Did other brands have similar players like Sony DD range?

Sony DD players are meant to be decent (I don’t have any myself). Was thinking did other manufacturers like Aiwa, Sanyo, Akai, Panasonic have a range that were a similar tech, no belts?
What were the models if so and are they worth getting or nearly impossible to restore?

 

Panasonic did have real Direct Drive players, the RX-S40 and RX-S41.
I don't think there are players from other brands without belts.

 

Thanks. I’m surprised Panasonic and Aiwa didn’t try, they both have some pretty high end players.

 

AIWA did obtain very good wow&flutter figures on their high end walkmans with their original belts.
Figures good enough to not really need a disc drive/direct drive mechanism.
And even Panasonic obtained very good w&f figures on their RQ-S series for example, good enough to not really need DD.
It's probably why they did not continue the RX-S40/41 series.
Of course the situation is a bit different nowadays, as these walkmans need to be serviced and also belts available today are not as uniform as original ones.
The unfortunate part is the DD ones are even worse, having way more problems than belt ones.

Biggest issue with disc drive and direct drive is all such walkmans are thick and bulky. Thicker than slim series (Panasonic RQ-S, SONY WM-EX, etc.) anyway.
This is probably one of the reasons others did not pursue it, apart from SONY's patent for disc drive technology and R&D costs.

Then another aspect is this: walkmans were not designed for audiophile critical listening, that was never the purpose.
Purpose was to offer a good experience for on the go listening for common music genres such as pop, rock, etc.
While nowadays there are quite a few people dedicated to critical listening of classical music on cassette tape (for which w&f of <0.1% WRMS is a must),
the vast majority of target customers from back in the day were not from this category.
Reality is even SONY WM-DD series were far from being a mainstream walkman sold in every electronics store, it was a rather niche series.

 

I totally approve

 

thanks. I probably haven’t really though about it much. Back in the 80s I don’t remember seeing any high end players around, not even in stores .. well maybe I wasn’t really looking. And definitely I wasn’t looking at W&F, for me the smallest player with good battery life was the best player to have . So I can see people choosing the thinner Panasonic and Aiwa for sure, they just looked more advanced.