EEVblog #752 - Original Sony Walkman TPS-L2 Teardown

[RupertGo]

Ah, I remember when this was launched - it really was a big deal. As well as introducing the idea of portable music (Sony didn't actually invent the concept, and ended up having to settle on a patent dispute with the real creator of what was called the Stereobelt - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereobelt) , it was the first widespread use of 3.5mm stereo plugs and sockets, and of rare-earth headphones. My first portablec cassette player, which I think I bought around 1982, was a Radioshack model that, typically, had cruddy headphones and a 6.3mm jack. But at least I could afford it. Had various different ones after that; my favorite was (I think) a Sanyo with FM/AM radio and record function, but I also had a ridiculously nice tiny Hitachi with soft controls and auto-everything. Like VCRs, there was a great deal of very sophisticated high-tolerance mechanical engineering in this sector, and it's a shame that it's all been subsumed into software.

The WM-10 that's in the promo video at the start is discussed in some detail here http://www.walkmancentral.com/products/wm-10 - lots of serious engineering involved. Including a DC-DC converter on a flexible board to make everything run from a single AA battery. <DAVE MODE ON>Hmmmmm.... <DAVE MODE OFF>. That sounds curiously familiar!

[Len]

The WM-10 that's in the promo video at the start is discussed in some detail here http://www.walkmancentral.com/products/wm-10 - lots of serious engineering involved. Including a DC-DC converter on a flexible board to make everything run from a single AA battery.

If I could find my WM-10 I'd do a teardown. It's neat how they managed to make it the same size as a cassette box. But alas all I can find is its belt holster.

[edy]

I picked up a double-tape deck stereo radio am/fm quartz tuner amp system with a couple of big speakers recently for free. An old guy down the street was dumping the whole lot, plus a bunch of other junk.

Anyways, I had a couple of tapes so I stuck them in and started playing them. After a few minutes the sound started getting "warbly" and you could hear the tape speed up then down and inconsistent pitch.... Finally it looks like the rubber belts gave in *which I confirmed later upon opening up the unit*. Unfortunately that was the Achilles heal of those decks.

So for now I have an over-sized amp/quartz radio system which I can plug AUX into. But the decks don't work. I don't think I will have much luck sourcing belts to fit it. And even if I did, all my tapes were transferred to CD and then MP3 long ago. Obsolete technology for analog audio at least.

Nevermind the fact that my original tape deck which I used to record most of my tapes was out of alignment to begin with.... So most of my cassette tapes only play well when I tweak the head alignment to an angled Azimuth. Go figure! I know some things have nostalgic value but for me I was so glad when tapes got superceded by CD and then MP3, and never looked back.

Now I do have some old Atari cassettes that have BASIC programs recorded on them. Fortunately I transferred the audio to WAVE a while back and can use a program to analyze the WAVE file and reconstitute the binary data from the signal (like a modem) so those crappy programs aren't lost forever. 

[Someone]

Would be fun to compare it to a player from when the cassette was finally dead, like the Panasonic RQ-SX series. Those were barely bigger than the cassette itself. They used a gumstick battery, but came with a screw-on adapter to use a AA battery for extended life.

Found a teardown of one: http://vintage-technics.ru/Eng-Panasonic_RQ-SX97F.htm

There was a ridiculous Japanese made cassette player that was smaller than the cassette in two dimensions, and clipped around the cassette with it hanging out on 3 sides. It also had an inline remote control and digital radio tuner etc, the screw on AA adaptor dwarfed it! Cant find any photos online it may require a native Japanese speaker to navigate to one.

[Fungus]

There was a ridiculous Japanese made cassette player that was smaller than the cassette in two dimensions, and clipped around the cassette with it hanging out on 3 sides.
[/quote]

[oPossum]

[rollatorwieltje]

I couldn't find that tape player, but found this:

[hikariuk]

I can see why it got nicknamed a vinyl killer.

[f4eru]

is it this one ?


seems to be a recorder, and it has a FM radio "inlay" you put in place of the cassette....

[Someone]

Similar design, and I remember those style with the radio insert but not quite as small as the one I'm remembering (had integrated FM radio and possibly digital transport controls too?).

[VK3DRB]

"Originally released at $150. That's $488 in today's money." Dave, where did you conjure those figures up from? That's a multiplication factor of 3.25 since 1979 until today. So what to do with such claims? Tear them apart! 

Based upon the inflation rate by the Reserve Bank of Australia, a basket of good and services purchased in 1979 for $150 would cost $665 in 2014. That takes many factors into account, including the lower cost of electrical goods and furniture. In 1979, we made most of our furniture in Australia and electronics came out of Australia or Japan where the manufacturing cost was much higher than in than in China today. http://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualDecimal.html In any case, that is a factor of 4.4 times.

I think the fairest way is to see what percentage of a salary would buy the Walkman then, and what percentage of a salary would that amount be today. That is how long would you have to work then compared to now to buy the same item.

So let's look at salary growth since around 1979: The average EE salary in 1979 was around $13K per annum. The average salary of an EE today is roughly 124K per annum, based upon http://www.engineeringjobs.com.au/engineering-industry-salary-information (Seems a tad high). That means the salary has multiplied by roughly 10 times even though EE salaries have languished since the dot com crash of 2002.

The average EE would have to work 24 hours to earn the $150 back in 1979. Today, with your $488 figure, the average EE would only have to work 8 hours. In fact, 24 hours today earns the average electronic engineer in Australia $1430, not $488.

One can conclude the Sony Walkman cost a lot more in 1979, than "$488 in today's money".






 

[hikariuk]

"Originally released at  That's  in today's money." Dave, where did you conjure those figures up from? That's a multiplication factor of 3.25 since 1979 until today. So what to do with such claims? Tear them apart! 

Or you can just use http://www.measuringworth.com/australiacompare/ and get:

If you want to compare the value of a $150.00 Commodity in 1979 there are two choices. In 2013 the relative:
real price of that commodity is $669.90
income value of that commodity is $1,182.00

[Fungus]

If you want to compare the value of a $150.00 Commodity in 1979 there are two choices. In 2013 the relative:
real price of that commodity is $669.90

So ... something like the price of an iPad/iPhone today.

(And would probably appeal to the same sort of customer)

[razvitm]

Someone please take a look at the detailed schematic and tell me which cap do i need to replace with another one with lower capacity in order to extend the frequency responce of this walkman. I bet there's a low pass filter somewhere which cuts above 12khz. I really believe the head can go at least up to 16khz flat. Thank you.