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The Walkman, Forty Years On
- nabaraz 6y agoSomewhat related. How far are we on having wireless earpods/earphones streaming music directly from the satellites? No phones or internet required.
- mbrubeck 6y agoWhy not use FM radio? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HMH0ZC https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HMH0ZC
- nabaraz 6y agoNo on-demand songs though! I wonder if it is possible to broadcast every songs out there and have a software switch frequencies as required.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jfk13 6y agoI don't think you realise just how many songs are "out there". And switching to a given song's frequency wouldn't be the same as being able to listen on-demand: you'd rarely happen to catch it such that you start listening at the beginning.
- aspenmayer 6y agoOnRad.io[1][2] lets you search for any song on their sources for internet radio and if it’s available, you can stream it from any of the matches. It’s the only thing I’ve seen which does this in real-time. I wish you could add arbitrary streams to search from. I think Winamp could do this back in the day, but not sure of other app based solutions for this. Kind of the reverse of what you may mean by broadcasting every song, but if the songs are already being broadcast, tune in. [1] http://www.onrad.io http://www.onrad.io [2] https://rainnews.com/onrad-io-launches-with-searchable-shareable-radio-streams/ https://rainnews.com/onrad-io-launches-with-searchable-share...
- randlet 6y agoI don't know about where you live, but where I am in Canada the majority of FM radio is as bad or worse than cable television; constant ads, stale "radio friendly" music and DJ's with inane banter and making bad jokes. It's painful to listen to.
- noarchy 6y agoAnd don't forget the mandated CanCon that radio stations have to play.
- reaperducer 6y agoI don't know about where you live It really depends more on what you're into than where you live since so many radio stations stream. There are plenty of great radio stations out there still, but on the internet people think it's cool to pretend the stations don't exist and burrow themselves deeper into a more and more Balkanized niche echo chamber, never exploring anything outside of their comfort zone. FMs I've listened to this week: WXRT/Chicago, KCSN/Northridge, KING-FM-HD2/Seattle, KTNN-FM/Tohatchi, K279BO/Palm Springs. If you want to hear the same old thing over and over, by all means wallow in Spotify or whatever you loaded onto your iPod a decade ago. I do that sometimes, too. It's comforting. However, there's a world of good and interesting music out there. You just have to make an effort beyond tapping the play button and letting a computer decide what you hear.
- krallja 6y agoThe AM/FM headset linked in your grandparent does not support streaming.
- randlet 6y agoOf course there are some great stations to stream; there is infinite musical content online that I use to great advantage. But we're specifically talking about FM/AM broadcast and the chaff heartily outweighs the wheat in most locations.
- reaperducer 6y ago
- cjsawyer 6y agoThe apple watch is a little closer.
- germinalphrase 6y agoHow effectively can a watch + earbuds replace carrying a phone? Anyone do it regularly?
- reaperducer 6y agoI did it when I used to work in the office, and it was pretty nice. I have the first generation Apple Watch, so the phone still had to be nearby, but I could keep my phone in my pocket, and it freed up a little space on my desk. My wife uses the current Apple Watch with AirPods at work, and only uses her phone at home. She leaves her phone in her purse, and seems happy to not have to carry anything else around.
- scarface74 6y agoIf you just need the basics - phone calls, simple messages you can do via voice, directions, streaming and local music/podcasts. It works well.
- robotresearcher 6y agoI have a watch with cell service and AirPods. I leave my phone at home when running and biking. Works fine for music and emergency comms, with negligible weight to bounce around. Also stops me leaving my phone behind in the gym.
- csunbird 6y agoOut of topic for sure, but I tried the same combination and my AirPods keep falling off while running. Do you have any solutions to this?
- joegahona 6y agoI did it last summer for running. I have an Apple Watch series 4. It's pretty restrictive -- you must use Apple Music, and you can only play Apple Music playlists -- i.e., you can't just search for music and play that. It was nice running without a phone, but I have a Flip Belt this year and it doesn't bother me.
- perardi 6y agoWhy is it a request or a requirement to not just have streaming Spotify or [insert music streaming service] over a cellular connection? Satellite radio has awful audio quality for music. I am far from an audiophile, but even I can hear that Sirius/XM sounds like those MP3s I used to download over dialup to save time.
- nabaraz 6y agoI want to be able to listen to songs without worrying about bandwidth, downloads, subscriptions, charge on source device etc.
- mhh__ 6y ago-20 years in the future. It's entirely feasible but what's the point. By the time you have designed an efficient network for distributing all kinds of audio from 1 (idealized server) to N earpods you've basically just reinvented the internet anyway. There are too many people without any internet connections (or food, let's be honest) to fuck around with a system like that ethically or with any financial responsibility.
- the-dude 6y agoI got myself a WM-701C [0], which was considered to be the pinnacle of Walkman design at the time. Incredibly thin with a 'remote control' in the headphone cord. Mine was heavily used as I did about 20km/day on a bike ( in NL this is just commute + paper round, nothing special ) for quite a few years. I had some trouble finding it, but hey on the internet everything exists, the Walkman Archive! [0] http://www.walkman-archive.com/gadgets/walkman_sony_05_701c_v3.htm http://www.walkman-archive.com/gadgets/walkman_sony_05_701c_...
- RyanOD 6y agoI won a WM-701C from WIQB in Ann Arbor, MI when I was a kid! Mine was the 10th Anniversary silver edition which was amazing.
- neonate 6y agohttps://archive.is/0xYH4 https://archive.is/0xYH4
- svnpenn 6y agoI don't like that website. Do they really need fixed bars on the top and bottom asking me to subscribe? Not to mention article is littered with ads and a half screen nag as soon as you start scrolling.
- noahtallen 6y agoInteresting, this was not the case for me on mobile Firefox.
- somehnguy 6y agoDesktop Chrome: https://i.imgur.com/fehpJVk.png https://i.imgur.com/fehpJVk.png Makes me feel like I'm reading through a small window. That was after I closed the obnoxiously large 'subscribe' box.
- listenallyall 6y ago"That website" is the freaking New Yorker, probably the most prestigious and highest-quality literary magazine of all time. The article is free, not behind a paywall. Simply don't visit if it's too much for you, but don't come here and complain.
- trackofalljades 6y agoI recently had an opportunity to check out a drive-in movie theatre, and was very excited at the idea until I remembered that the FM radio in our car was messed up (we never use it). I dug through the garage and found my old Walkman still in a pile of high school stuff. Cleaned it up, installed batteries, cycled the volume rheostat until it was cleaned up and the static stopped...and POOF perfect FM radio again! I brought headphones and had a great time.
- themodelplumber 6y agoWay to go. :-) You reminded me, I bought a couple of those little rechargeable FM transmitters recently and was surprised to find that they're so much simpler than Bluetooth in a lot of ways. I haven't used any of my portable BT speakers in a few weeks now, because it's easier to pipe audio from my phone through to a nearby radio.
- cbm-vic-20 6y agoMy Walkman stopped getting security upgrades in 1984.
- Stratoscope 6y agoThis was an issue long before 1984. It's shocking by today's standards, but the portable transistor radios dating from the 1950s never received any security updates in their lifetime! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_radio
- noizejoy 6y agoReminds me of how much Sony (along with Braun) shaped Apple’s hardware design language. And that in turn keeps on shaping many others. And the walkman is arguably one of the classic cases of “build it, and they will come”, where a product was well ahead of what consumers were already calling for. In my mind, that’s the kind of thing actually deserving the visionary label.
- hhs 6y ago> And the walkman is arguably one of the classic cases of “build it, and they will come”, where a product was well ahead of what consumers were already calling for. Indeed, wonder if they used any parts of UX design/research. Was that even such a thing then?
- tbrock 6y agoNo, that’s stuff we invented recently. Before it was just jam it in a box and see if it works.
- itisit 6y agoHeh
- numpad0 6y agoThey had round green buttons labeled “●POWER” since those days I think. Not all Sony devices has green power buttons but if there’s a button labeled in green it powers up by pressing that.
- Finnucane 6y agoIt was called industrial design in those days.
- p1mrx 6y agohttps://www.jamesbutters.com/ https://www.jamesbutters.com/ has various examples of transistor radio designs, which could be considered Walkman predecessors.
- peter303 6y agoBoom boxes have made a comeback. Some phones are pretty loud. You can buy a lightweight sound amplifier to add to a phone. People use these hiking, running, biking, at picnics, etc.
- mc32 6y agoI understand at a picnic... I don’t understand people by themselves wanting to project on to others their music choices after they’ve become adults. As a teenager I understand why we might have done that, but not grown adults.
- themodelplumber 6y agoI've come across lots of hikers and trail runners doing this, usually small groups of HS students. It's not really a big deal because they pass by in a matter of seconds, or you can let them pass you if they're going the same way. In some ways it's safer to use ambient audio on the trail rather than headphones.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago> In some ways it's safer to use ambient audio on the trail rather than headphones. It is also good for warning the bears that there is a group of people coming so the bear doesn’t get startled and attack.
- mhh__ 6y agoThe music helps dull the pain of the walking (Brings back fantastic memories of getting injured while walking a 61 mile training route on Dartmoor)
- bluedino 6y agoOn the bus, in stores, at restaurants... so inconsiderate.
- runawaybottle 6y agoPulling up some Walkman/Discman designs from Sony, Aiwa, Panasonic (etc) just makes me want to buy one. Somewhere after the IPhone 4/5, phone designs started to homogenize into that mostly large screen, rounded corners, and mostly became uninteresting. Business laptops have mostly settled on the MacBook design, Gaming laptops are still coming in weird interesting designs: https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Zephyrus-i7-7700HQ-Processor-Professional/dp/B071XDXLPG https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Zephyrus-i7-7700HQ-Processor-Pro...
- themodelplumber 6y agoI agree, a lot of the old designs really had something special. I was looking through an old emergency backpack recently and found an Aiwa HS-SP590, similar to a Walkman. For quite a few years it was kind of boring as tech, but now it's so unique that my kids are very intrigued. I'm thinking I'll put something else in the backpack and have a play. (Ideally there weren't any batteries left inside...)
- esfandia 6y agoI seem to recall the Aiwas tended to have EQ on the front, sometimes lined up diagonally. My first "Walkman" was a Toshiba (so technically it wasn't a Walkman) model from 1984, one of the first that came with a FM/AM cassette that you had to insert where the tape usually would go. It also was one of the first models with auto-reverse. This little guy: http://www.walkman-archive.com/wa/project/toshiba-kt-as1-brand-new-in-box/ http://www.walkman-archive.com/wa/project/toshiba-kt-as1-bra...
- knight17 6y agoSony TC-50 is a cassette recorder that could be considered as a predecessor to the Walkman; it even went to the moon with the Apollo 11 crew [1]. [1]: https://kottke.org/19/07/sonys-proto-walkman-that-went-to-the-moon https://kottke.org/19/07/sonys-proto-walkman-that-went-to-th... Off-topic question: Since this is a thread on Walkman I'd like to ask you on any dedicated music player that you'd recommend?
- frostburg 6y agoI suggest an external DAC for your phone unless you have very specific requirements; I use a iFi iDSD Nano (which is no longer being made, but there are equivalent models), what's best for you depends on your use case (what kind of headphones or speakers would you use?).
- themodelplumber 6y agoCool link! Regarding music players, I personally switched to simpler/less-costly solutions because I do a lot of hiking and I can get caught in sudden storms or just end up dropping things. Along those lines I tried a lot of agptek devices and they've been really good. http://www.agptek.com/index.php/product-category/portable-audio/music-players/ http://www.agptek.com/index.php/product-category/portable-au...
- JKCalhoun 6y agoFrank Black's love song to the Ramones is as much a love song to the Walkman. ;-) https://youtu.be/oGbbwBET-p4 https://youtu.be/oGbbwBET-p4
- Daub 6y agoOne totally genius design feature of the Walkman was the fact that it had two headphone jacks. Together with music ripping and mix tapes, this was the beginning of music sharing, and eventually the downfall of the monolithic music industries. Truly a disruptive innovation.
- aidenn0 6y agoMy dad was sharing music on 10 inch tape reels long before the walkman, and the walkman itself was far from the first cassette player.
- Daub 6y agoTrue.. it was not the first. But it was I believe the first portable one that was capable of playing an entire cassette tape from beginning to end. It was the new generation rare earth magnets that enabled this.
- esfandia 6y agoIf I recall correctly, when you used both headphone jacks, the volume would get weaker.
- amelius 6y agoAnd Bluetooth doesn't support two listeners! :(
- fomine3 6y agoAndroid supports multiple output for A2DP devices
- ggm 6y agoI only saw four features which I thought added value to a walkthing 1) dual headphone output. Sharing is cool! 2) a microphone. This changed journalism from niche device with dictation cassette to street journalist. Democratisation of news followed a trend down from a five person crew to two or one as VHS came in. 3) l and r separated volume. Only saw it once but for cheap stereo it meant you could do music minus one and dial down vocals on one channel 4) tape speed change. Autotune for free!
- qrv3w 6y agoThere's a big community of ambient/electronic musicians that are still using these things. They are popular for recording/playing tape loops and making tape delays. I bought some recently to convert into a makeshift mellotron (they still run ~$15 on ebay!). [1] Also there seems to still be enough demand to fund kickstarters for new fancy cassette players. [2] [1]: https://schollz.com/blog/tape-synth/ https://schollz.com/blog/tape-synth/ [2]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wearerewind/we-are-rewind https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wearerewind/we-are-rewi...
- BolexNOLA 6y agoDang missed the opportunity back and get one by days.
- dylan604 6y agoI still have a fondness for how the walkman's motors would slow down as the batteries died which caused a slowing of the sound. The beauty of analog. Today's digital equipment stops cold once voltage gets below threshold. Along the lines of the melotron, I wonder if you could hook up a pot connected to the battery inputs to manually adjust the voltage so you could control this slowing down effect. I could see it working to lower the voltage, but would these things speed up by applying a higher voltage than normal?
- DrScump 6y agoI just found my Aiwa HS-JX779 in perfect condition the other day. It was maybe the best prosumer portable cassette player/recorder ever made.
- bluedino 6y agoWas the Walkman any better than its competitors? I was only a toddler at the time but a few years later EVERYONE made personal cassette players, at way lower prices than Sony. But it wasn’t like with a generic “MP3 player”, a generic cassette player wasn’t really missing anything that the Walkman had (except for the very low end models that were in the cheapest price bracket). I remember one model that only had reverse and not fast forward, for example.
- johnpowell 6y agoI was really into skateboarding from about 12 years old to 30. But back in the day I used to buy the Sony Sport Walkman's. The big yellow ugly ones. When I would skate I had the Walkman in my left hand at all times. I used to fall a lot and learned to land on the Walkman. It became instinct to cover my glasses with my right forearm and land with my left hand so the Walkman took the hit. For anyone wondering my fingers didn't grip all the way around the Walkman so I didn't grind my fingernails off when I landed. But those things were tanks. I bought the OG 5GB iPod when it came out and that completely changed the way I skated since I didn't have the trusty Walkman to fall on. But that was also around the time I started to listen to more Hip Hop like Slick Rick so my entire style changed to a smoother more technical skate compared to when I was listening to Reagan Youth all day and just flinging myself off sets of stairs.
- mongol 6y agoThey were the IPhones of the time. More expensive, more fashionable, perceived higher quality, and had innovative features such as auto reverse. The average cassette player was the generic Android in comparison.
- jes5199 6y agoI think they must be overstating the thing about headphones being unprecedented. Episode 1 of the sitcom “Dobie Gillis”, from 1959, introduces Bob Denver’s character by showing him listening to a transistor radio using an earpiece
- klodolph 6y agoThat’s an earpiece from a 1950s transistor radio. The sound quality is terrible and it only goes in one ear.
- louiechristie 6y ago90s technology struggles (4 min comedy video) [NSFW] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23730689 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23730689
- iamben 6y agoThere was a post on HN the other day where the Instagram algo was discussed - look at something once and see it for the next three weeks. Oddly, at some point it's decided I like to see pictures of old hifi equipment and Walkmans in particular. Turns out there's a massive community of collectors and displayers, and the pictures are actually pretty great. It also reminded me just how great 'tech' was back then. I was a kid in the 80s and a teen in the 90s and it brought back memories of just how magical it all felt! Technology didn't feel like it was iterating as quickly, and things like a tiny Walkman with tiny earbud headphones playing a tape of a new band your friend had found, in a world that wasn't instant and connected - was everything. ...I remember when all this was fields... Sigh.
- DebtDeflation 6y agoI can't begin to describe how much I used to dread when the batteries would begin to get depleted which would slow down the motor turning the cassette and distort the sound being produced.
- rjsw 6y agoStill have my WM-2.
- unwind 6y agoTIL that the Walkman was sold as the Freestyle here in Sweden, which is why that word was adopted for any kind of portable music player. It's one of those fun corners where Swedish contains an English word for something, which doesn't match the word actually used by people speaking English. :) This might be what linguists call a "false friend", but I'm not sure. I also love the German "beamer" (=video projector) in this category.
- the-dude 6y agoWhile English speakers might mean a BMW with beamer :-)
- interfixus 6y agoNot to mention the German Handy, i.e. mobile phone.
- laurieg 6y agoJapanese has lots of these. One of the most confusing is "consent", which means "electrical socket".
- rlonstein 6y agoI found my Walkman, a WMF-100 from 1988 or '89, last year while going through a box of stuff I had saved: https://i.imgur.com/d1RqfVT.jpg https://i.imgur.com/d1RqfVT.jpg https://i.imgur.com/11LWVnw.jpg https://i.imgur.com/11LWVnw.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PARDWpn.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PARDWpn.jpg It's in very used shape, the battery leaked and the face plate with the tuning frequency is loose. I remember buying it at Crazy Eddie's in NJ to replace the yellow sports walkman I managed to destroy.