Hi guys, I couldn´t really find much in formation on this specific model around the internet and you might be able to help me. So I´ve got a wm ex-660 and got myself a new battery and belt but I managed to lose the 5 Screws that hold the outer casing with the Buttons. I could find an old service manual where the screws are described as "Sony IB Lock" but couldn´t find any information on these screws. Does anyone know what screws these are? Could they be a generic screw I can find in the hardware store or are they "special"? Man thanks in advance Ps: here´s the link to the mentioned manual https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1137849/Sony-Wm-Ex660.html?page=9#manual
Screws are M1.4 and can be found here (in different lengths): https://fixyouraudio.com/product/walkman_screws/
Today my mother handed me a second walkman. This time it´s a wm ex-652. It looks idetical to the wm ex-660 and I couldn´t find any differences in features online. Do you know what tells them apart?
Looking at the 2 service manuals: https://elektrotanya.com/sony_wm-ex660_ex662_cassette_player.pdf/download.html https://elektrotanya.com/sony_wm-ex650_ex652_ex654_sm.pdf/download.html I can spot some minor differences between the 2: 1. The EX660/662 has a French version which has limited power output (62Ω series resistors on the output) 2. The EX650/652/654 has an additional circuit for tape direction switching (Q713, Q714) which seems to have been removed on later versions (there's a supplement at the end) The EX650/652/654 had 2 different motor servo circuits, labeled as suffix -21 and suffix -14 (wonder if this means the serial number ends in 21 and 14). Overall, not much of a difference I would say, at least at first glance I can't spot anything else. These devices seem to be pretty much identical as far as functionality goes, apart from that French version of the EX660/662 which will have significantly lower power output.
Thanks Valentin, looking from the outside they are identical except that the 652 is labelled slightly different on the backside (saying the model name before the funtions compared to only the functions on the 660). The ex-652´s serial number ends on 86 so that doesn´t seem to hin on the motor switchings. Seeing that these models are nearly, or actually absoulutely, identical I am very intrigued to find out why Sony rebranded the same device under a different model name?
This was obviously not the case as the serial numbers vary a lot and it's the first digit that is the same on many devices never the last. The service manual is clearly reffering to something else. I wonder what though... We need more info like the period when each device was manufactured. The markets seems to be the same for both variants, so it's not a different model number for different markets thing. It may be as simple as this: they didn't want to re-design the walkman, so they just changed the model number and sold it like a newer version. The FR model itself may also be the reason in order to identify the model that is in compliance with their regulations. I am inclined to believe the EX660/662 is the newer model (the higher number would suggest the same) since the hearing protection regulations (for the FR model) were introduced at some point, it wasn't always like that. As a suggestion, it's better not to quote the entire previous post as you add redundant information. If you use the reply button, you can simply write in the box below the post and hit "Post Reply" instead. If you want to quote some specific part of the post you can do that via the "Quote" button. Quoting the entire post only makes sense if the post is older and not visible on the screen.
I have a WM-EX652 in my collection and I call it the "belt killer". It uses this odd tape transport where the belt is kept loose when in play mode and it is stretched when in FF/REW; the idea was to minimise power consumption during playback to extend the battery life, but the really bad design decision (at least for me) is to keep the belt stretched also when in stop mode. That means that whenever the walkman is not used the belt is kept stretched and as soon as playback starts, the belt easily looses grip if it is not able to contract a bit (I.e. it had lost elasticity after being stretched for months). Moreover the mechanism to stretch/loose the belt relies on the belt itself, and the transport can jam and might not be able to start playback end/or to exit from playback. I used the EX652 for some months, but after killing a belt, I put it out of service (belt removed) and kept it only as a collection item. This tape transport was quickly superseded by a more standard transport with belt kept in constant tension as improvements in disc motor technology were enough to extends battery life.
