It was on 1 of July 1979 fortyfive years ago when the "Walkman phenomenon" was introduced. I heard on a local radio station that today is the walkman anniversary and thought to mention it here too , not that I didn't know but it's easy to miss the day ! I won't bother you with historical facts , easy to find and probably you already know the most importand. Just happy birthday Walkman !
Did Sony mark the occasion in any way ? I find it hard to believe it is now five years since they produced the 40th Anniversary MP3 Walkman. Where does time go ?
I saw a similar post on the internet yesterday after buying 2 more models. Time flies. It's a shame Sony doesn't make that much quality stuff anyone. Though to not fault them too much, the quality of just about everything has dropped these days too. Here's hoping that in a few years they'll go ahead and release another updated cassette Walkman. Maybe as a 25th-30th anniversary of their EX2000 model.
For now Sony PR department released here an article about the Walknan history , no mention about an anniversary model though. Yeah @Longman time really flies so fast.
Cute post from them. Seems from the photos someone at Sony has a proper archive/collection of those models still in box and perfect condition. I was kind of shocked to see what looks like a gold plated TPS-L2? I have never seen one of those in my whole life. It could have been a similar model like the WM-1. Was hard to tell from the angle. Browsing the web. A thought popped into my head. Back when buying one of these devices for about $150-$200 you always got so many amazing things included. Charger, decent headphones, hard container of some kind for travel and maybe most importantly even a genuine leather case that had practical cut-outs for the buttons. When putting down even half the money of today, you were buying an entire setup, not just a single component of that setup. Today everything is worse quality and sold separately... My $400 Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones came with a piece of junk fabric case that doesn't even fold down flat for better storage and also doesn't properly keep shape. I never owned the XM4 but this guy hits the nail on the head perfectly. https://markellisreviews.com/tech-opinion/the-best-and-worst-headphone-cases-and-why-it-matters/ Look at the previous cases on that page. A very nice protective shell which only 'barely' takes a little bit more space in the bag. Sony's new case looks like a last-minute design that resembles more of a cheap and lazily made cheeseburger. After getting my XM5's, I got my wife a pair of Sennheiser Momentum 4.0 headphones. I figured they would suit her better for battery life and aesthetic reasons. I also had the Momentum 1.0 and 2.0. I skipped the Momentum 3.0 cans because the 2.0 lasted so long and would have kept them if I had not mistakenly left them on an aeroplane. With hers my wife got a beautiful white hard case (as is the tradition with Sennheiser). Where Sennheiser has improved every single release with their case and the current one is stunning and practical. Sony really cut corners this time and I am not impressed. The XM5 case is simply a waste of the earth's resources and they find their place around my neck when I travel as there is no reason I'd ever lug around such a bad case.
Found over on Twitter, cool cassette case! They have more photos of cool Walkman Swag. https://x.com/Mac_book_user
