Getting Nostalgic Over The Walkman

Wednesday, Jul. 1 2009 | Author: Dora

sonywalkman Andy just posted something about the Walkman’s 30th anniversary and guess what that got me doing? I had to dig up some old boxes in an effort to find my old Walkman! Yes, I still have it! After spending a good part of an hour trying to locate it, I was more than ready to use it again after so many years. Ironically, I was not able to satisfy my urge – for the life of me, I could not find any cassette tapes! I guess they have been left behind at my parents’ house.

Anyhow, it got me reading up on more Walkman stories, and one of the most interesting that I ran across is Scott Campbell’s little experiment. Scott is a 13-year-old kid who has used an mp3 player most of his life. When challenged to swap his iPod for a Walkman for one week, he didn’t realize just how much of an adventure he was in for.

The BBC featured his review and comparison of the two portable music players. It was quite amusing to read his thoughts:

My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.

He had told me it was big, but I hadn’t realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.

When I saw it for the first time, its colour also struck me. Nowadays gadgets come in a rainbow of colours but this was only one shade – a bland grey.

His dad’s Walkman must have been way older than mine – mine is black and not THAT big (at least I think so!). Anyway, you can read the rest of his story here.

Maybe you have your own nostalgic moments about the Walkman? Any interesting stories of your own?

Share and Enjoy

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Hope you like that post!

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Category: Gadgets, Music
Tags: iPod, mp3, Music, Sony, walkman

2 Responses for "Getting Nostalgic Over The Walkman"

turn.self.off

July 1st, 2009 at 10:52 am
1

From the image, i am guessing his father had one of the originals…
hank rozema

August 18th, 2009 at 11:57 am
2

Anyhow, it’s a wm-4. Pretty well the most well built walkman of sony. That old and still working. I own a few of them and use them on a regular base.
They were the gadgets from long ago and remain a priceless memory from that era. These days we have become a throw-away generation. Repairing new digital gadgets is just not worth the effort or money so we buy a new and improved one instead. It was not that case during the 80’s. With a bit of luck and a good pair of screwdrivers you could mostely repair a walkman yourself. There is no way you can do that these days without having a master degree in electronics.
Ah, the good old days, and they were good old days. I have become a walkman collector and enjoy the one’s wich still work. If it is one to be said about the music that is produced from these old machine’s: It’s loud!!! If you tape music the right way you can have an unbelievable experience wich even the best I-pod cannot produce. If you can remember the noise of hiss the walkmans made, after a while you don’t even hear it anymore, it become’s somehow natural. Another thing: the dynamic range. Anyone with some knowhow of the walkmans knows what I mean, especially the walkmans with amourphous head (profesional walkmans). As mp3 has taken over the standard music form I tend to get anoyed listening to digital music. A good analog recording listens different than a digital one. I have put my girlfriend to the test and she listened a whole afternoon to my walkman recording and had a great time. The fun was abruptly broken when the batteries finally gave up, she even got a bit upset……..
Anyhow, it’s a wm4, proberbly the most respected walkman ever, just because it still works……………