As you all know, i really love to hear musics, so in this and coming post, i will talk about my adorable device, my first device that i love so much is cassette-based walkman, my dad bought it for me when i was entering boarding school. Even when it lost, i cry for it, (seriously). so, here is some article about it.
Cassette-based walkman
The original blue-and-silver Walkman model TPS-L2 went on sale in Japan on July 1, 1979. In the UK, it came with stereo playback and two mini headphone jacks, permitting two people to listen at the same time (though it came with only one pair of MDR-3L2 headphones). Where the Pressman had the recording button, the Walkman had a "hotline" button which activated a small built-in microphone (the Pressman), partially overriding the sound from the cassette, and allowing one user to talk to the other over the music. The dual jacks and "hotline" button were phased out in the follow-up Walkman II model.
Some devices were also capable of recording. The highest quality Sony Walkman recording cassette deck was the Walkman Professional WM-D6C. It was introduced in 1984, and was comparable in audio quality with many of the best non-portable cassette decks. Unusual for a portable device, the Walkman Professional had bright LED recording level meters and manual control of recording levels. It was equipped with quartz direct drive capstan, and amorphous head. Powered by local AC mains or by 4 AA batteries (compared with 2 for most Walkman models), it was widely used by journalists and developed a following among hi-fi enthusiasts; unusual for a consumer-electronics product, it was in production, unchanged, for almost 20 years. One of Henry Rollins' early spoken word CDs was recorded with a Walkman Pro.
Amid fierce competition, primarily from Toshiba (the Walky), Aiwa (the CassetteBoy) and Panasonic, by the late 80s, Sony upped the ante once again by creating the playback-only WM-DD9, launched in 1989 during the 10th anniversary of the Walkman (five years after the WM-D6C) and became the holy grail for a niche group of cassette Walkman collectors. It is the only auto-reverse Walkman in history to use a two motor, quartz locked, disc drive system similar to high-end home cassette decks to ensure accurate tape speed for both sides of playback (only one motor operates at a time depending on the side of the tape being played). Power consumption was improved by requiring only either one AA battery or one gumstick-type rechargeable, with optional AC adaptor input. It is also equipped with a tight gap amorphous tape head capable of reproducing the full 20–20,000 Hz frequency range, a gold plated headphone jack, and a 2 mm thick aluminum body. Sony made this model with only sound quality in mind, therefore it contains no gimmick features such as in-line remote control, music search, or LCD readout. Its only features are Dolby B/C noise reduction decoding, Mega Bass/DBB bass boost, tape type select, and two auto reverse modes.
By the late 1990s, the cassette-based Walkman was generally passed over in favor of the emerging digital technologies of CD, DAT and MiniDisc. After 2000, cassette-based Walkman products (and their clones) were approaching technological obsolescence as the cassette format was gradually phased out. However, Sony still continues to make cassette-based Walkman personal stereos today.
Every five years since the Walkman personal stereo was born in 1979 until 1999, Sony would celebrate by coming out with an anniversary cassette model on July 1st with unprecedented breakthroughs in technology and features. Each anniversary model carries a different theme while retaining some characteristics of previous anniversary models: WM-701S (user friendliness theme with remote control and slim sterling silver plated body — 1989), WM-EX1HG (efficiency theme with long battery life and pop-up eject — 1994), WM-WE01 (wireless theme with cordless remote control and cordless earphones — 1999). However, cassette Walkman innovation would come to an end as during its 25th Anniversary, Sony chose to not introduce another limited run cassette model but instead, brought out the hard disk based NW-HD1 in 2004 to officially augur the death of the compact cassette. (Sony did release two anniversary models in 2003, but they were MiniDisc players — see below.) The last play-only cassette Walkman to be introduced (in North America, at least) was the WM-FX290, first sold in 2002, which also featured digital tuning, AM, FM, TV and weather band radio, operating on a single AA battery. In Canada, at least (where, like all portable radios distributed in that country, the WM-FX290 lacked access to TV and weather bands) this device appears to have ceased production as of May, 2006. In August 2006, Sony Canada began selling cassette Walkmans again, but this time they were only offering a basic model, the WM-FX197.
In spite of the decline of the cassette-based Walkmans, logically operated deluxe models (WM-GX788 etc.) are still sold in a very few countries, especially in South Korea and Japan. These models still support a so-called gumstick-type rechargeable battery, offer relatively better sound quality than cheaper models do, and have an automatic tape position selector and auto-reverse function.
(from wikipedia, (again))
Since it is kinda late here, and this computer lab is going to be closed,
i will continue to post the next history lesson in my next post.
Mata ne,
