The WM-3 is next. Actually, I don't like the WM-3 that much as it is a perfect example of marketing over engineering. The TPS-L2 with a very minor update, metal tape compatibility and black paint, was offered as the high end model. It was 2 years after the TPS-L2 launch and if you ask me, the WM-2 was a better deal in any case. This is not my nicest WM-3, it shows the wear on the silver painted plastic. It's a pity, the same problem the TPS-L2 has. They made the majority of the case out of nice metal, except for the plastic that is supposed to look like metal but actually isn't and therefore wears out. Let's unbox a WM-3 The box is beautiful for sure. The marketeers did a good job making the WM-3 feel more special than the TPS-L2. Underneath the nice "Walkman Deluxe" cover is a battery box for additional play time, which was also available as an accessory at that time. I have some of them new in box, normally you'd have to buy them seperately but hey, this is a DELUXE so you get one free. I always like to see the receipt, a nice piece of history. In this case Mr. Rijbroek from Haarlem, the Netherlands, bought his WM-3 on 18 November 1981 for 350.75 guilders, roughly €160 then and almost €400 today corrected for inflation. The seller, Brandsteder Electronics, was a well known name back then. The owner of the Sony seller/importer was the brother of the famous (in NL) Ron Brandsteder, who was on television almost daily. I do not have a mint WM-3, only a few used ones, because this model is no technical advancement since 1979 so I'm not attracted. I do like the box and manual though! The manual has 2 running man on the cover, a good start! And this is hilarious! I like this so much. 8 people from all over the world running around. And look at the text, it's swinging! And now the best part: The HOT LINE is still here... but do you notice a difference compared to the TPS-L2 manual? In 1979 our Walkman boy was telling Walkman girl that he was hungry. Two years later he's pressing the HOT LINE button even deeper in his excitement to tell Walkman girl that after listening together for 2 years, he now LOVES HER!
Interesting insight about the graphics in the instructions. I have one of these wm-3 models minus the cardboard box but everything else that you have shown in your pictures.
I'll post one more for today.. and also just realized that if I want to post all walkmans with some pics and text, it will take me hundreds of evenings I will go to a Toshiba that I really, really appreciate - The KT-AS10. Quite famous for its size, and incredible small form factor at the time. I believe the model itself is quite rare. It looks like they cut down a walkman in half! What's happening? Well, the tuner pack fits perfectly. Just make sure you keep each contact clean... at both sides, so 10 contacts to maintain! Well that fits very nicely... the window now shows FM/AM and we can listen to the radio with this very compact device. But it will also take a tape of course! It's just that it's sticking out. In the same way the Sony PS-Q7 and Flamingos had their record sticking out. Or the D-82 and D-88 discmans had their CD sticking out. It is therefore quite interesting that not Sony made the "tape sticking out" walkman, but Toshiba did. I'll end with a nice twist that not everybody knows: The KT-AS10 has pins through the tape transport reels, which both have a function. The right one on this picture is a the lock for the lid. Because the lid is smaller than a cassette and does not wrap around it, the engineers had to come up with a creative way to keep it in place. The "Beer bottle opener" in the top right of the picture snaps around it, and the OPEN (eject) button releases it again. The left one in this picture is the fast-forward button, which is inside the rotating tape transport reel. It will push down to the mechanism inside to activate fast forward. The three other buttons on the lid - MANUAL, PLAY/RADIO ON and STOP/RADIO OFF - are also not directly connected to any mechanism but are pushing down when the lid is closed. I think this is a brilliant and pretty unique device and I praise the engineers who managed to realize the KT-AS10!
Thanks for the reminder. I bought one of these back in 2013 and never opened it. I'm talking about the Toshiba kt-as10 and I found a few other things. I've never opened a Sony wmf30 Sony wmd33 didn't know I had and a Sony TCM-10 and I think I've seen a few other items I've never opened either. There's one in particular which I've never opened for certain which is a Sony voodoo con. Now the phone can't spell right but it's voodoo I said boodokahn you figure it out? I can only play 1 at a time so I just never got around to messing with these, which then begs the question. Why did I go through the trouble of buying them back then we're talking 11 years or more.
What a lovely collection and stories! Thanks for sharing. My first walkman was a Grundig Beat Boy 100. Whenever I see a Grundig Walkman, I think back to how strange it used to be to walk on the street with headphones
Cool! I like the Beat Boy 100 quite a lot and happen to have 2 mint ones. I guess in Germany or the Netherlands we considered a Grundig at least as good as a Sony back then, if not better - is that indeed the case? I wouldn't know as I was only a few years old at that time
I think I was about 10 years old when the Grundig came. It belonged to my father, but I confiscated it. Because he didn't actually do anything with it. I do know that I wasn't very brand sensitive at the time. My holy grail back then was a TV boombox. I remember those things attracted me like a magnet. I certainly didn't realize at the time that some were better than others. The more LEDs and buttons the better. My Grundig always had a big engine hum. I remember I was always tinkering with the thing. A problem I never solved. Nowadays I still have my original Grundig. And two like new examples, I also scored the original service manual. One day I will try to fix that engine hum of my first example forever haha
Stunning collection and an awesome read. You have brought back so many forgotten memories. I feel so privileged that you have shared your childhood with us. Wonderful story. Cheers Kiwinut
Wasn’t Grundig a Philips (partially) owned sub brand, along the lines of Aristona? It made sense to have a German brand in the portfolio to be able to compete against Siemens in their home country.
Norelco, Magnavox, Erres, Aristona were Philips brands for different markets and people. The product were essentially the same with different colors and options. At least that’s what I recall from the past, the eighties. Grundig had a complete different product line and were no aka’s from Philips products or vice versa. What I do know, is that Philips and Grundig used the same shitty plastics for a lot of their cassette gears. So probably there was a connection on that level The Beat Boy 100 is in fact a Westman clone. I’m not sure if Grundig build the Beat Boy themselves. I can not recall if Philips ever sold a Westman clone. But that’s really Autoreverser’s territory
Philips was at one time the controlling stakeholder. It is not completely clear in this Wikipedia article, if they shared (raw) materials or production facilities. However, it sounds not far fetched. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundig
Time to post another one... one of my all time favourites from the 1990 era. The WM-501. Yeah, the 501, just like the jeans, a classic for sure!
It's pure art in my view. Just look at the texture on the metal, in combination with this color. Wouldn't you prefer this any time over a Picasso? The black one is nice and cool, it feels so solid. But the red one is even a lot nicer in my view. It's not pure red, and it isn't pink either. Very different from the colors on my WM-20s for example, and also not the same as my red DD walkmans - It's close but the WM-501 is shinier. You can tell it's 1990 from the overall mechanism, the auto-reverse button and LEDs, and the buttons with the STOP/EJECT (no seperate open button here). And of course the mechanical keylock - yes that's right, if you move the slider to lock the keys, they're mechanically locked and cannot be pushed at all. And when unlocked, pushing PLAY or FF/REW feels so nice and rewarding, I'm pretty sure Sony engineers spent many days to perfect the mechanical feeling when pushing the buttons - this is no coincidence. The same mechanism is seen at many other walkmans in my collection, but somehow for the 501 everything is just perfect. Manufactured on April 1990... somebody must have bought it later that year and was probably super happy with it. I always wonder about the history of each walkman - who used it, where did they travel, which music did they listen to, how did it influence their lives... who knows? Don't you just love the big silver Sony wheels... only one on the WM-501 though, whereas some have 2 or even 4 of them (the WM-W800 of course). One nice fact: This was an early gumstick-battery model, and it came with a "power module" that is basically a plastic package the size of a gumstick battery with a DC connector on it. I do have such a module on another WM-501 elsewhere, but as I don't have them here I didn't make a picture. But if you look carefully you can see the hole on the side. When you put an actual 1.2V NiCd/NiMH battery in there, the hole is closed. When you put the module in, you can use an external adapter. Nice! I'll stop here with the WM-501 and will try to post another one within a few days. If you have special requests of a walkman you'd like to see, just ask. Chances are that I have it
Not even a year after the initial release, the red one looks amazing! I have added the design patent to Walkman.land, filed in December of 1988. Sony was not consistent with those colors, not even in the same line. I’ll share a DD example when I have the opportunity to take pictures during the day, with natural light.
The DD comes closest... the white balance may be off as I'm taking photographs in the evening with unnatural light, but I do think this pictures captures the difference.
And while talking about different shades of red anyway... I took some random red walkmans, metal and plastic, and made this pic:
And while we were talking 501, I should also post the F501 indeed: Yes it's nice, and a technological achievement for its time... but design-wise, even though it is beautiful by itself, in my view it doesn't even come close the the non-tuner 501. For me, the WM-501 any time over the WM-F501.
