Hi from UK

Hey there, I started my collection of walkman about 5 months ago - I tend to buy broken and restore them, but I'm still learning.
I'm a video game developer by trade but spent several years working for stage, tv and film as a propmaker. My grandfather wrote textbooks for service technicians and I was well into electronics when I was younger - I try and fix anything that's broken, with varying degrees of success.
This collection started because I accidently threw away a panasonic RQ-JA160 I'd kept since I was 16. One of the biggest mistakes of my life, that little thing represented the best and worst of my teenage years and went everywhere with me.
I enjoy trying to get the best out of cassettes, and whilst I'm not an audiophile, I've got a picky ear for musical quality.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum @Evilbunny !

I into designing electronics, but I am also into repairing and restoring walkmans and other vintage electronics, including laptops as a hobby.
I also did throw away CDs, pre-recorded tapes and walkmans in the past and I regret it. The RQ-JA160 can be bought again in the end, it's not really that rare that you won't find one. Since I started looking for devices like these I noticed that even very rare units pop up from time to time.

Trying to get the best out of cassettes is something I also want to do, espcially because now we have almost perfect digital sources to record from and it's also easier to calibrate recording units with newer test equipment.
I recently upgraded my WM-D6C and WM-D3 with NE5532 op-amps (both line and rec eq amps) and it sounds that much better. https://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/sony-wm-d6c-wm-d3-noise-floor-improvement.7197/

 

@Valentin As I think you've realised from my thread in tech talk , I managed to get another Panasonic. My next "Grail" is a D6C so I can record some typeIV tapes. I'm not willing to shell out for it though so I'm cruising the boot fairs now!