Don't have a whole lot of sport model walkmans, perhaps due to their bulkiness, but I've always liked most of the Panasonic Shock Wave line - the compact model that is. And I especially like these RQ-SW** line with their rugged look but compact design, half hard plastic half metal. They sound extremely well and have a very decent tape transport system with super fast FF and Rew.

Recently I acquired the blue model (RQ-SW50) and I already had the orange (RQ-SW55V) and the silver (RQ-SW55) The orange one, with an AM/FM band, is still my favorite.





Here's another new Panasonic to my collection. Model SA 10, very clean nice walkman. Love the clean lines and design of this little guy. Has AB/FM tuner, runs on 2 x AAA internal batteries.



Here it is with it's case and slightly different lighting. I do love this walkman!

Great examples of the SW sport series. I also love these for their smaller than most sport walkmans size and half metal housing very rugged appearance/designs. I concur they are very good sounding and strong well engineered transports. Especially love the Orange one as I believe Orange is the second most rare color when on a metal cased player.

How very interesting your SA10 has a Radio. I have the identical model more common the JA5 that has the 3 level EQ. This was a landmark model for Panasonic as it was one of the smallest early 80's model with quality sound from Panasonic. Apparently they had to delete the EQ to add the Radio due to keeping same small external size as the JA5. I never knew a FM version of this was made. Thank you greatly for sharing this unique quality player. How do you like the sound of the SA10's tape section?

Here are picturs of my Black and Silver JA5's for comparison showing identical casing/controls/design.

PANASONIC the FIRST 5 YEARS

PANASONIC JA5

I like those coloured cassettes inside those two units. Have one nice teac blank myself with two silver reels. They really look nice in a unit.

Damn, those JA5s are nice, been on the AO wish list for years.

Really enjoyed this and your first five years link.

I had a pile of these;

a J20X dbx - wow - it was like a portable Technics deck. Closest thing to a portable CD player then.

Still have a RX-SA66 - great unit that has taken a beating

Also had I think was similar to the RQ-J11, but around 1985-6. 4 AA batteries cassette only. Indestructable. Can't remember the model.

I loved those Panasonic walkmans, also the Asian National Panasonic early models where they had cram the whole 'National Panasonic' name in the same small space!