I would like to understand the time-line and the evolution if the DD series walkman's (playback only); cross referencing service manuals, Sony catalogues and feature evolution, that is what I have come-up with: I think Walkman Central reports wrong information on the DC2: it states it is an evolution of the DDIII while it is an evolution of the DDII (a Sony catalogue shows both the DDII and the DC2 on sale in the same year). The DD30 is indicated as a step down from the DC2 while it is indeed an evolution of the DDIII which could be seen both as a step down from the DC2 or the direct evolution of the DDII. Anyway I am missing some dates and maybe some links; any help is appreciated !
Great job, you deserve a Medal from the community!!! Hopefully other tape-heads will help to fill the blanks I am doing this for Sony Discmans (PCDP Components) so I know how difficult and time/$$$-consuming it is Would be great to link some photos to the table, I still get confused if my DDII is DD11 or DD2...
The DD1/11/22 line is easy to spot as it has all round buttons with a different layout then the other DD's .. OT: very nice Discman collection ! back in the 90's I loved portable CD players. My first was a Philips D6800 (like the one you recently restored): it was portable in a very broad sense of the term, the 6 batteries lasted very short and it would skip just if you looked at it the wrong way. Then three technics starting with the SL-XP1 (I recently got it back from the guy I sold it to 20 years ago) and other two of which I do not remember the model; a terrible philips AZ9015 with CD-RW support (similar to one of yours) and last a Sony D-NE1 (expensive, very nice looking, but a disappointment sound-wise). I still have the last two boxed, but the Technics sounds much better than those.
In my younger days I was too much of a snob to consider a Walkman, the first portable I bought was also Technics. SL-XP180, bought in 1994 I think... I have AZ9015 and all-metal Sony D-EJ985 and I totally agree, they do sound horrible! At least D-EJ985 is pretty To get a "family tree" of technical info for Walkmans would be grand! Yours is a good start! Here is five cents of useful info on Panasonics: RQ-S5V/RQ-S11/RQ-S15/RQ-S45/RQ-S55 share the same cassette mechanism (RFKRQS11E-A)
I think the WM-DD33 was earlier then 1991 i think it's more like 1989. I remember when it came out it was £80 and by the time they stopped it in the 1990's it was £120. Also i thought the WM-DC2 was about 1984. Don't quote me on both the above but i think my dates are correct.
I have managed to find some Japanese Sony catalogue on Hi-Fi engine and they add some info and some misteries too. latest revision of family tree: further doubts: DC2 is surely contemporary of the DDII while the DD100 is an evolution of the DDII; while being a successor to the DC2, the DD100 trade-off Dolby C and quartz for DOL. DDIII has the same mechanics of the DD100, but again the DOL is traded-off for quartz controller. It is quite an odd assortment of features for four walkmans developed in the span of two years. I have the catalogues for 1982, 1984, 1986, 1989 and 1990. 82 presents the WM-2, still no DD insight 84 presents both DDII and DC2 86 presents DD100 and no other DD's 89 and 90 showcase only the DD9 No mention whatsoever of DDIII, DD30, DD33 and DD1/11/22. Maybe they were not sold in Japan or they were presented exactly in the years I have no info about. Dates on the service manuals are unreliable as they refer to the revision of the manual itself which is updated until the unit has to be supported.
A very interesting attempt to build the family tree! A few remarks on the DC2: Mechanically the predecessor indeed seems to be the DDII Electronically it is more related to the D6 and the D6C with its amorphous head, discrete head amplifier and Dolby C I actually think that DOL (and all other Eq type additions) fundamentally only decrease pure sound quality. It is only there because of the shortcomings of mobile headphones of that time. With modern headphones there are few Walkman that can best the DC2 on transparency, frequency range and detail Maybe you can include the D6, D3 and the D6C in your chart as well?
I have checked more catalogues and what is apparent is that SONY used to tailor the products offer based on the country: Japan was considered a rich market and on the catalogue only high level products were presented; on the other hand European catalogues have more low end products (e.g. cheap plastic walkman) along with fewer high end products. For that reason it is sometime difficult to identify the exact introduction date of a particular DD unit. As for the DC2 it is indeed almost a brand new DD walkman vaguely based on the DDII; mechanics and electronics is different and also never re-used again. It is also the first playback-only with quartz. The DD100 is also a DDII derivative still with no Quartz but with DOL; but its mechanics was reused with no modification on the DDIII. The DC6 and the DD3 are present in almost all catalogues as "recording DD units". I might add the DD3 as another DDII derivate, but the D6/D6c line is almost parallel to that of the DD walkmans and the DC6, although presented very early in the series, outlived the last DD by almost 10 years. Will update the diagram with latest findings and I will also add main features for each.
