I have a wm-f1 sony walkman thats having some problems, and I'm looking for someone who might be able to repair the following. The back of the case that holds the belt clip is broken The wheel for fast forwords is poped out of place. The front door is loose. The battery pins are corroded but slightly work. Needs a new tape belt. I can purchase the parts if required, just on the hunt for a professional who can sodder, and do other repairs. Willing to pay when I have some spare cash.
Its always better to post some pictures of your walkman and show on the picture where the problem is. We have several professional members who can fix your walkman. If you like i can provide the list of reliable people who can fix your walkman. This walkman is not a highly collectible walkman. I do not want to disappoint you but you have to consider the repair and shipping cost (both ways). Instead one option is to buy another working model from members or ebay. This way you will have a working walkman and your own walkman to spend time and try to fix it yourself. This one on ebay is about $100 (included shipping) and works fine. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/RETRO-SONY-...098445?hash=item4b417a8fcd:g:S7sAAOSwdjdaQDQ8 In my opinion try to repair your walkman. you can find the right belt for about 12-15 dollars ( your walkman needs 2 belts) battery corrosion can be cleaned with vinegar. I am sure other members can have better recommendation
Can you please send me the info of these professionals? I have a WMF-80 and even if it wouldnt be the most economical. Theres just something about this thing that i love. Thanks!
Personally I'd grab a working model off of Ebay, something a little nicer. Keep your personal unit on display for your enjoyment. Most repair guys don't want to do a small repair that requires a lot of steps to fix without charging big dollars and taking weeks, if not months to complete. I have a killer Sansui Amp that I love but it had the magic smoke one day. I wanted it fixed but the repair guy didn't want to touch it, we didn't even get to the price yet and I would have been much more than fair with him to get it back. If you start taking it apart and documenting it, guys should comment and help, I don't know this model very well but I have to believe it would be a great unit to begin with.
I might just do that! I just ordered another one thats very similar (and is working). And since i cant find any info on the WMF-80 i guess its my duty to atleast document it in abit more detail
Nice! In the old days we didn't have online help, maybe a manual if we were lucky but a lot of trial and error. Now you can crack it open and forum guys love helping out, the only drawback is now you have to order parts, we used to have electronics stores everywhere with all the electronic parts in stock.
aradia with geese, I can't find anything on the WMF-80, do you have a photo? Here's the site I'm looking at for a manual but no luck https://www.eserviceinfo.com/index.php?pagetogo=1&what=search2 I can't find a photo on Japanese Search either.......
Perhaps it's mixed up with a WM-F80? Never seen a Sony WM with a suffix directly after the WM. If that's the case, there is a free service manual online. While not a high-value unit, I'd say these are quite decent ones. If I remembered correctly, the type of mechanism they required thin belts which were rather long. Longer than I expected, when I first opened one up.
I think what @Mister X mentioned about buying another WM-F80 in working condition is your best option but We have several members who can fix your walkman : @Sergi in Spain @mihokm in Slovakia @Doctor Walkman in Italy @matic777 in Slovenia There are other members who are expert but I am not sure if they accept any walkman for repair at this time Like @renzgi @bub ,.... Contact them to get more info and good luck
Do you think Sony will ever re manufacture walkmans cassette players or the individual parts I mean more and more people want them
The biggest issue would be the cost, I could never afford the high-end units in 1982, a good one would start close to $300 and go up from there. I was buying running, drivable cars for a little over $300 back then. While a lot of the labor costs would shaved by outsourcing to other countries besides Japan, I feel like one of the best marketing tools would be lost, there's just too much change to be effective. Somewhere there's hoards of parts, most likely buried in repair shops around the world. Newark used to have "repair boxes" full of parts just for Walkmans they'd sell to repair shops so they'd have all the common parts in stock. The boombox world is making an ok push into reproduction, I think that's a little easier since you outsource off the shelf components and put them into your own box but the designs are very limited.
To get an idea of what prices would be likely to be have a look at the new Technics SL-1200 record deck, which is built using new tooling as Panasonic rather foolishly destroyed the original tooling when they decided there was no future for Record Decks or Technics. https://www.superfi.co.uk/p-19406-t...MIyIPf87SB3QIVb7HtCh2OcAESEAQYASABEgK_2PD_BwE Panasonic had the advantage that the SL-1200 had become a legend (without being hyped by any feature films) so I doubt there was any need for discussion about which deck to reintroduce. If Sony was to reproduce a Walkman which one should it be ?
An advantage Technics would have had is that the SL1200 is mainly mechanical, while brushless DC motors (the clever bit behind direct drive) have actually become more common, being used in things like high end power tools. A problem Sony would have making a new D6 would be Dolby ICs. Here is what Tascam came up with when they decided to make a new cassette deck. Being labelled National semiconductor, it appears that even the non Dolby Noise Reduction is being done using a New Old Stock IC. If you really wanted to implement Dolby these days, the easiest and cheapest method would probably be using a Digital Signal Processor. You would have to be careful on how you marketed it though as just in the Synthesizer world a high proportion of potential buyers seem to think anything Digital is undesirable, even if it is 96KSample 24 bits. I recall there were lots of comments after the Tascam video along the lines of "I could buy a restored top of the range 1990s deck for less money". That is probably the biggest reason why few manufacturers would attempt a new cassette deck.
