The headphones are what sold the original Walkman, they were tiny compared to the huge "cans" that us kids used to make fun of and would never be caught outside wearing. I didn't know they had a component version of the headphones (1/4" jack), I've always seen the adapter for the Walkman Headphones. I'm definately not an expert on when any of this was released.
I guess you don't remember playing outside years and years and years ago, but we had to listen and therefore did not close off our hearing by using headphones of any kind back then. I only remember wearing headphones inside the house to close off the sound from the other noises within the house but never wore headphones outside because we played outside and we had to hear what was going on around us.
My guess: In 1979 all hifi equipment had a 1/4"jack (6,35mm) for headphone listening. When the TPS-L2 was introduced with a smaller 3.5mm jack; the supplied MDR-3L2 headphones were unabled to connect to an amplifier or cassettedeck or other equipment which everyone already had in their living room, without a adapter plug or cord. So Sony made an MDR-3L2 with a 1/4" jackplug and called it MDR-3 for home listening, because these mini headphones became a real hype in no time. We had a previous discussion about the MDR-3. https://www.stereo2go.com/forums/threads/sony-and-other-headphones.5059/#post-66751
Almost all my boomboxes have 1/4" jacks for headphones. I remember I often connected a headphone to my boombox back in the days and used it as you would use a Walkman. Also the pre-Walkman personal stereo players that I have, Astraltune and Hi-Teen, use the 1/4" jack. At that time there must be still a substantial market for light headphones with 1/4" plugs I guess. Not me haha, but to understand Sony marketing of the TPS-L2. I sometimes had the boombox on the luggage rack on my bike with headphones. But also on the beach, in hotels when on holiday, or when I was visiting acquaintances with my parents...
October 1980 MDR3 20 - 20000 Hz MDR5 18 - 22000 Hz MDR7 16 - 22000 Hz also these with larger connection
Was the Sony TPS-L2 the first device with a 3.5mm stereo jackplug? The mono version was common, but stereo?
Good question! I can’t say, but I think so. I’ve checked my boomboxes in the collection. And sorted by time the first boomboxes to use the smaller 3.5mm headphone jack are the Sony CFD-5 and Philips D8884. Both are very early CD boomboxes from around 1985/86 and can be considered high end because of the cd player.
Some interesting points and dates to ponder, 1/4" jacks were on everything except transistor type radios and portable tape decks where they had the in ear hard plastic mono ear phone. I don't even know if there was a stereo headphone version of these?
Mtv, when the television became my radio. My boombox lost a lot of significance in my room by that. By the time these eggs came out, it was also too much talking to my taste on mtv. I didn’t like mtv anymore, same for the eggs By then my Sony DD3 Quartz was my best friend
That boombox is only good for music while doing the laundry. If it doesn’t have a 3.5mm or other output jack. It could explain the small price difference. Its hard to verify tho, the boombox is modern and not very common. Output jacks became optional on boomboxes at certain time and that made them cheap. Who is the owner of the 3.5mm plug design? Is that known?
