My History With Walkman/Personal Stereos

[@DonVintaggio]

4:29 the mug with the bell that reads ring for service 🤣

[@alexanderheidenreich5505]

I had the Aiwa and I loved it! 😀

[@theslatepipebanjodraggers8980]

i use cassette walkmans constantly nowadays, with bluetooth adapters into my Sony c500's. So many artists are releasing music on cassette currently. Love it

[@jda4887]

I discovered your channel recently and i like the fact to you dont script your videos, it flows naturally like. And who doesnt like cats !

[@MsMadLemon]

Thing is, i've actually tried scripting one, I can't, I end up altering what I say instead of reading it out 😆 Cats, my favourite animal ❤

[@kaitlyn__L]

That listening through the microphone story is a pretty good inverse of when my (younger of my two older) brother having no mic available so him and his pals shouted into those cheap foam headphones to record a tape 😆 I wish I still had my old portable cassettes, and MP3 player!

[@Stephen.C.]

Cassettes players are such great nostalgic items. They still sound great too.

[@TheFaulzahn]

Hab mir gerade deinen Podcast angehört und ich muss sagen das er mir gefallen hat. Du erzählst sehr gut und auch was privates. Fand ich gut. Werde mir den nächsten auch anhören

[@samp3413]

This was really interesting to watch although I have little interest in Walkmans. Where I relate to this is cassette tapes, there's something really appealing/elegant about loading games from tape vs from a 1541. Perhaps it's the loading title screens with the flashing borders, music and often featuring mini-games such as "Invader-a-load". I do have a collection of 80s, 90s tdk and Sony type I tapes which are perfect for backing up original tap files which you also featured in a section of one of your Ultimate 1541 II+ videos.

[@npaladin2000]

Oh wow, a tape player plus brick game? I would have grabbed on of those...I remember when i was younger trying to get my phones to play MP3s through my car stereo, but that's an even earlier converged device, love it!!!

[@MadScientist267]

And while I'm in a mood... Hi beautiful. You are special. Never change. This stuff is what the world should be made of.

[@RetroHawk]

nice collection .. i remember having the slim blue Panasonics but no peep hole for the tape the was just solid metal.

[@MsMadLemon]

You're a peep hole.

[@RetroHawk]

@@MsMadLemon lol i am

[@user-ep5pu9jx5n]

Got myself a sony direct drive walkman dd33 i think it called doesnt have rubber belts has a direct drive system, walkman all solid metal dolby nr with bass boost had it refurbished as the direct drive was cracked. Fortunately parts are available walkman sounds beautiful. Had aiwa walkman before and panasonic one

[@ShawnTewes]

I totally did the mic earphone thing when I was 10 with one of those cheap 60s Sony electret condenser deals with the extra little 2.5'' remote plug on the end. Had it hooked into a Barbie record player with the headphone jack (hey, it was my cousin's 😄). Oh, please tell me you were listening to a rip of the Twintris soundtrack on that Alba while playing Tetris 😁(or maybe Pink Floyd's The Wall, even if that would have been a little obvious). This was a fun trip down memory lane. As for personal stereos, in high school for whatever reason I was always obsessing over ones that could record, and even though they didn't always have the best sound quality and many of them played only in mono, they had trick features like speed control, which was good for DJ mixing on the cheap, and built in speakers. My fav one I had was a bright yellow Panasonic Shock Wave RQ-SW10, because it sounded clean and powerful, was somewhat splash and dust proof, had a fixed-head auto reverse, had a metallic airtight key lock thing which made it feel substantial, and best of all the top lid hinged 90 degrees so you can see the entire tape while it was playing. Lastly, for a while I had a similar dilemma of having a twin deck boombox with no aux in, so it was cool to discover that you can use one of those cassette adapters for the car to connect to the PC's line out and use it to "dub" from one deck to the other. Felt amazing to finally be able to record my homemade MIDI and tracker files to tape.

[@Hounddoggy33]

100th like! You've always been amazing! Keep making these awesome videos!

[@aftertheendtimes]

Since i was 7 i have been a fan of Panasonic =) AIWA did very nice tape players/recorders too,..Thank's dear for shareing Love cheers

[@Starglider77]

Had fun watching that, thanks Maddi 😊 Glad you finally got your Aiwa! Had a couple of Aiwa hifis back in the 90s and sound processing on them was immense. Only two Walkmans, my first being a crappy Currys Matsui one in the mid 80s, then a Sony WM-FX221 with an FM radio integrated in the mid 90s.

[@pauljackson6168]

Those orange headphones! I remember those and yeah they lasted all of 5 minutes. Using the microphone replacement was a genius idea! Making your own cassette inserts was all part of the fun. For the full effect you really needed to combine word art with clip art hahah. 🤣 Super guest interview at 18:20 too!

[@MsMadLemon]

I still have a pair of those orange headphones, they're even worse than I remember and tiddlier than I remember, for tiddly ears clearly lol. I actually made some inserts on the Amiga and a dot matrix printer, I need to find some of my old cassettes! I would have been at least proud of that, rather than Word 97 word art, and clip art yes! I remember 🤣 That cat I was trying to interview had important business to attention, things to do, cats to see lol

[@pauljackson6168]

@@MsMadLemon Looks like you had some nice autumn weather for your walk down memory lane and that Mrs Cameron, she's got your number! Heheh. Nice to see Mr Neelix was also illustrating that cat business is always important business lol.

[@clivepotts1273]

Haha orange earphones, Great video as usual thx❤

[@coreyostman]

Your neighborhood looks lovely. Thanks for taking us on a tour! Have a wonderful weekend, Maddi!!

[@Urban_Spaceman]

Still have my Sony WM-33 with 3 channel equaliser, and original headphones. Not sure what foam they used for the ear pads but they will probably still be in good condition at the 'heat death of the universe'. Oh and it's RED... 😁

[@kforkrish]

My favorite genre😊

[@kumarsajal8400]

I have been watching your videos since you were a bit camera shy. And I have a special nostalgia in my heart for you and your work. I feel so good that you are better and happy now and show your beautiful self. ☺️☺️ Although I miss that beautiful tile of your old home where you made a tea for yourself. That is kind of nostalgic lol. You used to use assorted belts for cassette players. Are these new belts better than those assorted belts? I am curious. Because I also got those assorted eBay belts. Btw I like this way of shooting videos outside. That is sooo beautiful. Please continue doing it. Good wishes to you maddy my Rockstar. ❤️❤️❤️

[@MsMadLemon]

Thank you! 🙂 Actually this is a specific belt, the assorted ones are too thick for this. Assorted belts are good but you can't always get the perfect size for certain personal stereos. The Andalucian tiles, I have brought some spare ones with me to the new place, the moment my new workbench i created, they will be back. There is a sense of nostalgia about the old place, that's for sure 🙂 Now that I have a more suited camera for it, i'm going to shoot more location footage, that's for sure. Thanks once again 🙂

[@JamesPearson]

Great video Maddi, really relaxed and steeped in nostalgia for me. I had a Panasonic ‘Walkman’ during my last years of school and early university (until I got my Sony minidisc, like yours). I too used to feed my headphones down the sleeve of my school jumper so I could listen to music, sitting at the back of the more boring classes!! I was never caught either, which is quite amazing. The Argos catalogue - oh yes, that was entertainment for hours for me, dreaming about all the amazing electronics gear I could have! Glad you got your Panasonic up and running, I’ll need to do the same with mine. I took it apart briefly and it, being pretty compact, was quite fiddly. I couldn’t get access to the belt and so I wonder if I need to desolder like you did. Thanks again for sharing, well worth the wait! 😊

[@MsMadLemon]

Thank you James, If your Panasonic is a slim style one like mine, more than likely you may have to desolder points. I remember when first opening this I felt baffled as to why I cannot access the belt. Quite similar experiences to me actually, except you got away with feeding the earphone in your sleeve haha. It's a pleasure James, thank you! 🙂

[@cameronmaples5303]

I love you videos, and the music you make! I discovered your channel a few years back, and was just beginning my collection of retro tech at the time. I had a portable RCA cassette recorder that I listened to music on back in the day. I just recently got a Walkman a few days ago (WM-F41). I never owned a Walkman before now.

[@kforkrish]

Nothing can beat D6C😊

[@kev515]

This is without doubt the most emotional I have been for a cassette belt replacement ;) Love you for what you do. Take care Maddi. Amiga and Maddi forever!.

[@dmasct1]

Another cool video from you, many thanks for that. 👍 On the subject of your Amiga tracks recording to tape, back in the 90's, I was wondering if you recorded those in full Amiga stereo (so complete left/right channels), or if you had some kind of a "re-centering" fader on your recording device, to reduce the stereo? Because the full Amiga stereo on headphones is quite difficult to experience... Though I'm talking in today's vision, and if back then the choice was just that stereo or mono, I would certainly have gone with the full Amiga stereo anyway. I did record .mod files to tape, played on Atari STe back then, so with the same completel left/right stereo concern. But I don't remember if I had that re-centering ability in the tape recording device. I remember faders labelled left and right, but was it in this context? Just fuzzy thoughts here. 😶‍🌫

[@MsMadLemon]

Thank you!.. Back then I actually created a simple device to adjust the stereo separation because as you rightly say, it is difficult to experience the complete separation through headphones. I've actually done a blog post and video series in the past on how I created this (videos linked in the blog post itself): msmadlemon.com/amiga-stereo-separation-solution-updated/

[@dmasct1]

@@MsMadLemon Ah sure, with your electronics skills you could imagine and build such a device. Perfect to listen with headphones to the Amiga directly even (with an additional amplifier indeed). Neat! Thanks for the blog and videos link.

[@BloodRayneUK]

Hiya Maddi ☺️ and this video was worth the wait, my goodness. So much nostalgia for you and for me as well. That threading of the headphones through your clothes lol 😂 absolutely and l was always day dreaming of my next bit of tech in the Argos catalogue. Some lovely personal stereo’s there and my first was the Grundig Beat Boy 100 from way back in the early 80’s. I have to agree that although Sony got all the acclaim with the Walkman during the late 80’s and into the early 90’s, their quality was just awful plastic construction for their lower entry machines. This year l did some restoration on my teenage Walkman from that time period and it was all plastic clips with no screws and l was terrified in breaking it as l took it apart and replaced the belts and did the general cleaning. I don’t know whether, Alba, Bush, Pye and a few others all had the same design office lol but l totally get what you mean about a lot of electronics being very similar in the 80’s and 90’s 🤔 Anyways, this was an amazing video and brought back some great memories of when you really had to work hard to get music on the go! All the best to you, Rich, Mr Neelix, the army of local cats and everyone there ☺️

[@MsMadLemon]

Hi Jason 🙂 I know when I create these videos, i'm basing them on my own nostalgic experiences, I don't really expect others to see things the same way as I do. However it does bring me joy when people do feel the nostalgia alongside me for the same things.and reminisce 🙂 Judging by your blog you seem to have a lot of similar experiences in the past as I did. Even more so with Rich actually, to a more freakier level lol I think Pye and Phillips are the same maybe? I found out after opening a PYE TV back in the day and the tube itself was labelled "Phillips" lol . I have come across duplicates before, or rebrands that aren't related (at least I don't think) My brother had a casio dictaphone, but i've seen the same exact one by Genexxa too. Another was something Memorex under the name 'Cathay'. As you say it seems like it happened a lot in the 80s and 90s. I agree, a few went a bit downhill in the 90s, Sony, Panasonic and others on their lower entry models. You know it's bad when it just has clips lol. I'm happy that you enjoyed the video Jason, All the best to you and FI. I'll send your regards to the local cat who I interviewed in the video if I see her again 😀

[@GEOLEON]

I remember the thrill of owning a slim Panasonic Walkman. Curiosity got the better of me, and I opened it up. Needless to say, it never worked again.

[@ЕвгенийФидель-р8щ]

Bravo! Всегда получаю положительный заряд)) хоть не все понимаю. Касаемо старых гаджетов...Как говорят врачи, - нас не учили мёртвых лечить!, но тут другой случай❤

[@gumdeo]

Meow 🐈‍⬛

[@nicci_dee8292]

great video Miss :) ............................. as i told you before.... go for Sony DD :) pleeeeease

[@MsMadLemon]

I'd love to but they go for silly prices, it's too much, I can't justify spending that much on a walkman, even if it is DD 🙂

[@anlealanleal3218]

Most of players you have used was without radio. Was there some reason for such choice?

[@MsMadLemon]

I wasn't attracted to ones that had radio, on the go I preferred to choose my music. I listened to radio at home where I could press record when I heard a good song.

[@rolfsethman1032]

what is the name of your bits and screwdriverset, thanks for videos and inspirings.

[@MsMadLemon]

It's just a generic precision screwdriver set really.. www.amazon.co.uk/Kuptone-Precision-Screwdriver-Repair-Magnetic/dp/B09BVBXP4F/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2O949JOMVJIEV&keywords=135+in+1+Mini+Screwdriver+Set&qid=1697823010&s=diy&sprefix=135+in+1+mini+screwdriver+set+%2Cdiy%2C82&sr=1-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1