cassette players and walkman

I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of this walkman. I tend to be hard on this type of device -- going thru one every two years. I got sick of paying $30+ for this type of product so I started buying ultra cheap $10 brands. The sound quality was adequate for my needs. I listen to mostly educational tapes while riding my bike -- alternating with radio and sometimes music tapes. When I saw that for $10 more I could own a Sony i decided to give it a try. The extra $10 was worth it and I guess pays for the headphones. They produce great quality sound. The unit is well thought out in terms of design, switches etc. And I like the slimmer casing. I long for casings of yesteryear that were much better quality but it is on par with the models of today. I like the limit switch which prevents you from jacking up the sound to levels that damage hearing. It's easy to do with headphones. A word of warning to young people out there -- do that enough and you will be hard of hearing. I've experienced hearing loss from loud rock music and playing electric guitar. The first station I happened to listen to was classical and I could not believe how clear and full the sound was. A keeper. I notice early users from prior years did not like this model. They must have upgraded since then. (...)I was one of the first users of the original Sony walkman's in the early 80s and Sony continues a great tradition and I'm glad I decided to own one again.

Trendy style, quality construction, good sound. Phone jack and volume control are well spaced. All switches are well placed. The battery light is very useful; it tells power is ON or OFF. Even though it's an inexpensive model, it carries Sony's original Walkman quality in every respect. Sound quality is also great. No motor vibration is detected in sound. Radio portion is also good. The only down side in this model is no auto-reverse. Highly recommended.

I bought this a while ago, and i lost it a few weeks later problay because i didnt like it. The tuning scale is very hard to use and is not accruate at all. The tape quality is poor, and the tape head gets dirty very fast, for some reason or another. The radio quality is farily good once you master the impossible task of tuning the thing. The battery light is next to useless, and the whole tape player just isnt that good.
I have bought a lot of Sony products, and i figured out that if you want the qualtity ones, get the shiny ones.