Hi there,

Bit by bit, I'm reviewing all the famous walkmans and this time I'd like to take a look at the 701C.

Towards the end of 1988, SONY released a player that made history for being one of the most advanced players at the time, thanks to the combination of a very small size, advanced electronics and feather touch buttons, high quality sound thanks to the EX Amorphous head, the brand new Megabass system, the Dolby C noise reduction system and other cool features. But in my opinion it was its design what set new marks in the walkman era and was a prelude of the design that many brands used later in the 90's, with more rounded lines (and even today are). I think that the 701C was the first model of a new generation of devices with a design of a new era.

It was the combination of all that features that made the 701C a milestone in the history of walkmans.

Outside Japan it came in a beautiful, big and rigid box like this:

But in japan the box was completely different: plain and with a transparent front door. there were other colors available, like grey:

and the extremely rare white one (here, the WM-702, slightly different player, is shown):

Here there are the three models:

And here you can see al my 701C (and their variants) in one image, including the F701C (the radio version), the 702 (the cheap, Dolby B version) and the gorgeus 701S, the silver plated version:

I've also just publised a new, long article, with a lot of images about this wonderful player in my site (go to gallery > SONY).

Hope you enjoy!

That white one is very nice! (As usual, I find the radio version less appealing to look at.)

I like the compact design of this walkman. The sound quality is very good.

But there are a few things that grate on me with this Sony.

Annoyingly you need the adapter to use standard 'phones otherwise you are stuck with proprietary Sonys. On low impedance rated headphones there is adequate volume, however the puny amplifier is no match for high impedance 'phones. Also there is no ac power socket even on the battery caddy, however it is compatible with gumstick batteries that are still currently available.

The tuner on the F710C is configurable for different regions, but resets to the default preset region if no backup battery is inserted after a power loss.

thanks to both,

Plop, you're right, the jack adapter is a shame. SONY made countless efforts to make their own "standards" in every aspect: connector, charger, battery...

Not like AIWA or other brands, that always tried to keep the standard and improve it by keeping the compatibility.

Here's the special connector. and here, the special adapter:

Regards,

Wow, the design is light years ahead of 1988. It showed a degree of genius in what they were doing. Thanks for sharing. 

I love my F701c

but surely they represent the END of an era

of decent walkmans - and the begining of bean counting and the end of quality

The WM-701C is a great walkman, has Dolby C and other useful features such as Mega Bass. I wonder whether did Sony made a walkman that has Dolby S ?

Dolby S was tapes last hurrah - but never to my knowledge made it to a walkman

but too many hometapers - we found recording without Dolby from a quality source much more satisfying - by increasing headroom and living with the lovely analogue hiss we all love

hurodal I just love your pictures on your website.

As far as I know, only Dolby C was implemented on some high quality units. This was reserved only to those top-level models.

@Claret: Yes, I was always listening without dolby, but I always used to record. I always felt how high were strongly cut when using Dolby B and (much more) Dolby C.

But I recently discovered that this is caused by a bad recorded tape. As I explained in a recent post, I received a specially modified SONY D6C, calibrated for my tapes and upgraded with a better repsonse, transport and dolby and now things are completely different.

I was sceptical when Dr Walkman told me that if I record with dolby C and chrome type, then I must listen with Dolby C on and chrome type. No more recording as chrome and playing like normal (to get more highs). Same with dolby.

With my new 'super D6C' I get excellent bass and treble response with my chrome tapes, listening with dolby C on and chrome position. I'm truly impressed. I have to confess that I didn't expect that this D6C (in fact, tape technology) performs so good like now I'm experimenting.

Dolby S is very uncommon and I thought I've read anywhere that tapes recorded MUST be listened with that dolby; otherwise result is poor.

@Toocool4: Many thanks for your compliments. I'll try to do things as good as I can to make a beautiful website. There are so many beautiful walkmans out there and they have yet to be showed in their full state.

I have to agree that this walkman was the beginning of a new era. A new era of splitting gears and leaky surface mount capacitors. 

I've said this possibly a million times, but my favorite non-dd walkman would have to be the 1987 wm-501. Small, beautiful, easy to change the belt, mechanically operated transport, mega bass that i never use, auto reverse with azimuth adjustments for side a and b, plus a regular headphone jack. 

As well, it is the walkman on permanent display at the smithsonian institute. 

I don't buy walkman made after 1987. Anymore. Unless it's a dd-9. 

For me, if I was to get a walkman that records, the late 80's/early 90's are the ones to get.

Amen! Top notch......

hi lapis, the head doesn't rotate. it's a stationary four track head, so there are two capstans and two pinch rollers. the right pinch roller/capstan pulls the tape for side a, utilizing two of the for tracks. and then the left pinch roller/capstan pulls the tape to play side b utilizing the other two tracks. the azimuth is manually adjustable for each side by two screws that have little offset circles at the bottom of them and these little circles will press against a lever on the head assembly to adjust the position of the head for each side. i've never felt the need to adjust them myself, but it's handy.

Sorry, still don't really understand fully on how it works. Do you have an image of it ?

This is what a fixed 4 track head look like, it doesn't move, head just bigger and have 4 channels instead of two and switches the coils on when it reverses, instead of moving the head. 

Originally Posted by hurodal:

Apparently, Dolby S encoded tapes have some degree of compatibility with the good old Dolby B type. I have not tried this and have to agree that recording without NR and partially compensating with a generous record level was always the way to go for me. Especially with AR 90's!

makes no sense
surely you're sacrificing headroom?

record and playback without Dolby
record as loud as you can

Enjoy analogue

I definitely was doing bad recordings for many years (with my good AIWA SR6 boombox) until I bought my D6C, when I discovered how good a record can be. But it wasn't until Dr. Walkman fine-tuned my D6C until I opened the pandoras' box of delicious analog sound.

I'm simply blowed out by it.

Now I'm doing testing with many kind of tapes, to see how good or bad do they are. It's surprising, indeed... 

found one of these in my draws.....that headphone adapeter is a stupid idea....makes this walkman usless without it.....nice looking thing though

the adaptors are cheap as chips from SONY themselves

but I agree - and is one of my main Sony annoyances and their desperate attempts at non standard connectors/software etc

never liked this one.

i don't know why.

perhaps compared to a dc2, it's a cheap looking thing.

but a silver 701 is welcome..

I have this player but it appears that the headphones have blown drivers. They still work but distort when the volume is turned up. Can they be replaced? I have the adapter that allows me to use other phones but these are cool. Also the door does not seem to click and lock anymore. Can this be fixed?

Hi Conrad,

As in real life, it's best if you present yourself to friends here rather than simply go in and explain your problem.

Maybe this way you get better response.

What about tell a bit about you first and about your walkmans?

Regards,

Hi All! My husband was raving about this walkman as "the best ever" so I found the white one on ebay for his b-day. Problem is that it didn't come with headphones, I've been looking around but haven't been able to find them in decent condition. Would anyone happen to know what the adapter part is called or the adapter model number so I can try and go that route? Any help would be appreciated!

Found this by chance while surfing around.
I am not safe, if it is right, but it looks like this.


http://www.thefast.cn/lovemay/...aabrehx/20948791310/

Thanks Jotha! I'll check it out!

Thank you!! I'll check out both of these!

...in this case "good cosmetic order" means: covered with good cosmetics...

anyway - 701/702 is one of my favorites, pity i don't have one with fm

Haha yes! They look a little tinted  

I don't really consider the WM-701C the slippering slope down to quality but it was the WM-150 and its similarities with the green direction button.

hey Lapis, i agree the WM-150 was the more reliable player, but from the technical view of it the 701 was a) much earlier, b) heavily over-engineered, means all possible features in the most tiny player and according to those two points a milestone in Walkman-technics - the WM-150 was allready a product from the (f.m.o.) decrease in developement as CD and Minidisc started hitting the market (WM-150 started only in 1989, the 701 one year earlier...)

701 is one of my favors - can't wait to get my 701s back from leonardo (it'll be a KILLER !)

The 701c mechanism is FAR more reliable than the notorious 150. They both came out around the same time,  1989-1991. The 701c is extremely conventional mechanically speaking, even in it's day.

Yep. Therefore they are likely to suffer from the same problems. The rectangle buttons and "EX Head/Amorphous Head" script on the reel table are clues.

i have to correct you: WM-701 were introduced in 1988, WM-150 etc. one year later - and in those days one year of developement was a lot !

well, and don't get me wrong, the 701's mechanical inside with it's fully logic-control against the plasticy 150-movement is comparing a swiss-made  Lemania5100-automatic-chronometer-movement (treated well will last you for a lifetime, but beeing mistreated a permanent construction-side) to a modern japanese mass-produced Citizen-automatic with stop-watch and plastic-embedding (you can't mistread it but if - doesn't matter, mass-produced and easy to replace...).

Best not to touch the WM-150/WM-550C mechanisms as they are the beginning of the crappy Walkman era.

1989 was the decline of the Walkman starting with the 150/550C mechanism.

Out of the wireless Walkman, I like WM-505 and WM-805.

...not to forget the rare and beautyfull WM-504 (...small men's Nagra!)