I bought this Sony on E-Bay, for£20 or so It is called a Sony Soundalive .I have never seen one before nor can I find any reference to it on the internet as yet. It is a cheap plastic model but it says on the front “ A walk into History" and on the back it says” This machine is not suitable for ordinary domestic use and is protected with a security device “ Further more over the battery lid. it has a sticker with the words” Soundalike Linited” and ” Security Seal”. I replaced the two belts easily enough and now it plays of a fashion except the button which says Restart does not do anything .I do not know what this Restart button is for.Does any one have any ideas?
I wonder if it came from a museum. The "Walk into History" would tie up with that. They sometimes have talking guides "In the first Gallery you will find a collection of wind up Gramophones. These popularised the purchasing of Recorded Music, eventually leading to the personal cassette player like the one one are using and pre-recorded cassettes"
Yep, a nice little piece of history that probably was used for an exhibit but now will part of it's own exhibit. Good luck finding more, I bet most were thrown out when they served their purpose.
Hi Longman and Mister X, Thanks for your input .I am sure you are both right as I have since seen on one side (with a magnifier) the words WM-TOUR so that seems to prove it was a unit for a guided tour which would also explain the wording on front and back and the security label as well to stop the batteries getting nicked possibly . I just wonder for which guide it was used but I guess I will never know .It also explains the single loop neck belt attached to the middle of the back of the case to go over and round ones neck while touring the exhibition >Thanks both Philip
That's quite interesting! Judging from the shape of the features, I'm guessing it's based on the WM-41 family. As for the restart button, I'm guessing this would tape a looping cassette and there's some sort of sensing foil marking the start of the loop. Pressing it would fast-forward the tape to that point. Just a guess though... I'd love to see more pic of the other sides of the unit!
Hi Stuck-in Time, Thanks for your interest.Here are some more photographs of the unit .I intended to snd these original but for some reason they had not gone on to my Photos but they are there now .
Quite interesting indeed. The green parts looks uneven in some parts. Simply factory-painted perhaps? The absence of the rewind button is appropriate when using loop cassettes.
