Tag Archives: Walkman

This LEGO version of the classic Sony Walkman WM-22 features an opening lid with removable cassettes!

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Fashion is cyclical and it seems like cassettes may just be making their comeback. Audio manufacturer Fiio just debuted their latest retro CP13 cassette player at CES this year, and it shouldn’t be long before people are making mixtapes again. Just to prime us for that retro-resurgence, LEGO builder Srta.JirafaEnfadada designed a to-scale Sony Walkman made entirely out of LEGO bricks… and the best part, it actually fits LEGO cassettes in!

Designer: Srta.JirafaEnfadada

Before MP3 players and iPods pretty much changed the game, cassettes were the gold standard in music playback. Cars had cassette players, people owned boomboxes, and for a brief while, the Sony Walkman was one of the coolest products you could own. Designed to play cassettes on-the-go, the Walkman walked so the iPod could run. You could make your mixtape, pop it in, and listen to music either on the Walkman’s built-in speaker (if it had one), or on a pair of headphones or earphones for a private music experience.

This entry into the LEGO Ideas forum is based on the WM-22 Walkman, available in the iconic red colorway. It features the classic opening flap on the front that lets you put cassettes in and take them out between plays, with a transparent window that even lets you peer into the walkman’s insides to see which cassette’s loaded. Around the periphery are its play-pause and rewind/fast-forward buttons, and a simple rotary dial to adjust volume. The WM-22 didn’t sport a record button, which most costlier models had, allowing you to even capture audio directly to the cassette. However, it did have a 3.5mm jack, which can be found on this LEGO version too (right above the volume button), allowing you to hook a pair of headphones in. You’ve also got 4 different LEGO cassettes to choose from with the build, adding variety to your music library!

The Sony Walkman was submitted to the LEGO Ideas forum, an online dashboard where LEGO enthusiasts can share their own LEGO-based creations. The forum allows the LEGO community to vote for their favorite designs, with the top-voted ones getting turned into box-sets for us regular-folk to buy. The Sony Walkman sits at 2,068 votes as of writing this article, and if it hits the coveted 10,000 mark, it could potentially be made into a retail set! You can vote for the Sony Walkman or any of your other favorite designs on the LEGO Ideas website.

The post This LEGO version of the classic Sony Walkman WM-22 features an opening lid with removable cassettes! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sony Walkman makes a grand comeback with their latest stunning gold-plated hi-fi audio player

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Priced at $1,300, the Sony Walkman NW-WM1ZM2 (or just the Walkman for short) is for music aficionados with large pockets and a distaste for Tidal.

Slated for an April release, the NW-WM1ZM2 is Sony’s latest Walkman audio-playing device targeted towards high-definition music lovers. The tiny device comes with a design that mimics its 2016 predecessor (the WM1Z), and is coated in real gold, a material that doesn’t simply hint at luxury but also does a hat-tip to the use of gold-plating found in high-end audio hardware. The device sports a 5-inch touchscreen that runs Android 11, allowing you to stream music and podcasts from your favorite services, although where it truly shines is in lossless playback, brought about by transferring lossless music onto the device through your PC. Oh, and yes, it comes with an audio jack.

The Sony Walkman NW-WM1ZM2 comes with a copper chassis that’s plated with an oxygen-free layer of gold. While that may sound like some sort of afterthought, Sony worked pretty hard to arrive at this material combination in 2016 with the WM1Z to give the device its “unique natural, acoustic sound”. Needless to say, the technology carries forward in the 2022 upgrade, as Sony claims the material’s conductivity and strength provide an “unrivaled” audio performance and enable a “clear, expansive sound, so you can experience each instrument as if it were performing live”.

The WM1ZM2 is complemented by its variant, the NW-WM1AM2, which sports an aluminum chassis and a black anodized colorway. Both models have the familiar gold Walkman logo on the bottom right corner of the bezel, playback controls on the side, USB-C charging on the bottom, a memory-card slot with support for storage up to 256GB, and support for wireless headsets. If you’re interested in knowing more about the NW-WM1ZM2 or the NW-WM1AM2, you can read more about them on Sony’s website.

Designer: Sony

The post Sony Walkman makes a grand comeback with their latest stunning gold-plated hi-fi audio player first appeared on Yanko Design.

A LEGO Sony Walkman Sounds Like a Great Idea

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Back in the days before streaming, MP3s, and CDs (and dinosaurs still roamed the Earth), all the cool kids had a Sony Walkman. This portable cassette player was a revolution for those wanting to listen to their tunes on the go and sold more than 200 million units by the time Sony stopped production of its cassette-based Walkmans in 2010. Now, thanks to one clever LEGO creator, we could soon be carrying a Walkman again. This 1:1 scale replica is based on the Walkman WM-22, which wasn’t the first Walkman, but it was the first truly affordable model, and it also looks pretty great in this red color with matching LEGO headphones.

Of course, there are two big differences between brick-builder Jerac’s LEGO Walkman and a real Sony Walkman: 1) you have to assemble this one yourself, and 2) the LEGO one doesn’t play music. Of course, it’s possible that if LEGO decides to build this – and Sony decides to play ball with the licensing – that they could come up with a clever way for it to play music. Wouldn’t it be cool if it worked as a digital media player, and the controls actually worked? And to show your significant other that you love them enough to make them a mixtape? Well, I can dream, I suppose. But even if the LEGO Walkman doesn’t play music, I’d still buy one. I mean, look at it. It’s too cool not to.

If you dig the idea of a LEGO Sony Walkman, take a stroll over to the LEGO Ideas site and show your support with a vote. If the project gets enough votes, it could go into production. It’s already got more than 4,000 supporters, and once it hits 10,000 it goes to LEGO’s expert review team for consideration. Cast your votes and let’s see if we can help make it a reality.

[via Gizmodo Japan]

This nostalgic Walkman inspired Bluetooth speaker uses your smartphone as the cassette!

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Kids these days will never know the sheer effort it was to rewind and fast-forward through a cassette to get to one’s favorite song… and the rewarding feeling of joy when you finally hear your song play. Cassettes were a BIG part of my music experience as a kid and I sincerely love them, but to be honest, I don’t miss them. We’ve made a great deal of progress ever since we shifted to listening to music in a digital format, and the Pl8ty Bluetooth speaker embraces it, but also looks back at cassette players with fond nostalgia!

Meet the Pl8ty. It looks like a Walkman, but it is, in fact, an external wireless speaker for your smartphone. It looks like any standard cassette player, complete with controls too, but behind its retro-avatar, it’s a powerful Bluetooth5.0 speaker and a 3200mAh power-bank. In short, it’s made to get your through your day, by charging your phone, as well as charging you up with some smooth tunes! Besides, it opens up so you can slip your smartphone in, like a cassette, effectively acting as a detox-box for your phone when you want to cut down on your screen-time.

On the hardware front, there’s a whole lot about the Pl8ty worth loving. For starters, it comes with a chunky, meaty, colorful design that is sure to grab eyeballs. A clip on the back lets you strap the Pl8ty to your waist, and it even comes outfitted with retro-esque controls like actual playback buttons, a volume knob, a headphone jack (for a private listening experience – provided you still use wired headphones), and even an aux-in so you can connect the speaker directly to a synth, your desktop, or even your vinyl player. It sports a USB-C in to charge the internal 3200mAh battery, and a USB-A out to connect the Pl8ty to other devices as an external charger.

The Pl8ty has a uniquely appealing way of being both old-world yet modern. It embraces what’s good about both eras, in a device that you’re sure to love if you’re a retro-fanatic, or anyone who’s a millennial or older. It works like your conventional Bluetooth speaker, but packs more oomph with an 85db power rating and offers stunning clarity thanks to a wide frequency range. The fact that it even functions as a power-bank for your devices is just icing on the cake! Moreover, it also embraces the old-world joy of listening to music in the 80-90s. The overall aesthetic, pocket clip, and the opening cassette lid are absolutely iconic retro-details, and that headphone jack is a feature that celebrates a golden bygone era. Even the fact that you can slip your smartphone into the speaker (as if it was a cassette) for detox purposes, seems like a very clever touch that helps complete the Walkman experience while also reducing your screen time. So go ahead, belt out some Lionel Ritchie or Wham! and reminisce about the good old days, because heaven knows we need it right now!

Designer: Pl8ty

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 $196 (45% off). Hurry, less than 12 hours left!

Pl8ty – Radical, Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Design inspired by the iconic cassette players of the 80’s, the Pl8ty is an external Bluetooth 5.0 speaker for your smartphone complete with controls and a 3200mAh power-bank.

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 $196 (45% off). Hurry, less than 12 hours left!

Sony’s 40th anniversary Walkman is a cassette-free nostalgia fail

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Even though it's a long time since cassettes have truly been in vogue, it's still disappointing Sony's 40th anniversary Walkman doesn't let you play music from magnetic tape. If you do pick up the NW-A100TPS, you'll have to make do with a cassette ta...

Sony’s 230-Walkman exhibit celebrates 40 years of a music icon

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To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first Walkman sold (the TPS-L2, naturally), Sony is showing off the history of the portable music player in central Tokyo. It will run across the summer, through until September 1st, with writers and experts o...

Star-Lord’s Walkman Isn’t a Walkman at All

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One of the coolest things in Guardians of the Galaxy is the retro soundtrack that Peter Quill plays on an old ’80s Sony TPS-L2 Walkman. If you missed the ’80s, you can still get one without having to resort to eBay. Sorta. This gadget may look vaguely like Star-Lord’s portable cassette player, but alas it’s not a real Walkman.

This Phony Fauxman is not made by Sony, and it doesn’t play cassette tapes. It’s actually a small speaker that’s designed to play your music from whatever device you carry, like MP3 players and smartphones. You have to plug in your audio source via its audio jack though. It’s too bad it doesn’t support Bluetooth. It has digital voice recording capability and can transform your voice too. It’s also got the song Come a Little Bit Closer – from the Guardians Vol. 2 soundtrack built in.

While it’s nothing like the real deal, it does sell for way less than the crazy $500+ prices people are asking for on eBay for an original TPS-L2 Walkman. The Star-Lord Walkman is available for $29.99(USD) from ThinkGeek.

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