Strolling through the local Sunday flea market, I came by a (very used) Panasonic portable cassette player/radio (they cannot call it "walkman") and for 5 EUR I picked it-up just for fun, it has been quite a while since I worked on a walkman (ops... portable cassette player). When speaking of walkman's it's always Sony, but Panasonic used to make very nice players, typically very reliable, and with an overall (in my opinion) better sound quality thanks to good quality heads. Before even powering it up I opted to take it apart and inspect it internally in the quite likely possibility that the original belt has turned to goo. And that indeed was the case, but luckily the melted belt pieces came off cleanly with no sticky residue. At first look the interior does not seem to be made with a budget Big PCB with a mix of SMD components and through-hole components (components are Matsushita in house production and one IC is from Toshiba). The only available regulation is the tape speed, but that is quite standard. To my surprise, the tape transport is actually of very good quality: Two nice and big brass flywheels, all gears made of hard durable plastic, not a single crack, everything still turning smoothly and free, the clutch has not stiffened. All parts subjected to friction and stress are made of metal and, with just a bit more grease, the direction change lever works very smoothly. I'm very pleased with the transport quality, though I guess it was a cheap model, that does not look cheaply built. The exterior has evident signs of wear, it has been used a lot and carried around for quite some time. Despite that it still works flawlessly, it is still holding the radio preset's saved who knows how many years ago. Feature-wise it is pretty run-of-the-mill for mid-low end models: loudness (on or off) support for type I or type II/IV tapes, but no Dolby. It has both AM and FM (stereo/mono switch), 12 preset's and that is all. I have a comparable Sony model (which actually has Dolby B support) on which Sony decided to save on screws and designed the shell to be assembled only with hooks and claws. It sounds very squeaky and overall feels cheaper even if I guess it was more expensive than this Panasonic. Overall a new belt and a quick clean-up it was all it needed to be working once again. One odd feature it has is that when powered on (either turning on the radio or pressing a transport button) there is a 1 second delay before it actually starts-up. Is that a "feature" ?
I think its normal, anyway it has a good transport as long as the motor runs well, motors start to have issues when stopped for some years, give it a run first when a new belt is installed and then if all good you got yourself an excellent tape player/ FM Stereo radio receiver. Matsushita was good back in the day. 5€ was a good price!
