Ashes to ashes, Devo to dust: RIP Sony Walkman

[mahatmakanejeeves]

I was at a yard sale during the summer, when I saw an old Walkman. Its cabinet was metal, it was made in Japan, and it must have weighed a pound. It was closing time, and no one had bought it. The person running the sale gave it to me. When I looked it up, I learned it was the original Walkman, from 1979. The motor runs, but the tape does not move. I opened it up - it was constructed so that you could do that - to see that the belts have stretched out. I might replace them.

Here's a picture of the original: Sony Walkman Turns 30, Feels A Bit Overweight

I was at another yard sale about a month ago. There was a GE Walkman clone, one of those yellow ruggedized, weatherproof ones. I thought, "for a quarter, I'd buy this." The guy wanted $10. No sale.

Old Walkmans, even the original, aren't worth a whole lot. I still listen to a Walkman during my commute. I have tapes, and if no one else on the bus is compatible with me, so what?

Ashes to ashes, Devo to dust: RIP Sony Walkman

By Eric Bangeman

When I was a youngster, albums were most often heard in order. 8-track tapes were the only technology that could jump from channel to channel; LPs and cassette tapes were strictly sequential-listening affairs. But one electronic device made the cassette tape a must-have for any young music fan. It was the Sony Walkman, and today we gather to memorialize its passing as Sony has decided to cease sales of the cassette player in the land of its birth, Japan.
....

One day, while passing through the Sears at the local mall on my way to the arcade, I noticed a display in the electronics department. There were a handful of portable cassette players with headphones and belt clips. The realization dawned that I could take my music with me—in stereo!
....

Before long, I had saved enough to buy one and could finally take my music with me. No longer would I be subjected to the tyranny of John Denver or The Captain and Tennille in the family car. As long as I had batteries and the foresight to bring a tape or two with me, I could indulge my musical tastes, not my mother's. I had purchased a gadget, the first in what appears to be an unending string of early technology adoptions.
....

But for everyone who came of age in the Walkman's heyday, the news of its passing still stings. Today, the Walkman is an analog relic in a digital world. There may be a limited future for the cassette—the format is still popular in parts of the developing world—but most of us have traded the hiss of the cassette for the zeros and ones of a digital music player. Nostalgia and a handful of indie-label cassette releases are enough to keep Sony's Chinese factories making the occasional Walkman for sale in the US, but the iconic player's demise in the Land of the Rising Sun marks the end of an era.

Sony pushes the stop button on Walkman

Two weeks ago, I even repaired a few cassettes. The felt pad that holds the tape in contact with the head had become dislodged from its spring. I pulled some spares from cassettes that I would never listen to (how to get rich in real estate; achieving business leadership) and used them to fix "Roxy Music's Greatest Hits" and some Human League tape.

I have this one Sex Pistols tape; I don't know where it's from. It must be outtakes from the BBC or something.

12 Gadgets Once Essential, Now Essentially Useless

You kids get off my lawn! Oh, never mind. Someone else has already that.

[Javaman]

1. Last year, I transfered the last of my cassette tapes to my computer.

It was a very sad and odd moment.

Sad that it was the passing of a technology, odd that I felt sad over the passing of a technology. LOL

[walldude]

2. LOL.. I kind of know the feeling.. but you get used to it.

45's, LP's, 8_Track, Cassette, CD, MP3... I have bought Dark Side Of The Moon and The White Album so many times it's not even funny. I finally just caved in and bought an iPod.

On the other hand, in my travels I have noticed that Lp's are making a comeback. New albums are being released on vinyl, I see stores carrying LP's and I see new turntables in places.

One of the things I miss the most about LP's was that day when the album you were waiting for finally got released. I used to run home with it, drop it on the turntable and listen to it from start to finish while looking at the album art and reading all the liner notes. Now I sound like my dad talking about the good old days... I think I'll stop.. :toast:

[DainBramaged]

3. Thank you for the memories

:hug:

[Prometheus Bound]

4. Just read that story and then saw yours.

I thought I was the last person on earth to use a Walkman and was astonished to see they were still being produced.

Tape stops rolling on Walkman cassette players
Published On Tue Oct 26 2010

Another icon of the 1980s is heading into the history books. Sony has announced that it’s stopped production in Japan of the clunky, but oh-so-cool-for-its-time Walkman cassette player.

What’s more surprising is that the bricklike device, which first went on sale July 1, 1979, was still being produced at all almost a decade after the iPod simplified and then shuffled the way we listen to music.

The last of the players came off a Japanese assembly line in April, and a few will continue to be produced for diehard fans out of a Chinese factory, Sony officials said this week.
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/880788--tape-stops-rolling-on-walkman-cassette-players