[Berserker]

Damn dude, that's freakin sweet. Old school...

 

[Achmedisdead]

Sweet gear you have, WalkmanJohnFL! The little sticker, "It's a Sony",  I used to always leave it on my Sony stuff....CD players, boomboxes, Discmans, etc. My new-school Walkman players don't have it, but they still sound great!

Quote:

Well even us (Olde Tech) guys had "high tech" portable rigs with quality sound back in the day.  How about a Sony WALKMAN with LINE OUT and Headphone jacks !  Direct drive (no belts  W/F:, 0.07% WRMS (NAB)  quartz locked speed , Dolby C and Amorphous head the best tape head produced by Sony.  And depending on +/- db rating of different sources 40-20,000 Hz.
 
SONY WM-DC2   ( 1984 )
 
 

 

[WalkmanJohnFL]

Ah the cassette tape walkman still lives on !  Now we move 10 years forward to 1994 to one of the smallest lightest walkmans ( JVC actually made a carbon fiber walkman ) the PANASONIC RQ-S80 no bigger hardly than the cassette tape itself with 12 Laminated Core Head giving an astounding 15-21,000 Hz frequency response and Dolby C using a 1.2 v 1400 mAh rechargeable gumstick battery.   Player had 8 preset EQ settings with a digital LCD remote with a four frequency "REAL TIME" EQ display using music symbols made taller or shorter to show level within that frequency ( see photos).   Not bad for cassette tape and 16 years ago!!  Player has a stunningly classy deep metallic gloss brown finish.
 

 
YOU CAN SEE THE SMALL SIZE OF PLAYER HERE WITH LCD REMOTE

 
REAL TIME 4 BAND EQ FREQUENCY LEVEL NOTE HEIGHT CHANGE OF MUSIC SYMBOLS


 

 

 

[Blasto_Brandino]

I always wondered what Highend tape decks looked like, they were quite pimp!

 

[WalkmanJohnFL]

As you can see there were some rockin hot specs and professional grade portable cassette walkman.   ITS ABOUT THE SOUND your hearing.... not having 10,000 songs and instant access.  Personally for me I would rather listen to great sound than trade off for the convenience of easy fast selection of music.    But thats just me a teen of the 70's
 
SONY WM-30 with Real to Real cassette tape
 

 

[WalkmanJohnFL]

Quote:

I always wondered what Highend tape decks looked like, they were quite pimp!

A youth grin... the term tape "DECK" refers to the non portable home or professional studio recording cassette '"Deck"  Such as the top of the line NAKAMICHI 1000ZX Limited.  You need a pilot's license to run this machine!  Portable Rigs using a cassette tape were and are referred to as "WALKMAN" even the non SONY models.  There were a few portable Walkman such as the WM-D6C that were often used to record bootleg recordings of live concerts with excellent results for a portable player.  Sorry for the off topic insertion but I thought a clarification of terms was best shown with picture.
 
NAKAMICHI 1000ZX Limited
 

 
SONY WM-D6C   THE GOLD STANDARD OF PORTABLE TAPE RECORDING !!!
 

 

[grokit]

Speaking of using the headphone out to a portable amp, here is one of my favorite semi-portable rigs, using the venerable Simpl A1 amplifier that was visionary for it's time and still sounds as good as just about anything I that I plug my HD-600s into. It was designed for the original firewire iPod, which was not equipped with a line out dock.
 
The story back then was that the iPod headphone out was lacking in the low end, so this amp was made specifically to compensate for that, with enhanced bass. The other features unique to this amp was the "PodGrip" technology, so no velcro or bands were needed, and the lack of a volume control, to prevent redundancy and keep the signal path as pure as possible.
 
I believe it was designed to drive the more demanding full-size headphones of its time, which explains why it has such good synergy with my HD600s, and why it hisses with most IEMs

 

 

 
I still enjoy this setup quite a bit with my 60GB, 4.5G iPod Photo, but I also have my old 5GB, 1G firewire iPod in my truck, will get that going again with the Simpl and post it one of these days.

 

[attika89]

Need to add a good hp amp to the chain, but I have to wait with the purchase

 

[OMG teh Jambands]

WalkmanJohn, that is one awesome looking cassette player! Thanks for sharing! I love nice pics of old gear.

 

[The Larch]

Quote:

 

I love nice pics of old gear.

Me too, that's why I like 50 Plus magazine.

 

[edart]

Quote:

Me too, that's why I like 50 Plus magazine.

LOL

 

[dfkt]

Quote:

It still confuses my why people waste money on connecting from a headphone out to an amp... You need a true line out to justify any sort of gain in quality.

This is so wrong on so many levels, I don't know where to start. But judging by your absolutist know-it-all tone, you probably don't want a discussion anyways. Not that this is the right thread for that, as well. If you want to read why it's perfectly fine and useful to double-amp a headphone-out, you can read the "reality check" chapter in my Headstage Arrow review.

 

[ASilva]

I have multiple portable rigs. So here they are:
 
 
When walking the dog | in bed | walking about
Mainly podcast listening
iPod 5G 30Gb + Sennheiser CX400-II
 

 
 
Working out | Doing physical activities
Mainly podcast listening
iPod 5G 30Gb + Meelectronics M6
Will be replacing iPod for a Sansa Clip+ soon, specially for this
 

 
 
For actual music listening i prefer my iPhone 3Gs paired with the E5 (proper LOD incoming) and either with the Hifiman/Head-Direct RE0 or the Playaz N3, depending on the mood. Mostly the RE0, got hooked on their transparency and detail
 

 

 
 
Nothing too fancy, i will be upgrading stuff as i go along. I'm fairly new to this "world" haha.
I would like to get a new MP3 player, the Cowon J3 for example but i think i'm just too attached to iTunes to go forward with it. I think I'll stick with my iPod/iPhone. With the Sansa Clip incoming who knows, maybe it will replace my iPod/iPhone.

 

[jjsoviet]

^^ Excellent pictures, ASilva! What camera are you using? I bet it's an SLR.

 
Here's another picture of my S9, playing around with my P&S cam's settings:
 

 

[dfkt]

He's using a Canon EOS 30D... I know you were amazed when people told you you're using a Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS, on iAudiophile.
 
If you use Firefox, this is a great addon to check image EXIF data: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5673/