The big question was, would I have room for another personal cassette player? After a short period of thought I pulled the trigger on this little Sony WM-R2, their first recording Walkman Unit. There's something about these small stereo recorders that makes me think of sneaking into a 70's concert and bootlegging the show. In the old days there was no way to hear a live band recording unless you knew someone that taped the show or found a Danish LP Bootleg. They used to pat you down good before going into the stadium and if you had a recorder or camera, it was confiscated and you'd probably never see it again. These first units are cool with dual headphones, mic, and even a "Hot Line" Switch. Rounding out the features is a tape counter, metal tape switch and a very rare on/off button. All metal construction and the cool early button control layout, these ooze quality.
Wow I didn't even know there was a walkman that could record. Despite the addition on the top it's still a very sleek looking unit.
Thanks Farlander, these are really nice looking units, even with the protective cover on it. Pricing is still reasonable on these under the radar units.
I bought a non-working one of these from eBay a few weeks back for around £25, not sure what is wrong with it as I've not really had a proper look at it. Mine is the silver version though. I agree, there is something extremely cool about these units.
When personal cassette players were ultra popular it seemed that the recording versions were very rare. As a kid it would have been nice to head over to a friend and rip an album with your Walkman. Even in the early days of the forum there were not too many and I was always happy to find a random AIWA Recorder at the local thrift, they were rare on ebay as well. Now were starting to see a ton of them come up for sale and there's so many different versions. Since they tended to be more of an upmarket unit the ones I find all look great, like they were loved and then put away for decades and except for the models everyone knows, there's some real bargains out there.
