I presume thar is a car stereo with an ejectable Walkman. I read an article once about when a particular technology is expensive there is a trend to try and make things multi-purpose. The example they gave was power drill accessorise. Remember when (back when electric motors were expensive) you could get all sorts of attachments like a circular saw body to fasten to your drill.
Or if you buy a separate car stereo and walkman you could switch between the two in 0.5 seconds. I wonder how many people bought these and if they did how many times they got in their car then realised they had left the deck in their house or office ?
This is great! I'm nostalgic for the good old days...but not for how hard it was to listen to music in the car!
I completely disagree. My 1988 Nissan had a nice auto-reverse radio cassette positioned just in front of the gear lever. Grab a few cassettes (usually recorded from LP or CD before the start of a journey and throw them on the passenger seat. Fancy listening to the radio ? The radio cassette had a Digital Tuner with six preset buttons per band, making it very easy to flick through favourite stations. In contrast my 2013 Golf has a CD player (which I suppose I should be grateful for) mounted out of reach in the glove compartment. The radio has a touch screen which shows every single station, in blocks of five, whether it is of interest or not. Set it up how you want it and it after a few weeks it is likely to do an "Auto scan" and mess up your settings. Changing station is such a chore that I usually only listen to two different stations, one on FM and one on DAB as I can switch between them by pressing a simple button. It does also have a 30 pin connector for an Iphone, and an SD card reader but I have never tried either of those. The whole "infotainment" system is combined with the sat-nav and various controls for the car so there is no way it could be replaced with something else. I suppose it could be worse. A friends wife had a new Mini which they sold after not long, the final straw being when it took him an hour to work out how to change the clock when the hour changed. My GM Vauxhall Vectra was actually the easiest for that as it picked up the time from the Radio RDS signal. However the 1988 Nissan, the 2001 Vectram and even the 1980 Capri (once I fitted a Pioneer Radio Cassette) audio systems were all way easier to use than the 2013 Golfs touchscreen.
All great points, especially about the radio! That VW system sounds tough...almost the same in my current old Ford...I connect the phone to the radio with an AUX cable, and its less than ideal. However, when I travel for work and get one of these new rentals, WOW! The Bluetooth syncs with my phone, and now that I have Apple Music ($10 a month), I can use the voice controls to ask the iPhone to play virtually any song or album in history, or one of my numerous playlists. I can also listen to a playlist the system offers of completely new music, all without taking my eyes off the road. I also like being able to change the song, station, and volume right from little buttons on the steering wheel. If I ever upgrade my car I'll definitely need this feature. The great thing about music is that there are no wrong ways to listen...well maybe 8-track!
Some more info on the Sony Shuttle from 1983, I'm also diggin the AM Stereo Sansui, my local buddy (he loves AM Stereo) just told me that the one I just got does indeed get in all four AM Stereo broadcasting bands!
If you struggle with that version in your Mk7 Golf, you should try the newer version in the Mk8 Golf and the ID cars. Everything is touch, no physical buttons to press at all. Very frustrating to use, and I'm a VW fan boy (worked in a main dealer for 19 years!) Even changing the AC settings is done via submenu and a touch button underneath the radio display. It looks nice, but isn't very intuitive to use when your driving. Even the steering wheel 'buttons' have capacitive touch now.
