Anyone have opinions on a good walkman for decent quality recording? Anyone know if Sony DAT is worth the trouble?... transferring to regular tape or cd format? The DAT units were so super expensive new, now they are cheap. They are high quality--as long as they still work.
I would like to do some out-doors nature recording as well as recording of machinery, kids musical recital, etc.
Ease of use and simple is good. I don't need the smallest unit--in fact I'd prefer the somewhat "un-walkman" sized walkman tape-corders...

If you have any experience with these please comment.

Chris C
Wisconsin, USA

Walkman pro range always a good bet. Agent Orange will vouch for that! DAT is nice but owing to complexities involved will not be as straight foward to service (has rotating head type drum). But can have stunning sound.

I am along that line of thinking. I have noticed many pro units "need new belt" or they have not been tested. Is a belt easy to fix? I can open things, take em apart ok, but getting them back together is a problem for me. I would be average at a repair for something small like this.

Yeah, Nak's right, DAT is frighteningly good but alas it's a risk buying 2nd hand as these units simply cannot be fixed, period.

My recommendation is the Sony D6C, you can get one for around £100, 90% of used versions work great & with a bit of simple maintenance i.e. lubing, new belt (easiest replacement in town), calibrated azimuth you'll have a unit that walks over ANY portable recording device.

A word of caution, never be tempted to buy one with playback speed issues, this is an expensive repair. Also, you'll need a mic, my advise is to go for a Sony mic of the same period as most were paired up to work with the D6C. McM-909 is a good choice.

Actually, thinking about it, my Sharp 701 MiniDisc recorder makes fantastic recordings. It appears to have a very capable input stage. I have made both analogue and digital recordings from CD, and both were good. However it's amazing just how good the analogue ones are. I have also used a mic to do some location recording in hazardous and challenging environments (my flat, Saturdays, after 1 am). All good. Blank MDs are cheap and the recorders are plentiful from eBay. Suggest you look at any Sharp 700 series. Because it's so good in every area, I would tentatively suggest the 701 is the D6C of the MD world!

Thanks for the suggestions. I may look into that. If the MD is easy to transfer to computer/mp3 I'd lean towards that. Gotta love those Sony D6C's though. Nice unit.
However, on impulse, I could not pass up a Sony D-10 DAT recorder for $25. That's about 1/100 of the original cost. Will it work? Don't know. Either the seller doesn't want to make any playability claims (at that price I would not want to raise any expectations)or it's junk all together. I'd never buy if this was a single odd unit, but seller has a stack of them. I will find out in a few days. I have a bad feeling they are warranty return models being sold off. There is really no demand for them and I see they've been discounted down to $25. My fist step is just to get it powered up...have no idea if its just the bare unit, or has accessories (battery/ power cord / mic) included. Danger--action--adventure!

Sorry if this post goes way off "walkman" topic;
Got the D-10 today. No accessories. No power or battery. I had to open it to find the polarity of the battery/adaptor contacts. Lost one screw inside the machine. Argg! I was gently shaking it--I could hear it. But what fell out was a spring shaped like a small bobby pin w/ the coil at the center. Still couldn't find the screw in there...I had the main board loose, but didn't want to completely remove the mulitiple ribbon connectors. Had pretty much everythng else removed. It was a bit un-nerving but exhilerating. I didn't really want to get into it this far for the obvious reasons. And, don't know how, but the screw eventually found it's way out. Got erything back together--except for the spring. I'd need a service manual to figure that out.

I connected 6 volts and it powered up. Set the time. It's a shame I don't have a DAT to try out.
NEEDED:
Blank DAT. I will have to call the local Hi-Fi shop in the morning to find out if they are available and for how much.

Wish list:
Batteries,charger and AC adaptor
manual
decent mic

I use my sony D3 walkman

A DAT Walkman?? Nice. Yes I have seen a few of these while looking for DAT recorder stuff...
SOMEBODY STOP ME!! I don't know what possessed me. I have no real need for a vintage DAT recorder. Hmmm... I figure I'll record my kids music recitals. Nature sounds. Occassionally I may meet someone that has a good history to tell. OK---that sounds reasonable. Does your DAT Walkman record? Walkgirl, would you believe I looked at DAT systems just before I moved to CD in about 1997? I REALLY liked what SONY had done. Beautiful design. But what use would one DAT home cassette deck be when I also liked tapes in the car, and was using a walkman at work 8 hours a day? Those Sony DAT Walkmans were super expensive! I can't remember if I looked at MD (minidisc) before or after DAT. Same problem. It is expensive to completely roll over to a new format. However, that is not a good excuse because I did buy a home CD player. There were absolutely no home recorded CD's at that time. I still had no in car CD--still used tapes. My car even had a factory installed C-Box to hold six tapes--that was cool. Still used my walkman at work. None of my co-workers had a portable CD player. We exchanged our mixed cassettes a lot, it was fun. I did buy an inexpensive diskman (Coby w/ car kit(a cheap chinese variety))eventually at ALDI not long ago. When I did upgrade my vehicle to CD a few years ago, I made sure that it could read MP3 CD. Now it seems outdated already! I do not enjoy putting together MP3 mixes. Takes hundereds of titles to fill a CD and takes a lot of time. No fun to listen to while you make them either. Now the Ipod "genius" does it for you on your Ipod in a matter of seconds. The end result is an easy playlist, Great poduct. But I miss the PROCESS. Find, Collect. Listen. Collect. Record. A record or tape collection used to be admired! If you went to a freind's house you spent about an hour looking at his albums: Listened to them. Made a tape while you were there. Planned what you would tape next time you were together, or what you were looking for. I never had a great big album/tape collection so I much admired those who did. I would bring my Pink Floyd album over to my friend and we would tape it for him, then we would make a tape of one of his Kiss records for myself. Early song swapping.

BTW, I did a little research, computer DAT or DSS-1 is suitable for DAT players. It is just of a different quality--better for high use computer tape drives etc. I was not able to find any DAT tape at the various hi-fi stores. I will try Office Max office store tomorrow. They sell it on-line, not sure about at store.

This is the unit, Sony D-10
I got a DAT tape, it's powered up with a cell phone charger; 6 volts/ 600 ma. That should be enough power, right? It sees the tape, but is flashing the tape symbol and does nothing else.
A manual would help, but I may just quietly give up on this. It was a crap-shoot that didn't pay out.

i,,for one really enjoyed reading you little adventure into the world of digital audio sound. it was very interesting but i wish you would continue a little farther to see what that unit was meant to do.