I was looking through some of my hundreds of hifi mags from 70's and 80's, (must sort them out one day)and found this interesting six player test.

Oh glorious stuff.

Can only see the first pic you teaser.

Wasn't meant to be a teaser, but turned out that way, problems with imageshack.

quote:

Originally posted by mrp32Dave:
I was looking through some of my hundreds of hifi mags from 70's and 80's, (must sort them out one day)and found this interesting six player test.

I didn't know this: [ Aiwa is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony ]

Totally awesome reading. Thank you so much for sharing and posting the pages to read. Very rare for us collectors to see print information anymore. Fun of it I must be doing pretty well choosing what I collect I have 5 of the 6 tested models.

quote:

Originally posted by JohnEdward:
Totally awesome reading. Thank you so much for sharing and posting the pages to read. Very rare for us collectors to see print information anymore. Fun of it I must be doing pretty well choosing what I collect I have 5 of the 6 tested models.

and I have NONE of these model's tested! So I must be doing ??? at collecting the ??? one's!

And if I do, its cause its not listed in my computer since I have bought "lot's" of these in the past an some of those are not cataloged yet.

Here is picture of
Sony WM-2
Sanyo 4440
Panasonic RX-2700
Sunkai (Westman Clone like Binatone clone)
Aiwa S30
Headphones shown are correct match to walkman


THE Aiwa S30 without recording P! first Aiwa player only

The Binatone HipFi is a clone of the WESTMAN JC-8119. I believe the Westman is the father of this most common early clone. Autoreverser has a superb collection of clones. See his post Walkman Clones



Grundig Beat Boy 100, MacDonald Instruments 06-33-02, SUNKAI WM-003 French wording NOTE use of Sony WM, SOUNDESIGN MusicMate 4261, UNITECH IS-118F

I always thought that the Grundig Beat Boy 100 was the first of these models and that Grundig sold rights to use design to many other independent companies. But if my memory serves correct I believe AgentOrange commented the Westman was the original design holder of this most prolific walkman design.
My WESTMAN JC-8119



MORE PHOTOS of WESTMAN from seller I purchased from including case removed chassis only

Westman JC-8119 slide show

quote:

Originally posted by cassettekid:

quote:

Originally posted by JohnEdward:
Totally awesome reading. Thank you so much for sharing and posting the pages to read. Very rare for us collectors to see print information anymore. Fun of it I must be doing pretty well choosing what I collect I have 5 of the 6 tested models.

and I have NONE of these model's tested! So I must be doing ??? at collecting the ??? one's!

And if I do, its cause its not listed in my computer since I have bought "lot's" of these in the past an some of those are not cataloged yet.

HEY HEY Cassettekid now worries I certainly meant no indication that these were the top models to collect. There are hundreds of very significant Walkman models with many the decision of collectible status the choice of buyer. I just was noting that a magazine choose these 6 early models to test making them reasonably important price point choices at that time. And I was lucky enough to realize I had most of them in my collection.

quote:

JohnEdward

that Unitech rings a bell with me!?
Can I see more pictures of it?
Does it take 4 AA batteries?
Does it have a metal tape selector, but no dolby?

I only have 4 of the models tested.



A WM-2, Stereo Pal WM01 AKA Binatone Hipfi, PORT-A-SOUND SMC 809 AKA GEC STARWALKER and a Sanyo M4440, John your white Sanyo must be be the M4430?

Fantastic between us both we have them all to share here for others to see. And totally right you are Dave my mistake grabbed the wrong Sanyo it is the 4430. Have the 4440 boxed here it is. The Sanyo really is a overbuilt tank. Nice to have pitch control.

quote:

Originally posted by cassettekid:

quote:

JohnEdward

that Unitech rings a bell with me!?
Can I see more pictures of it?
Does it take 4 AA batteries?
Does it have a metal tape selector, but no dolby?

Will get pics tonight for you. IT takes 3 AA batteries. No metal switch or dolby. This is a most striped down model of the clones only a single vol. slider no tone hi lo, no eject button But the unique addition of FM module with switch for FM vs. Tape. Not even a REW button only Cue/FF.

quote:

Originally posted by JohnEdward:
Fantastic between us both we have them all to share here for others to see. And totally right you are Dave my mistake grabbed the wrong Sanyo it is the 4430. Have the 4440 boxed here it is. The Sanyo really is a overbuilt tank. Nice to have pitch control.

John, nice boxed M4440 been looking for one of these for a while, I have the cases, straps, headphones and manual but no box, I do have a boxed M4430 though.

I have a few box sanyo they are overall well built they use a electric motor governor to keep the speed stable even when the battery goes low

Great pictures!


here is my little sanyo

is there anybody out there who has an idea of how long and when realistic was built by aiwa ? there has to be a bunch.

...foook, i NEEEEED a binatone HIPFI !!!

quote:

Originally posted by autoreverser:
...foook, i NEEEEED a binatone HIPFI !!!

I actually had this very unit in 82. Wasn't too bad quality, had a solid steel chasis. Sound was piss poor though.

Wow thanks so much! There's nothing I enjoy more on this forum than reviews of walkmans! It is so cool to find reciews of the stuff you actually have!!

...me's piss poor, too, that's why i need only a HIPFI !

Fantastic thread thanks for posting it mrp32Dave.
I used to buy that magazine every month but don't remember that review(must be my age!)

I've still got my WM2 from that vintage, sadly it's in need to some tlc to get it running again.

I saw a WM-2 go on ebay last night for 99p, it broke my heart. I used to dream of owning one of these when I was 14.

I now own around 60

quote:

Originally posted by agentorange:
I saw a WM-2 go on ebay last night for 99p, it broke my heart. I used to dream of owning one of these when I was 14.

I now own around 60

and what did these go for $$$, back when you were 14?

wonderful stuff, thanks for sharing.

Whenever I don't log on here for a bit I miss something ace like this...

...just had time to read in full. Excellent stuff mrp32Dave.

I can't help noticing you said you had many more?

i own a national(panasonic) rx-2700 which i've had at least a couple of years. the only reason i got it from ebay was i saw here they cost over 200.00 new and 20.00 sounded like a great deal. it turned out that i was very happy with it. it functions very well except the tape counter is broken. it realy needs a good cleaning inside due to the dusty condition it was in. i gave it a quick once over but still needs to take that back off and clean the worst of the dust off. it really does have a very good tone to my ear. i can't imagine anyone paying the high price as it doesn't really have that much in the way of extras. it is very heavy and the shoulder strap it comes with is needed if you wanted to tote it around with you. i have 2 of the other players in the magazine article and it really does have superior sound quality compared to the others. it's very nice if you want to just set it down while on the computer and enjoy the radio or a cassette. overall though,,i think it was overpriced at around 225.00 but it is still working very well after all these years. i never tried the record function but i bet it does a great job with that also.....