
This is interesting, I guess people with Walkmans were annoying everyone else so they developed a way to bulk erase everyone's cassettes, what about the people listening to the radio? Is this system still working? New Scientist Magazine 1988
A brief history of portable audio from HWM Magazine in 2005. This was when MP3 players were booming, check out the rest of this special section, we'll be talking about these little marvels in the future. https://books.google.com/books?id=k...-AKHWGTDRAQ6AEwAHoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
The black out is over and we're back, luckily I found a ton of cool stuff when the forum was offline. Here's my personal favorite, the Technics 686DS Field Recorder, it's so nice looking, a real statement piece sitting on your stereo. This is the smaller version of Technics 646D Field Recorder and dated two years before the Walkman was officially released. I've never seen one up close but my 646D is one of the coolest looking field recorders made but much bigger. If it had a radio, it might have been one of the coolest boomboxes ever made. Thanks www.americanradiohistory.com website and Modern Recording Magazine!
