
The Walkman, Forty Years On - kwindla
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-walkman-forty-years-on
======
noizejoy
Reminds me of how much Sony (along with Braun) shaped Apple’s hardware design
language. And that in turn keeps on shaping many others.

And the walkman is arguably one of the classic cases of “build it, and they
will come”, where a product was well ahead of what consumers were already
calling for. In my mind, that’s the kind of thing actually deserving the
_visionary_ label.

~~~
sizzle
I remember feeling like I was living in the future every time I listed to
music on my Sony MiniDisc player while friends where still using their
portable CD players with easily scratched disks before mp3 players became
affordable and ubiquitous in high school.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc)

~~~
Lutzb
I remember when we were all rocking walkmans/aiwas and just accepted the
mediocre sound quality of our mix tapes. CDs were ubiquitous but most portable
players were prone to skipping and there was no economic way to create mix
tapes on CDs for us. The day I bought a portable Sharp mindisc recoder and
created the my first digital CD to Mindisc mix via an optical connection was
eye opening. I cannot overstate what a game changer it was in creating
portable CD quality mixes.

~~~
noizejoy
Quite ironically, these days you can get audio processing plugins for DAWs
(digital audio workstations), which lower the quality of your audio to emulate
the lower audio quality of cassette tapes.

------
trackofalljades
I recently had an opportunity to check out a drive-in movie theatre, and was
very excited at the idea until I remembered that the FM radio in our car was
messed up (we never use it). I dug through the garage and found my old Walkman
still in a pile of high school stuff. Cleaned it up, installed batteries,
cycled the volume rheostat until it was cleaned up and the static
stopped...and POOF perfect FM radio again! I brought headphones and had a
great time.

~~~
cbm-vic-20
My Walkman stopped getting security upgrades in 1984.

~~~
sangfroid_bio
Was the firmware at that time complex enough that you can attempt an OTA
brick? Are radios from 1984 mostly analogue?

~~~
solarengineer
They were made entirely of electrical and electronic parts, didn't need
firmware , and almost always could be repaired.

~~~
zrobotics
Just to be a pedant, the android phone I am typing this on is also made
entirely out of electrical and electronic parts as well. In fact, arguably
this device contains a greater degree of those parts, as the only
electromechanical parts are speakers, a vibration motor, and 3 tact switches.

A simple radio will have a speaker, slide switch for power, potentiometer for
volume, and either a potentiometer or variable cap for tuning.

Although I do agree, the operative words there are 'simple' and 'no firmware'.
;)

------
qrv3w
There's a big community of ambient/electronic musicians that are still using
these things. They are popular for recording/playing tape loops and making
tape delays. I bought some recently to convert into a makeshift mellotron
(they still run ~$15 on ebay!). [1] Also there seems to still be enough demand
to fund kickstarters for new fancy cassette players. [2]

[1]: [https://schollz.com/blog/tape-synth/](https://schollz.com/blog/tape-
synth/)

[2]: [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wearerewind/we-are-
rewi...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wearerewind/we-are-rewind)

~~~
sizzle
Why not use a Sony MiniDisc player to record and loop?

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc)

~~~
usrusr
More convenient digital samplers exist, avoiding those is the entire point

------
knight17
Sony TC-50 is a cassette recorder that could be considered as a predecessor to
the Walkman; it even went to the moon with the Apollo 11 crew [1].

[1]: [https://kottke.org/19/07/sonys-proto-walkman-that-went-to-
th...](https://kottke.org/19/07/sonys-proto-walkman-that-went-to-the-moon)

Off-topic question:

Since this is a thread on Walkman I'd like to ask you on any dedicated music
player that you'd recommend?

~~~
themodelplumber
Cool link! Regarding music players, I personally switched to simpler/less-
costly solutions because I do a lot of hiking and I can get caught in sudden
storms or just end up dropping things. Along those lines I tried a lot of
agptek devices and they've been really good.

[http://www.agptek.com/index.php/product-category/portable-
au...](http://www.agptek.com/index.php/product-category/portable-audio/music-
players/)

------
the-dude
I got myself a WM-701C [0], which was considered to be the pinnacle of Walkman
design at the time. Incredibly thin with a 'remote control' in the headphone
cord.

Mine was heavily used as I did about 20km/day on a bike ( in NL this is just
commute + paper round, nothing special ) for quite a few years.

I had some trouble finding it, but hey on the internet everything exists, the
Walkman Archive!

[0] [http://www.walkman-
archive.com/gadgets/walkman_sony_05_701c_...](http://www.walkman-
archive.com/gadgets/walkman_sony_05_701c_v3.htm)

~~~
RyanOD
I won a WM-701C from WIQB in Ann Arbor, MI when I was a kid! Mine was the 10th
Anniversary silver edition which was amazing.

------
bluedino
Was the Walkman any better than its competitors? I was only a toddler at the
time but a few years later EVERYONE made personal cassette players, at way
lower prices than Sony.

But it wasn’t like with a generic “MP3 player”, a generic cassette player
wasn’t really missing anything that the Walkman had (except for the very low
end models that were in the cheapest price bracket). I remember one model that
only had reverse and not fast forward, for example.

~~~
mongol
They were the IPhones of the time. More expensive, more fashionable, perceived
higher quality, and had innovative features such as auto reverse. The average
cassette player was the generic Android in comparison.

~~~
stinos
_perceived higher quality_

Wasn't it (also) _actual_ higher quality then most if not all of the
competition in the same price range?

~~~
mongol
Yes that too.

------
runawaybottle
Pulling up some Walkman/Discman designs from Sony, Aiwa, Panasonic (etc) just
makes me want to buy one.

Somewhere after the IPhone 4/5, phone designs started to homogenize into that
mostly large screen, rounded corners, and mostly became uninteresting.

Business laptops have mostly settled on the MacBook design, Gaming laptops are
still coming in weird interesting designs:

[https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Zephyrus-i7-7700HQ-Processor-
Pro...](https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Zephyrus-i7-7700HQ-Processor-
Professional/dp/B071XDXLPG)

~~~
themodelplumber
I agree, a lot of the old designs really had something special. I was looking
through an old emergency backpack recently and found an Aiwa HS-SP590, similar
to a Walkman. For quite a few years it was kind of boring as tech, but now
it's so unique that my kids are very intrigued. I'm thinking I'll put
something else in the backpack and have a play. (Ideally there weren't any
batteries left inside...)

------
iamben
There was a post on HN the other day where the Instagram algo was discussed -
look at something once and see it for the next three weeks.

Oddly, at some point it's decided I like to see pictures of old hifi equipment
and Walkmans in particular. Turns out there's a massive community of
collectors and displayers, and the pictures are actually pretty great.

It also reminded me just how great 'tech' was back then. I was a kid in the
80s and a teen in the 90s and it brought back memories of just how magical it
all felt! Technology didn't feel like it was iterating as quickly, and things
like a tiny Walkman with tiny earbud headphones playing a tape of a new band
your friend had found, in a world that wasn't instant and connected - was
_everything_.

...I remember when all this was fields... _Sigh_.

------
nabaraz
Somewhat related.

How far are we on having wireless earpods/earphones streaming music directly
from the satellites? No phones or internet required.

~~~
mbrubeck
Why not use FM radio?
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HMH0ZC](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HMH0ZC)

~~~
randlet
I don't know about where you live, but where I am in Canada the majority of FM
radio is as bad or worse than cable television; constant ads, stale "radio
friendly" music and DJ's with inane banter and making bad jokes. It's painful
to listen to.

~~~
shoes_for_thee
College radio stations remain interesting.

~~~
dylan604
Sadly, with a coverage radius only slightly larger than the campus.

~~~
shoes_for_thee
Yeah, not great for road trips...

On the other hand, you get a new one every 20 miles down the freeway.

------
unwind
TIL that the Walkman was sold as the Freestyle here in Sweden, which is why
that word was adopted for any kind of portable music player.

It's one of those fun corners where Swedish contains an English word for
something, which doesn't match the word actually used by people speaking
English. :) This might be what linguists call a "false friend", but I'm not
sure. I also love the German "beamer" (=video projector) in this category.

~~~
laurieg
Japanese has lots of these. One of the most confusing is "consent", which
means "electrical socket".

------
rlonstein
I found my Walkman, a WMF-100 from 1988 or '89, last year while going through
a box of stuff I had saved:

[https://i.imgur.com/d1RqfVT.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/d1RqfVT.jpg)

[https://i.imgur.com/11LWVnw.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/11LWVnw.jpg)

[https://i.imgur.com/PARDWpn.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/PARDWpn.jpg)

It's in very used shape, the battery leaked and the face plate with the tuning
frequency is loose. I remember buying it at Crazy Eddie's in NJ to replace the
yellow sports walkman I managed to destroy.

------
DebtDeflation
I can't begin to describe how much I used to dread when the batteries would
begin to get depleted which would slow down the motor turning the cassette and
distort the sound being produced.

------
peter303
Boom boxes have made a comeback. Some phones are pretty loud. You can buy a
lightweight sound amplifier to add to a phone. People use these hiking,
running, biking, at picnics, etc.

~~~
mc32
I understand at a picnic... I don’t understand people by themselves wanting to
project on to others their music choices after they’ve become adults. As a
teenager I understand why we might have done that, but not grown adults.

~~~
themodelplumber
I've come across lots of hikers and trail runners doing this, usually small
groups of HS students. It's not really a big deal because they pass by in a
matter of seconds, or you can let them pass you if they're going the same way.
In some ways it's safer to use ambient audio on the trail rather than
headphones.

~~~
RcouF1uZ4gsC
> In some ways it's safer to use ambient audio on the trail rather than
> headphones.

It is also good for warning the bears that there is a group of people coming
so the bear doesn’t get startled and attack.

------
ggm
I only saw four features which I thought added value to a walkthing

1) dual headphone output. Sharing is cool!

2) a microphone. This changed journalism from niche device with dictation
cassette to street journalist. Democratisation of news followed a trend down
from a five person crew to two or one as VHS came in.

3) l and r separated volume. Only saw it once but for cheap stereo it meant
you could do music minus one and dial down vocals on one channel

4) tape speed change. Autotune for free!

~~~
pstuart
5) autoreverse

~~~
ggm
yea that was cool. drained your batteries if you fell asleep with the damn
thing running but.

------
Daub
One totally genius design feature of the Walkman was the fact that it had two
headphone jacks. Together with music ripping and mix tapes, this was the
beginning of music sharing, and eventually the downfall of the monolithic
music industries. Truly a disruptive innovation.

~~~
aidenn0
My dad was sharing music on 10 inch tape reels long before the walkman, and
the walkman itself was far from the first cassette player.

~~~
Daub
True.. it was not the first. But it was I believe the first portable one that
was capable of playing an entire cassette tape from beginning to end. It was
the new generation rare earth magnets that enabled this.

------
jes5199
I think they must be overstating the thing about headphones being
unprecedented. Episode 1 of the sitcom “Dobie Gillis”, from 1959, introduces
Bob Denver’s character by showing him listening to a transistor radio using an
earpiece

~~~
klodolph
That’s an earpiece from a 1950s transistor radio. The sound quality is
terrible and it only goes in one ear.

------
louiechristie
90s technology struggles (4 min comedy video) [NSFW]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23730689](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23730689)

------
JKCalhoun
Frank Black's love song to the Ramones is as much a love song to the Walkman.
;-)

[https://youtu.be/oGbbwBET-p4](https://youtu.be/oGbbwBET-p4)

------
neonate
[https://archive.is/0xYH4](https://archive.is/0xYH4)

------
rjsw
Still have my WM-2.

------
svnpenn
I don't like that website. Do they really need fixed bars on the top _and_
bottom asking me to subscribe? Not to mention article is littered with ads and
a half screen nag as soon as you start scrolling.

~~~
noahtallen
Interesting, this was not the case for me on mobile Firefox.

~~~
somehnguy
Desktop Chrome:
[https://i.imgur.com/fehpJVk.png](https://i.imgur.com/fehpJVk.png)

Makes me feel like I'm reading through a small window. That was after I closed
the obnoxiously large 'subscribe' box.

