Repairing a Sony cassette Walkman (or trying to)

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Repairing a Sony cassette Walkman (or trying to)

Рет қаралды 7,399

Күн бұрын

Watch as I attempt (and mostly fail) to restore two different Sony cassette Walkman models. A lot of things went wrong in this video, including the video shoot itself! But I just need to get it out there and move on to the next thing, and maybe it'll be a lesson for some people in what not to buy, because these gumstick Walkman models with the battery covers holding the battery are just bad news these days.
Minor thing but just to head off some comments: I meant "bit depth" when I said "bit rate" talking about the modern Walkman. Didn't even catch that in the edit.
One thing I didn't mention in the video - I had planned on capturing some audio direct from each of these, but by the time the shooting was done, literally all of my battery covers were broken. So at this point, I'm back to no working Walkmen. I do still hold out hope that there's a solution to this in the form of just finding 3D print files for the covers themselves, which can probably be printed in a way that makes them stronger than what's commercially available right now. (Cheap PLA filament isn't the best idea for a structural element like this, and that seems to be what the ones I've seen for sale/bought myself are made with.)

Пікірлер: 61

@ErikGsson 7 ай бұрын

I love how you set the standard very low in the start and still make a very interesting video haha

@vibingwithvinyl 7 ай бұрын

When the world needed him the most, he returned!

@JohnnnyJohn 6 ай бұрын

This is easily a top 5 favorite chanel for me. I always get super excited when I see a new video pop up!

@SudosFTW 6 ай бұрын

the oiling needs to be done under the flywheels and motor belt assemblies, all you did was put oil on the shaft they connect to. you can do this with a syringe and the stuff I'd recommend is light sewing machine oil.

@zepplinc20 3 ай бұрын

this

@hicknopunk 7 ай бұрын

My 3DS is a lean, mean, epoxy repaired machine 😅 The right hinge is equal parts plastic and epoxy. I spent time sanding every repair so the hinge works.

@JohnMcLaughlin48 5 ай бұрын

Another terrific video from Modern Classic.

@AutistCat 7 ай бұрын

Love your channel. So happy to see a video again.

@YouTube4Rudy 6 ай бұрын

There’s something magical about getting a cassette to sound good- I mean really good. I found that the EX-5 was my favorite belt driven Walkman for audio quality. For reliability, those (interesting looking) YPPY models are pretty good- though they lack Dolby. Finally, I would look to those pinch rollers to see if there’s any flat spots to decrease the wow/flutter. Very nice video, thank you for this!

@WattTheTech 6 ай бұрын

Think you hit the nail on the head, they look great on a shelf.. if they play then that's a bonus. I have about six walkman I purchase again a few years back and they all need something fixing. I do have one that works pretty well but your right I also use MD and that format sounds miles better.

@AdamChristensen 6 ай бұрын

2:05 Skinny Puppy! Pop Will Eat Itself! Some excellent selections in that cassette case. 😍

@thesmokingcap 7 ай бұрын

I feel your pain! I've got the same model that has it's own set of issues. Look at the bright side, at least they both play! Most of these often need more work than just belts at this point. I ended up settling on the Wm-F15 and WM-F65 models and just got lots and lots of practice repairing those models.

@esseferio 7 ай бұрын

Which turned into two great vids :) Glad to see you here :)

@thesmokingcap 6 ай бұрын

@@esseferio Why thank you! Glad you enjoyed them! They make you work for the results for sure haha

@Nas_Atlas 7 ай бұрын

That's a nice little deep dive. I've got a couple Sony Walkmans but I wouldn't dare bother trying to play anything on them. I can still hear the hiss in my mind from an old cassette. We were young and our minds filled in the blanks. I still remember the first time I played a compact disc with headphones and experienced audio bliss. It was mind bending. My experiences trying to get good sound quality from a record player have made me realize the futility of it. Find it on youtube or dig up an mp3 for a much much better experience.

@LapisandHamtarolover 4 ай бұрын

There were Dolby B to deal with the hiss, with Dolby C being better at dealing with hiss further.

@matthewplehn4271 5 ай бұрын

My hope is that we will see more content from you Sir. As a regular i know your time as a Pilot takes up most of your time, but i admit im wondering when i will be seeing content from you again, hopefully soon. You are missed.

@TheOriginalCollectorA1303 6 ай бұрын

Sony equipment from the 80s has that look and feel that you don’t see elsewhere. The downside though, well you already showed what can go wrong. Belts are pretty easy to do at least, and even though the compact design is awesome to see, it’s not the greatest when it comes to service. It’s still nice to see that you were able to get one working, and as for the battery covers, it might be worthwhile to get a 3D printer to create them yourself. I’m sure you’d be able to get more use out of it also, making replacement/extra parts for older equipment!

@chrismcovell 7 ай бұрын

I've been there too. Have a beautiful red JVC boombox with detachable "walkman" unit. I pulled it open to see where the belts were and understood immediately that ultra-small early '80s cassette devices are the worst to repair. Snaking wires, multiple boards, and tiny metal pieces. I am happy to leave mine unrepaired and have no regrets that it is beautiful but nonfunctional.

@theslatepipebanjodraggers8980 3 ай бұрын

Excellent stuff. Loving this.

@imcrow6674 4 ай бұрын

the problem i see with these 3d printed replacements is they like to use filament printers to make them, which filament has a long list of problems with longevity i tested a resin printed cover i made on a f10ii walkman and it seems to work fine however, only issue is they are quite brittle and if you drop them it could shatter also dont worry about not being able to fully fix these, these were from a line of "miniature walkmans" from the 80s that used the dreaded 420uf 4v caps which cant be sourced anymore, so even if you fixed them the capacitors would die shortly after anyways

@rgavrik8843 3 ай бұрын

Oil spray lubrication of the internal parts of the engine can help, thus revived the wm - ex999. after lubrication, you need to listen to one or two cassettes, the engine will return to normal

@starquestman1544 Ай бұрын

This reminded me of when I found an mp3 player like the one I had in jr high and high school. I found a Creative Zen 2gb that was identical to my old one and thought it would be fun to have one again. I figured it would just need a new battery installed but quickly learned that the OLED display that it had was bad and that any of the few that still had working ones would die soon too!

@davidsmall6322 6 ай бұрын

M.C. is back forever! Awesome.

@metatronyt 6 ай бұрын

Excellent content. Keep it up

@dominicjackson2498 6 ай бұрын

Re the broken lugs. Superglue and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is a technique often used in the model railway world to fashion small, stressed areas like plastic lugs. It will form a really solid mass that’s actually quite strong and less likely to break than your epoxy solution. The Tech Tangents channel had a video about it a while ago if you go through his back catalogue.

@kaitlyn__L 6 ай бұрын

Re the aside at 21 minutes: Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega was one of the tracks Fraunhofer tested the original MP3 encoder on, thousands and thousands of times. I'd certainly hope that would be one of the tracks that encoded transparently!!

@blipblip88 6 ай бұрын

A fun lesson in planned obsolescence. Fun vid-thanks!

@sideburn 7 ай бұрын

I have repaired a couple WM-F10’s and it was a nightmare. But amazing tech for the 80’s.

@Twintania 7 ай бұрын

I have one of those modern sony walkman's I bought it because I want a device to listen to my music that do require phone service or battery it's completely independent. It's a pretty cool device I don't use it often aside from hiking but it's nice and usually doesn't need much of a charge

@2011joser 7 ай бұрын

At the time those walkmen came out I was as much into sound quality as I could afford. I had a decent turntable, a really nice Technics cassette deck , and an Alpine cassette deck in my car. Trying my friends’ walkmen I found their sound quality so disappointing that I never spent the money on one. They really never actually sounded that well. At the time I figured it was because they were trying to do so much with one or two double or triple a batteries. My first Discman was a bit pricy and skipped here and there when walking with it but it redeemed itself through its sound quality.

@carleton8654 3 ай бұрын

...................man........thanks for keeping it real...........nice...........

@work2423 6 ай бұрын

Love the Kraftwerk & Skinny Puppy!👍

@segarallychampionship702 7 ай бұрын

I have a WM-B47. It's similarly featured - tape type selector, auto reverse and Dolby B. It just has push button controls and is far larger than the Walkmans you're showing. And it's made out of plastic, which I assume is why it likes to catch RF interference. I also had an Aiwa player that was much worse, it had terrible wow and flutter but that was most likely belts - the original was very loose and the replacement turned out to be of incorrect length. No RFI issues, though, as far as I've noticed.

@SpenserPruett 2 ай бұрын

I have one of these but pressing the step/eject button doesn't actually release the hinge/lever. Any tips?

@butterbutthead8755 5 ай бұрын

Im literally watching this with a taken apart saba journey in bits next to me😂 (its a cassette player from 1981)

@blue387 6 ай бұрын

0:53 Let's go Mets!

@misterkite 7 ай бұрын

I also had some no-name walkman ripoff. I did have an real sony discman though, and I hated it. Late 80s, early 90s Sony loved proprietary ports. So even the cigarette adapter for the Sony Discman was like 3x the price of the competition.

@muffenme 7 ай бұрын

I got 2 different yellow Sony Walkman. One doesn't work and the older one it just keeps on auto reversing even though it at near start of the tape. I try the in another working cassette player and it plays fine. I listen to my mp3 at 40kbps 16bits 16kHz and I still enjoy them. I don't care higher bit rate even though it does sound better, I just don't want to use 45.1GB when I can use 14.1GB for 11,656 songs. You can't put 45.1GB on a 32GB Ipod touch 4th gen.

@AndrewStottisTheIndiWerWlf 4 ай бұрын

There's a red one too but maybe it wasn't made for the US market...

@matthewplehn4271 6 ай бұрын

Nice tape cllection

@diegosilang4823 Ай бұрын

After fixing my WM-F77 tire idle pulley, i tore the ribbon cable and found the capacitor for audio amplifier are busted.

@dimachesebastian6407 6 ай бұрын

New cassette player just been released : fiio cp13. Can u make a review about it in terms of sound quality and mechanism? thank you.

@frankowalker4662 7 ай бұрын

I tried to fix a Walkman once. Never again, it's far to fiddly. LOL.

@fra4455 7 ай бұрын

Nice job

@clairearendse4877 Ай бұрын

If you're going to go to the length of getting 3d print files, and printing your own 3d printed battery cover that will probably break: an alternative would be to use silicon to make a mould from an existing battery cover, and using an epoxy to make a bunch of brand new ones. The prototype "plug" could even be made out of styrene sheets you can get from hobby retailers. Both ideas are hassles, but there are people out there who use silicon to cast scale models, relatively inexpensively.

@SerielThriller 7 ай бұрын

Interesting!

@jacknjill3000 Ай бұрын

Wow! A year long saga to fix one Walkman?! I have about 12 Sony Walkmans that all need a new belt in my storage that I started buying about 14 years ago before many started collecting. Yeah, most got a new model when one broke and couldn’t afford to get all the models you wanted. Not like now with buying used and non working one and buying to collect at a fraction. Yeah, I remember that Walkman and a friend had one when Madonna and Prince were starting out in 1984. The problem with replacing the belt, it’s not like changing the battery and more complicated. Also, once you e changed it, you may need to change the belt again even when you don’t use it. Oh does that model those charging sticks? I just saw one where the face plate is off and the glue dried up. When buying a Walkman or boombox, you almost have to assume it’s not working and pay as low as you can. Oh yeah, that model came in silver and also black. Yeah, that model was slick and modern and that was a big deal in the 80’s having a small gadget and have so many features.

@jacknjill3000 Ай бұрын

I was going to consider a mini Sanyo boombox without an antenna and battery cover, but after watching this, I’m gonna stick to something as complete as possible to save myself the headaches. There’s so many complete boomboxes and Walkmans, why not spend a few more dollars on a more complete unit or better condition to save yourself from going crazy. Bc even figuring out how to change the belt, chances are something else may need to be fixed like the auto reverse in your case. I recently took apart a vintage Ain’t clock radio bc there was something loose. I figured out what was loose and some antenna with thin wires connected to it that had gotten unglued. So since I didn’t have any glee, I closed it up and all the sudden the am radio was not working. What drove me crazy was not knowing if it was working before I opened it or it was already like that when I bought used and never checked. So that’s what o mean by making it worst of you don’t know what you’re doing. Lol! I wish more ppl. we’re into vintage audio, like ppl are with vintage cars and have more supppet or be able to yak to a shop and the clerk saying oh you got a Walkman 2 and I’ve worked on hundreds of them before. Eureka, that’s a great business idea and you know that’s gonna be the case 30 years from now!

@jacknjill3000 Ай бұрын

After all that work, you could’ve bought a dead stock in the original box for a minty one.

@jacknjill3000 Ай бұрын

Now it sounds like an electric shaver. With so many parts that the common person don’t understand. Without an experienced pro working on it, you’re almost asking for it to go wrong.

@jacknjill3000 Ай бұрын

Also after watching, you made me realized that vintage non working radios have value for their parts. I mean if you know what you’re doing and just go to the goodwill and buy up some of the better electronics and you could start your own repair and parts business and rent a small space.

@angrydove4067 5 ай бұрын

Who's the figurine with the two guns?

@ModernClassic 5 ай бұрын

Yuna from Final Fantasy X-2.

@Raptor50aus 6 ай бұрын

Yeah you get to learn which models to avoid. I have installed over 100 walkmans inc this model and I avoid this model and others with the same tape mech. Not a very good unit.

@andrewbakonyi 6 ай бұрын

@Raptor50aus which models are the EASIEST to repair? Any references with good instructions? I have 2 x F10s to repair. I would appreciate any knowledge you can share?

@ejstacey 7 ай бұрын

Mets fan, time to unsubscribe! 😉 Your comment that Sony still makes Walkman got me looking at what they make, and there's a $5000AUD one they make. What a rip, particularly with your comment about 128k mp3s being good enough for most folks! Good video, thanks!

@Astrodicted 6 ай бұрын

Why do people even do this? Cassette/tape just sounds aweful...Collector or pure hipster things?

@YouTube4Rudy 6 ай бұрын

I thought of the same thing- that cassettes sound awful- in the 1980s. It took almost 30 years later to understand the incredible technology behind them- and that they can actually sound as good as CDs- given the proper knowledge, equipment, settings and tape. It’s hard to explain except that it’s more than just listening to a song on Spotify. A lot more.

@Astrodicted 6 ай бұрын

@@KZfaq4Rudy I know it's analog/lossless but it's a terrible medium, and so much depends on the recording/extern factors. We used to sit in group listening to new cd releases because they sounded so amazing vs cassettes. I simply don't understand the 'hassle.' Don't get me wrong, if you like it ->more power to you...enjoy