What is the easiest Walkman to maintain or repair?

Hi guys,

Maybe this topic had been talked about already and I apologies if so.
I just wanted to ask you what would be the best Sony Walkman as an everyday use device?

I was wondering if you could help me to choose an old model to purchase.
The best would be a model that you don't need to remove the IC board for replacing the rubber band, something that works on AA or AAA batteries and affordable (I can't afford a WM-D6C, WM-DC2 or a WM-DDII model).

Brands other than Sony are ok for me.

Thank in advance!

 

depends on your budget
but you should know that replacing the rubber band is not the only thing to guarantee a full functioning walkman.

 

Well I would guess a Sony WM-22 or Sony WM-DD33.

My first choice and what I use everyday is something you say you can't afford, which is Sony WM-DC2.

 

Great looking combo, but judging the first post out of bounds.

A pretty good WM-EX6xx or anything similar would be a great start.
@Valentin made a thread about the tac-tac sound, but I guess any device that is +20 years old, you do need to check.
Or take the plunge, but if it is only 25 dollars compared to DC2 (hundreds of dollars in unknown state), it is not as scary.

 

There are a lot of SONY EX models that have a different clutch gear without that cracking problem. I will post a thread with walkmans' common problems, list which members of the forum will be invited to extend with their own knowledge.
As @Boodokhan said, on many older units it's rarely "just a belt" and many need a lot more than that to be brought to their former glory.

Another thing I would say is dare look at other brands as well, not just SONY. There are cheaper brands out there which can bring a lot of joy as well, like AIWA, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sanyo, just to name a few.

SONY WM-4 and Toshiba KT-S1/KT-S2/KT-S3 are 2 that come to mind where the belt can be replaced without removing the PCB. Having 4 batteries will also bring more voltage swing on the output, meaning more power and ability to drive higher impedance headphones.
The only downside, none of the 2 have Dolby NR. However, both are reliable units and it's likely you will get away with a new belt, cleaning of pulley grooves and lubricating the capstan bearing and motor bearing.

 

Sure thing! But replacing the band is something you must have to do someday and I just want to be sure to do it myself. So as the speed adjustment or just cleaning the capstans/head. I just heard that some model as a real pain to do simple maintenance, and I just want to do a wise choice.

 

Thanks a lot! I'll take a look at those models.

 

Have you seen

Comments I would add

• If you can check a unit out before paying that would be ideal.
• Avoid paying too much. If you are only paying £5 (or equivalent) each it doesn't matter if you get a faulty one.
• Avoid late model Panasonic units as many need the board desoldering from the motor to change the belt.
• As people have already commented most early Sanyos are typically cheap, reliable and easy to fix when they go wrong.
• I suspect belt life depends on how the belts were made. I have had units that still worked fine after 30 years but more recently a couple of newer Sonys where the belt has turned to black goo.

Personally I think it is a mistake to narrow down what you want before you start looking. Back to my first point, I would be happy to pay 3 or 4 times the price for a Walkman I was able to check out a unit before purchase than for "junk".

 

Yes, I have seen that video a while ago but you reminded me that I should watch it again. Thanks for the comments, I really appriciate!

 

I ended up watching the video myself this morning. It is slightly out of date regarding the infamous DD Center Gear as there is now a plasic gear basedrepair kit from one of our members.

Something I thought is that if you are doing repairs you should be ready to try any challenge. This is the most difficult rebelting I have done but the reward was a working unit. It was actually O.K. for a few years after I bought it.
http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/panasonic-rq-e27v-rebelting-and-big-thanks-to-mihokm.2154/

In terms of value for money I like these late model Aiwas
http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/aiwa-gs302-quick-rebelt.4449/
The cheapest new Personal Stereo I ever bought (less than the price of two CDsat the time), Dolby, and as you can see it was very easy to change the belt when it needing changing after about 15 years.

 

Those are great stuff! Thanks a lot for sharing.

 

Panasonic RQ-X series ... typically available at decent price (I paid mine "untested" 10 EUR each), good rich sound, run on a single AA battery. I have bought a bunch of those and they just need a new belt (need to desolder few contacts though) a clean-up to avoid any debris in the gears and they are ready to go: very reliable transport, no critical part, no known failures, it offers performance which are often better than higher models (RQ-S or Sony WM-6xx).
Only cons, they are slightly bulkier compared to walkman running on gumstick battery, but to me they feel sturdier.

I use a silver RQ-X11 as my daily driver (it already has few scratches on the cover, so no bother) and it has very good W&F and sounds nice to my ear with no EQ at all. RQ-S has deeper bass, but I prefer the simple reliability of the RQ-X

 

Recently I have bought a few Sony walkmen, the WM-F2085 sounds good for a plastic machine, needed a replacement belt. That took only about 10 minutes and just involved about 6 screws, no soldering or disconnecting of anything, dead easy. I have also replaced the belt on a WM-EX610, again, very easy, no disconnecting, no soldering. Both of these units have the belt completely accessible by removing the rear cover, one had a bit of metal which needed flexing slightly to get the new belt in. Very easy. Both sound great and are auto-reverse. Looking at these Sony made their machines easy to work on. I know the DD models had that problem with the plastic cam thing, the WM/EX is so good I don't see the need to spend more. The WM-EX610 uses the gumstick batteries which are easy to find and also if you have the blob they will run on an AA battery.

 

Recently replaced belts on a pair of WM-EX677 Walkman. Very simple belt path and no desoldering necessary. WM-674 is similar. These are becoming more popular now as they had soft touch controls and wired remotes and run on a gumstick battery for days on a single charge. Sound is very good too with Groove and Mega Bass. The other player is WM-WX1 a Wireless model but identical to WM-EX1 the non wireless option and cheaper.

 

Am posting here, because would like an opinion on repairing/maintaining a TC-153SD. I have spotted one, but in an auction, and only description is ‘working’, which could mean anything. I think it is belt driven, and like what looks like it’s sturdiness. I suspect I can get it for less than £50, and then don’t mind spending to get it up to scratch. Does this sound like a good idea?

 

@Stevedean The TC-153SD is very likely to be working if it's described as working. However, being a very old unit, expect it might need new belts (although the original ones might surprisingly be still good), a clean and relubrication of the mechanism for optimal wow&flutter.
Also expect a new pinch roller might be needed if it will eat tapes; the generic 13 x 8 x 2mm from FixYourAudio is the one that fits.
Switches and potentiometers will need to be cleaned, as it might have intermittent dropouts (which might seem like wow&flutter), where one of the voltage rails will suddently drop and come back.

The electronics are made with discrete components only, with only the exception of the head preamp (which is an IC). Uses NipponChemicon capacitors, which are still good.
Another aspect to be mindful of is the headphone out, which volume is not adjustable and it's not able to drive modern headphones. I think it was designed to be used with some very high impedance ones (which didn't drew much current at all).

The main belt is 80mm x 1.2mm and the process of replacing it is pretty involved: you need to take the front cover off, the Dolby board, the battery compartment in order to make some room for a scrwdriver to unscrew the flywheel bracket.
I wouldn't necessarily say it's difficult, but it's was clearly made so that parts are assembled in a specific order. That would also apply to disassemblying, but in reverse.

However, for less than 50 pounds, I'd say go for it. It's can sell for more than 100 if in mint condition.

 

I did not see these side by side before: the WX1 looks so clean, really nice!
I have yet to put my rebelted WM-EX618 to the endurance test with the supposedly 1450mAh gumsticks, hope it can get to 10-12 hours using a type I or II.

 

There should be no problem getting 10-12 hours out of the gumsticks on cassette Walkman. Entirely different story on MD Walkman. I have tried every after market brand you can think of and some run the notorious MZ-R55 for an hour or so when new out of the pack but after 10 or so recharges they drop away until you get that annoying "low batt" shut-down every time. The same flat battery runs other MD players even though the low batt symbol is flashing for hours until the Walkman won't power up so with cassettes you should get good usage out of your
1450mah gumsticks

 

Side discussion indeed from the easiest to repair walkman.
I noticed something similar while using my Panasonic SJ-MR220 MD player/recorder.
It seems a bit easier to power on than the MZ-R55 you describe.
With a charged gumstick it shows almost always an empty battery symbol upon start.
Within a minute or so it detects the real battery status and the battery symbol changes to fully charged.
/End of side discussion

 

Oh yeah. There is some residual battery level detection issue with a few of my Hi-MD players as well. If you can get the players to restart you will get a refresh of the battery level on these but the MZ-R55 does not seem to respond to this refresh or re detection of the battery. It just shuts down. I mentioned in previous posts that I believe there was a design fault with the firmware in the MZ-R55 that triggered the low batt shut down on any battery that had dropped away from peak voltage even though that battery will happily run other devices for hours.