Why do old walkman go for so much money. Aside of the collector item it may be, but i'm seeing some go for 150$ and you can easily get an ipod for that much, all the while having clear digital sound and no need to play a tape. I would argue that buying a boombox is a purchase because the radio itself is a loud speaker sound system. I dont really fully understand why its so costly of a collector item for a walkman.

hmmm. difficult one...

but to catch your ipod-argument:

did you ever compare the sound of an ipod to the sound of a (good recorded) tape, played in a good quality walkman ? i think you should !

Auto is right, a $10 Walkman will have better sound quality than your average compressed MP3 file.

How can a $150 Walkman possibly be a worse deal than a iPod?

Don't compare boombox sound quality with that of a walkman just because they share this board. With a small amount of adjustment a walkman can sound better than CD, a boombox wouldn't come close.

Its not just about quality.

It comes from a time where gadgets still had moving parts. A time where this stuff was designed and engineered by, well.... engineers. Every moving part had an impact on the next, in order to make certain that the mediums journey across the playback heads was rock solid and stable.

Done correctly, you would end up with a timeless classic. Done really well, and that timeless classic should still be able to deliver the goods today.

Get a good blank cassette, in a good recording machine and record a track you know well.

At the same time, convert that CD into an mp3 or aac at 192kbps and then see which you prefer. The lossless analogue recording or the "well it sounds fine, but sounds like there is no life in it" compressed file.

Add to that, this copy cut and paste world we live in is just too dam easy. The actual activity of making a good solid mix tape, either for yourself or someone else (which is still quite a romantic gesture) takes time. But that time invested is equally rewarded.

Anyone can drag a few files into a folder, create a playlist and then zipp them up and pass it on....

So, the walkmans price these days reflects not only their quality or rarity, but also their nostalgic significance to a generation that who's lifes soundtrack was probably first experienced through the privacy of their Personal Stereo

So, when asked why I do it, I show them how the WM DD or the DC6 sounds with a great fresh and pristine recording and any doubters are soon silenced, with that dumbstruck "I always though tape sounded sh*t, but this rocks" look on their face.

So what if its bulkier?
So what if you only get 90 mins of playback?
So what if its all old hat by today's standards?

I'd rather have a kick ass C90 as opposed to 30 gig of mediocrity!

Wonderful stuff doublecee. You're a true believer.

with doublecee


and don't forget about the headphones, a good pair will make a world of difference.

I asked an honest question, i got an honest reply.

Not at all, it was a great question. As you can see, there are a number of strong opinions on this topic.

yes I agree with doublecee (see my recent post about looking for a cassette recorder)...digital media has many benefits and uses but so does analog have its advantages. It is a mistake for our civilization to be entirely discarding analog the way it seems to be doing. All of these walkmans pictured on these posts, as you say, designed by highly creative engineers and used by artists like myself. Digital-only formats and ideas, to me, evoke a sense of a sometimes unpleasant new world designed by lawyers and accountants. Peace.

Since making my post this week, I have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of Mix tapes I have prepped....

interesting

Anyway, what I am really looking for is a T shirt that extols my home taping virtues. Anyone know of a good source for retro t-shirts depicting something Walkman or tape based... ?

Just a thought.

i love analog music, from vinyl or tape. audio-cd-burner is also ok, as long as music doesn't get compressed.
vinyl sounds best, and not only because i want it, it's a well proofed fact.
anyway, love my analog setup, nobody can convince me to stop that.

quote:

Originally posted by doublecee:
Since making my post this week, I have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of Mix tapes I have prepped....

interesting

Anyway, what I am really looking for is a T shirt that extols my home taping virtues. Anyone know of a good source for retro t-shirts depicting something Walkman or tape based... ?

Just a thought.

check here !

mixtape-shirt

Thanks for that. Some nice retro styles there.

Gonna have a closer look and maybe place an order...

Any random acces method player, like CD, MD or MP3 looks smarter than a cassette. And if you add and LCD and a good humman interface you get an smart choise. talking to "user friendly", the actual player gadgets are better, for sure.
But wiht tapes, you can take advantage of different levels of quality, that still you can control while using your main cass deck.
Choosing tape, adjusting bias would shield different quality even with the same source.
And there's a different coloration across different deck manufacturers.
Deffinitly, a good vinil recorded in a standard TDK D-C60, it still a dream for me.
Don't ask me why it sound better. I'm not sure the answer ...

I 've read an article at Lennart site where talks about if HIFI and theory, about THD, THIN , Intermodulation and other. and finishes saying something thats true ... systems built to match some HIFI specs SOUND are not guaranted to sound better than OTHERS don't match them ... Why ... humman ear not only likes good measurements taken from an standard ...

Then you cannot be sure that a digital media, only because it's digital it's better than an analog one. Theory applied to audio is not always right, think about tube amps, that always sound warmer, has large THD numbers, them at the theory point they are bad, but human ear likes them.

Finally, a CD player, wich is supposed to be perfect, has a signal to noise ratio that's a dream against values from better cassettes decks ... but are your CD as perfect as the used by the manufacturer while testing.
I belive not, and as some scratch appears, and correction methos don't work properly, the signal processing start with interpolation ... trying to recover the loose (missing read) information .... But recovered information from maths is not the real one, then it's noise, and then, the signal to noise ratio is NOT AS GOOD AS the one given in owners manual.
Real CD players most read real CD, with scratches, dust, dyrty. And misisng data can occur, even while tracking continue without problems, lovering the audio quality. Only when tracking fails (the CD hangs) you notice that the CD is damaged. But there are several some mid points where the system still works and standard user is still happy.

Human ears are analog, not digital!

Right you are Walkgirl. Analog works best in surround, and why I am constantly tweaking my system. We hear in 6D Surround sound... (3-D x 2)... or more!

Very interesting.... But none is better than analog.

Check this ...