Hi all,

A few months ago I bought a brand new Sony WM-EX672 from an online shop located here in Italy. On arrival, the unit exhibited excessive wow & flutter for a few minutes until it stopped working. The vendor, who also owns a Sony service centre, agreed to repair the walkman free of charge for both parts and workmanship.

The walkman performed vey well for a fortnight or so. At some point I noticed that the walkman wouldn't play in the reverse direction.

I contacted Dottor Walkman. He agreed to repair the walkman stating that the fault didn't appear to be caused by the new belt. 

He found tiny metal fragments interfering with the mechanism, left over quite possibly during the manufacturing process or less likely the previous repair. He also carried out precise speed adjustments in both directions, taking into account the motor fatigue of all belt-driven, non-quartz controlled players. Whilst carrying out measurements, he noticed amazingly low wow and flutter values for a walkman of this class.

Azimuth is non-adjustable. However, it is good in both directions.

Last week I received the unit. As stated, this is a brand new boxed item. Therefore, I found the usual bonuses in the box: a battery charger (BC-7DY), a nickel-cadmium battery rarely seen nowadays (NC-6WM), a carry pouch, a wired remote (RM-WME3), the screw-on external battery holder and a pair of earbuds (MDR-ED136). The other bonus is the 20th Anniversary sticker next to the controls.

The manual states that the BC-7DY charger, with an output of 1.2V and 250mA, will charge the 600 mAh NC-6WM battery in 2.5 hours. I preferred a full charge lasting about 3 hours. Since I don't like using the external battery, I unpacked one of my many brand new NH-14WM batteries (all originals, absolutely no fakes and yes, some of them WERE made in Japan) and charged it with the same BC-7DY for 6 hours and 40 minutes. I prefer keeping the external dimensions of the walkman as compact as possible for everyday use, therefore I will carry two prismatic batteries should necessity arise. I won't use the the external battery.

Clearly, the NC-6WM is now obsolete: it should last for about 300 charge cycles; battery life is about 12 hours.

I do not know about battery life with the NH-14WM. 

I quickly replaced the supplied earbuds with the Sony MDR-E888SP, bought ten years ago from either bluetin or minidisco specifically for the MZ-R91 minidisc walkman (still working but with B&O A8s). The MDR-E888SP are suitable for use with remotes. The buds in my possession were made in Japan.

Operation via the remote is smooth. There is no clip on the back of the remote.

Volume control is achieved by an additional potentiometer on one side of the remote. The manual states that when volume control is operated via the remote, the volume knob on the unit should be set at 6/10. Since the remote volume knob doesn't silence the sound even when it is turned down fully, and since the volume seems louder when using the remote, I assume that this is consistent with an additional amplifier built into the remote. Can someone shed some light on this please?

I am very happy with the WM-EX672. Great sound. It is a great and compact analog walkman for everyday use.

I rather like this series of walkmans- the mechanism is very similar to the EX-1 series, and in my opinion, is one of the easiest to change the belt on- just remove the cover!

While I do have the remotes for these, I never use them because the included headphones sounded like crap (iPod headphones barely sound better!)

It's very nice to have a brand new boxed unit- like 1995 all over again!

Thank you, bub. Owning a brand new cassette walkman is very nice indeed. Actually, this model was designed in 1999 and hit store shelves in year 2000, at least here in Europe. Shortly afterwards a very similar model followed, namely the WM-EX677, which had a NiMH rechargeable battery (NH-10WM instead of the NC-6WM) giving a combined battery life of 60 hours (rechargeable + dry AA alkaline battery). The WM-EX672 is no doubt contemporary to the MZ-R91 minidisc walkman: full metal body, curved shapes, very similar gumstick battery door, remote. For what it's worth, both products shipped with "remote ready" earbuds (40cm cord). The walkman logo on both units is identical. Like most portables of that period, the audio port was the standard 3.5mm minijack both on the walkman and the remote, thus allowing use of optional earphones/headphones if desired. The WM-EX672 had logical AMS controls, meaning that the FF button function during playback was the same as the "next track" button of both minidisc and cd portables, regardless of which side of the tape was being played. It was a mid budget model but its EX features (slim body, compatibility with rechargeable prismatic batteries, autoreverse, Dolby B, AMS, sound revitalizer, groove, mega bass, feather touch controls, remote) made it a very interesting walkman indeed for the price.