'Repairing' the unique Twin Tape Sony Walkman W800

[@panchri]

Techmoan: Keeping the rubber belt industry alive.

[@gsacni]

Those belts are getting harder and harder to get. Will probably be obsolete soon.

[@panchri]

And that's how the war began.

[@pegtooth2006]

total slave to the belt industry... tsk tsk lol

[@mrwassef]

I wouldn't sell my belt to industry. So they carded me, and they carted me off

[@squiggle2054]

@@gsacni actually the guy near germany who makes them ive bought a few off of, he has a lot and they are professionally made

[@swiftfox3461]

I used to think that millions of tiny little screws were bad. Then everything started to be attached with plastic catches, and the screws became easy to work with by comparison. It's really hard to disassemble modern hardware without breaking off one or more of these and/or creating pry marks along the edge of the case where the two halves of the case meet.

[@subtledemisefox]

Even worse now is when electronics are just held together by glue and are all but completely unserviceable, even by professionals.

[@MrDegsy69]

Swift Fox learn the art of 'spudging' my friend. A nylon plastic guitar pick is often the way to go. Start at an obvious place like an opening aperture on the case and then pop the first latch gradually working your way round with a reciprocating slicing action. My Samsung J5 has a battery cover that works on this principle and i am constantly popping the back off to access the SD card with no ill effect. It even has a little finger lift detent to assist you in the process.

[@A-G-F-]

@sbcontt YT those contact conectors tend to corrode, ribbon cables allow for slimer stuff

[@terranovarain6570]

@sbcontt YT to take a galaxy s8 back off you need a heat gun and playing cards 😖 but I still loved mine because it was water tight till I dropped it and cracked the screen across the front cam have a galaxy note 10+ now love this phone so much hope I never break it bought a good case for this one that is water tight because this phone isn't wish i would've bought a better case for my s8 thought otter box was spose to be good

[@swiftfox3461]

@@MrDegsy69 I've tried spudging so many times it stopped being funny. I nearly always damage the case of the device. Either the plastic is coated with paint that scratches off, is too soft so it chips while prying even with other plastic, or I'm just plain unfamiliar with opening a particular device because my repairs are usually one-offs and I don't repair stuff professionally.

[@JohnQuilyQuinlan]

when i was kid back in the 80's i couldnt afford one, one night i see a guy arguing with his girlfriend and he smashed his walkman on the ground, i waited until he left picked up the peices and superglued it back together and it worked , amazing, without youtube and only 10 years old, great memories,thanks.

[@briankelly9347]

They were only 100 to 200 bucks you mustve been poor!!! Lol lol lol

[@zappawoman5183]

Wow - that guy had a girlfriend and a Walkman and he still wasn't happy? Sod his entitled ass. It's very gratifying to know that you got the Walkman to work again. That guy didn't appreciate what he had!

[@LordMayorOfDairyBell]

@@defaultusername123 When you're angry, nothing matters. It could be as little as a penny to as much as a billion dollars.

[@lordseaworth6055]

Got to love these made up stories for likes

[@kaladar5377]

Hha ha ha, unexpectedly you got walkman, that night was lucky to you.

[@noeltrevino9429]

I have this Walkman, I bought it off eBay for $40, but I had no idea how to take it apart and find the belts. This video just helped me figure it out! So now, all I have to do is order the belts and put them on!

[@TheCarDemotic]

Lucky. Now I want one but they are expensive

[@scrubmeister6746]

"Portable piracy machine"

[@tminusblastedrocket]

machine piracy portable

[@tjimicole2677]

I think the word you're looking for is "Ship"

[@MrDegsy69]

It's really laughable how precious the music industry were about piracy back then? This modern day age of digital proliferation has truly redefined the boundaries of what exactly is intellectual property. Fact of the matter is that analogue transfers had to be done in real time back then and always with quality loss on each generation. Contrast this with the present day instant digital cloning and you can get a real perspective on those fears. Digital piracy is for all intents and purposes unstopable as it is a virtual rather than physical product that requires no manufacturing and distribution chain and henceforth no collection of royalties as it is distributed in an open source manner.

[@igorszamaszow171]

Sounds like a pretty good name for an early Nine Inch Nails live bootleg

[@SuperM789]

i thought that was supposed to be the steam deck

[@gsacni]

The tape players of those days usually had a Rec/Pb changeover slide switch soldered onto the PC Board, which oxidizes with age, and needs to be treated with a lubricating switch cleaner. That is usually the reason why the Rec/Pb functions go haywire.

[@MrDegsy69]

Gsacni so maybe with a blast of that all would be good? It certainly looked like the machine in the video had very little use as the screen printing and decals on it were virtually mint for something of that age!

[@badderthanyou]

Deoxit?

[@SirJeff]

badderthanyou That works, Nutrol too

[@unfinishedtelevision8080]

Seriously, who dislikes these videos? They are are a lot more professional and informative than a lot of stuff made for TV.

[@swiftfox3461]

unfinished television Agreed. KZbin is a great informative resource, if you know whose channels to subscribe to. Techmoan is one of them, towards the very top of the list.

[@BertGrink]

I couldn't agree more!

[@zukriuchen]

I've always wondered who makes up most of the dislikes on videos. Is it toddlers that don't know what they're doing? Is it people with some insane grudge? Probably a lot of people who do it 'just because'. Personally, I like to imagine there's someone out there who presumably looks like Anton Ego from Ratatouille, watches an entirely well-produced video such as this, then clicks dislike because one of the fade-ins was 1 second too quick

[@Alexwav]

zukriuchen as a 13 year old I agree with all of the statements

[@bobbygrossman4444]

@@Alexwav Chief.

[@Nostalgianerd]

You had me at "Latest Spectrum game"

[@deathbringer2000]

Wow... How do you have no replys yet?

[@kennethbouchard8643]

Still have a couple of my old Spectrum Games, on cassette. I think they are PSION Chess, and Flight Simulator. Hard to say if they work, as I have no Timex Sinclair any more, i wore out that machine 30 years ago. Probably should have kept it. There are simulators, I do not know if you can use them to somehow load tapes via the computer into them, May need to try it someday.

[@TheGarageGuru95]

U

[@TheGarageGuru95]

@@kennethbouchard8643 uu7uuuuuuuu

[@VictorFleur]

techmoan: best belt repairing channel on yt

[@VitorMadeira]

Fantastic. I'm Portuguese and this is so amazing. I'm now 42 years old and back in the 1980's, here in Portugal, it was quite the same: buying ZX Spectrum games with a friend and get home to make a copy of the tape so we both could enjoy it at the same time. Thank you for this nostalgic moment.

[@alastairward2774]

A Techmoan video that's 100% repair? Like a cake that's all icing...

[@het_gele_teken]

Now I'm hungry... ;-)

[@caturdaynite7217]

I'm a tech who has been repairing laptops for 20 years. I used love the walkman, back in the 80's. Don't be afraid to try to repair things, well, I guess I don't need to tell you. Always look forward to your videos. This one is especially tasty as I repair small things, like laptops and it's really fun to watch. Thanks from Wisconsin, USA. Meow.

[@caturdaynite7217]

Oh yea, almost forgot. I like the two intros. It's cool.

[@alastairward2774]

Caturday Nite in a way the best phone I had was an original Samsung Galaxy Note, enough screws and little enough glue that I could actually open it myself and repair it by replacing a broken part.

[@alastairward2774]

***** of course I ruined it by dropping it the once I didn't have a cover on it and smashing the screen :)

[@kaceyh97]

You should use an ice cube tray to keep all the screws separated. They're nice and cheap and give you tons of pockets to keep all the different sizes separate. Then when you want to put the thing together you just work in reverse and you know which screws go where.

[@juicewrldextendedunrelease5274]

Good advice!

[@onemanshow4116]

Better to get one of the magnetic mats that have tic-tac-toe patterns... You can also use a dry erase marker to write yourself notes...

[@tbb033]

Or just do it on video and watch it back when you're closing it up

[@quaxk]

I use transparent med containers, if you absolutely want to use a tray use a pill organizer so you at least have a lid for the different compartments

[@l3p3]

When I disassemble such things, I draw every perspective like a manual and put the screws on the drawing, at their proper position.

[@madfinntech]

The golden age of electronics when they actually put things together using screws.

[@utfigyii5987]

MadFinnTech and you didn't need to send them to expensive repairing services Suomi perkele

[@azzajohnson2123]

Yep now it’s all hot glue so you don’t bother repairing your forced to replace..

[@gentuxable]

Man of Culture true, but honestly it's all integrated circuit and software today and that makes things cheaper to build but harder to repair. If only we could require manufacturers to release source code and schematics 3 years after the last unit of a product was sold to have a community fix bugs and make it work with newer standards and others fix the stuff.

[@bryanotero123]

gentuxable Next lever nerd shit xDD not an insult, just saying by the ring of it

[@bland9876]

"What's a screw? I'm just use to putting things together with hot snot and flex tape" everyone born after 2000

[@AttilaTheHun333333]

Bought various belts a pinch rollers from that chap in Slovakia. Highly recommend! Extremely helpful and reliable guy, fast shipping too.

[@Techmoan]

*Enquiries about the clock - Here's the video I made about it back in November 2016 **kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3asmZZjZ9ugf68** If you missed this you might also want to look through my back catalogue, of over 400 videos. More info about subsequent attempts to resolve the playback issues is in the video description text box*

[@brokenscart7989]

Techmoan it looks really cool.

[@Fierofreak01]

I'm guessing the people asking aren't your long term subscribers...

[@4by100]

I really enjoy seeing how many more subs you have since you recorded the video, love seeing your subscriber base grow! keep up the amazing work.

[@0rderSol]

You've gained roughly 700 subs since recording.

[@youfoundisaac]

What happens when you invariably hit 1,000,000?

[@Vinyl_guy]

My friend has a 2 tape deck and we have a simple rule, you can copy any tape that your friend has but you have to supply the blank tape that you want the album on, we of course are huge retro tech nerds

[@unullness]

I found this channel about a week ago, and it's been my absolute favorite since

[@TechKyle]

You having that feeling being afraid of not being able to put it back together. I normally don't have that but when I tried taking my camera apart I had that feeling, I didn't put it back together and went on a vacation for a week. I put it back together after that, and it was indeed so satisfying to see everything line up and no screw left. Anyways, great video. I really enjoyed this one.

[@WaltonPete]

The reason there's only sound from either deck when using the record function is likely because the record switch needs cleaning. Pretty much all tape recorders have a multi contact switch which moves when the record button is pressed and it changes the output of the pre-amp from going straight to the main amp and instead routes it through the recording circuitry and into the record heads. If the contacts on this switch are oxidised and not conducting properly then the tape player can either have poor or no output or not record clearly. I suspect having not been used for years has made the switch contacts oxidised and therefore non conductive in play mode. Just a little squirt of contact cleaner into the record switch should clear up the problem.

[@gsacni]

Yep. Very true. I've been servicing these things for more than 30 years, and cleaning the pots and switches is a must after replacing the belts, and 95% of the time it clears all problems.

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

In that case, he should do a follow up vid

[@henryfriedman8518]

Great advice!

[@viveksoley]

Watching you open up that piece of equipment and reassemble it is so satisfying....

[@treiz01]

It'll never fail to impress me how well built and repairable these devices were. They just don't make them like they used to.

[@Damien.D]

Yeah, old SONY stuff are pieces of art.

[@kirbyswarp]

Damien Drouart sonys current phones are still art.

[@Damien.D]

kirbyswarp yeah they feature a good design but are not these electonics and mechanical marvels of yesterday

[@kirbyswarp]

I was speaking of design.

[@tbb033]

Sony makes phones?

[@JangleJoe]

I have a WM-F65 Walkman that needs a new belt. Thanks for showing me what to expect inside, and a source for getting a new belt. AWESOME!

[@spidermonkeynr1]

I would love it if you had a own tv show on the bbc. Where you travel around and find old tech. i would watch that. Greetinz fron the Netherlands

[@SammyRenard]

Ashens got his own once, surely can techmoan!

[@kennethbouchard8643]

I suppose if it were local to him, but its still a lot cheaper to just ship things. I wonder how much space takes up to have to store all the things he has made videos for.

[@jameshughes1574]

This is true, that eBay seller sent me belts to fix my machine, he is an A+ seller in my books for sure! And great quality belts.

[@leleedler]

Yay! Papi TechMoan releases more gold!

[@ethann_browne]

No, Techmoan doesn't release gold. It's more a mixture of all the precious metals; Platinum, gold, silver, etc.

[@tbb033]

3MJB don make me cut choo mang, this vid has more gold than a mine

[@xboys_archive]

Le Leedler 100th like

[@richfiles]

Sony products of the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and to a degree, early 90s are marvels of volumetric engineering... I have a 1969 Sony calculator that comes apart with a pair of quarter turn slot screws (the type you can use a coin to twist), a spring loaded release, and two retainer clips. From there, you can fold out the power supply board (without detaching the power connectors) and service the unit's 5 main boards. Yup... 5 boards to drive a calculator, all slotted into a metal frame with a backplane! Sony has a history of exquisitely serviceable products, pre-90s. That whole deal where the assembly folded open... Sony did stuff like that all the time, and it's meant for ease of serviceability. Their service manuals of the era... Oh my... They can bring a tear to the eye, they are so exquisitely detailed, and so professionally laid out! Those were the days! It's truly a shame the old Sony is a relic of days gone by.

[@kirbymurdstone4925]

What a fun piece of Miniature engineering! Actually made to be repaired. Nothing like that on the store shelves today.

[@revmpandora]

I'd say. you've become a master of perished belt removal and replacement, not to mention sourcing the replacements, which can be a bit of an adventure all its own! Cheers and thanks again for another fantastic video!

[@nationwidepenguin]

brilliant! someone else that remembers Laskys!

[@Growveguk]

I remember our Commodore 64 getting purchased in the Leeds Laskys store in the 80's!!!!!!!

[@Techmoan]

That was when Comet who bought Laskys in 1989 and shut all their stores briefly used the name for an online store.

[@nationwidepenguin]

Yes, in my JVC, ONdigital and Sony days, I had many discussions with Buyers from most of the National Accounts and Independent franchisees...Lasky's was just a tad before my time - I was learning my CE trade! Keep up the good work, it's great to see the items we used to see percolate from R&D (often in Japan) now being so treasured by collectors and appreciators. It's just a pity I didn't put all my kit in storage - may have helped the pension!

[@DesandSam]

Bought my Wharfedale Diamonds at Laskys in Queensgate Peterborough!

[@Betamacx]

After watching a lot of your videos, I thought a quick message was in order to let you know I really enjoy your work. Keep it up and don't let the sometimes negative comments be a reason to apologize! It's your work as an technology enthusiast and I appreciate the manner in which you explain the process of finding interesting pieces of (old) technology, getting them to work (or sometimes not) and telling a bit of background information on them. Good job!

[@ykcinasak]

I am a big fan of your channel and I am proud that belts are from Slovakia (I am from Slovakia) :)

[@matusondrejicka1860]

I am too 😄♥️🇸🇰🇸🇰

[@anthonyandthemachine]

I bought a Walkman last year and had to take it apart to replace the belt as well. I thought I had fixed it but unfortunately it looked like one of the teeth on one of the little gears inside had broken off and it was jamming up. I was too afraid to take it apart even more. The radio worked and I didn't want to break that part. I'm pretty sure this channel was one of the reasons why I bought it even though it needed to be repaired. I think I bought the belts from the same eBay seller too.

[@StephenGarnett]

+Techmoan brilliantly informative, as usual. Have you ever considered doing a video on the quadrophonic sound formats of the 70s? I've looked and looked and there really isn't much info out there, especially on KZbin.

[@Techmoan]

One day I will.

[@StephenGarnett]

Fantastic. Can't wait to see you wrestle with all the incompatible formats like QS, SQ and CD4! Keep up the good work!

[@joohop]

I've been looking into Quad Recording here Bud

[@StephenGarnett]

***** where? You got a link?

[@faabzeeland]

Im interested too! I've got a Sony TA-88 amp and a matching Fm/Am radio. There is a third component that one can add that connects to the tape in/out of the amp. No idea what the idea behind it is

[@TonyGearSolid]

Definitely one of the most interesting and educational channels on KZbin for those forever curious about old tech. Great stuff man, keep it up.

[@maoristereo]

Your camera is excellent, yours are the best quality, most crisp and clear videos ive ever seen on youtube. What machine do you use?

[@BungaEBiker]

Welcome to the club. I used to buy the cheap Woolworths brand walkmans and keep repairing them as they would break. Taught myself how to solder, change belts and follow circuit paths.

[@Emillikestowrite]

Informative and entertaining video as always. Would love to see more cassette and Walkman based videos, maybe the Walkman WM D6C or the TPS L2?

[@AerikForager]

Fixing electronics is a really fun hobby, I have found it quite satisfying over the years. :)

[@stevemaherart]

Great video, again, would love to see something about broadcast monitors sometime, like the Sony one to your left on the desk.

[@Techmoan]

I've got something in the early stages of planning on this.

[@stevemaherart]

Delighted to hear that.

[@johnpruittpruitt4677]

Thank you sir for this and All that you do! From America with love!Please say a prayer for us

[@odditymusic9286]

I was watching this video when my son asked me,"wait... games used to come from music tape?!"

[@kennethbouchard8643]

@@notahotshot I have seen Imsai computer, which used a paper punch reader and writer on a TTY machine, in which you fed programs into, and we actually did. And then it used continuous form paper to run it when you hit the run switch, brought up tiny basic. I has a TTY that got thrown out back in the 80s, that I got working, but nothing to hook it up to.

[@Wyld1one]

Heh. My commodore64 had both a tape drive and a floppy disk. However; the taps drive was $50 us vs $200us for ths floppy drive. I bought the cheapest i could until i could afford the other.

[@DTD110865]

The majority of the games in the US came from specially built cartridges. Atari, Mattel's Intellivision, Coleco-Vision, and stuff like that. Cassettes were for early PC's.

[@glonkfpv]

These are quite informative, as I'm no 80's/90's kid, it helps me "catch up"

[@Mr.Unacceptable]

Get a piece of double sided tape and put a piece on some cardboard. stick the screws to the tape and label them on the cardboard. If you need to wait for parts put some clear tape over the screws so they don't fall off. You also need some dental picks if you plan to do this more often.

[@edwardlimney5131]

I just keep buying cassettes anywhere I can find them. Not just any ones mind you but unique styled cases from the 70s and of course the ones with music that I like. It has become quite the hobby for me and it is loads of fun searching through thrift stores for the gems👍

[@jippalippa]

Those 80s tech aesthetics. Electronics from the 70s and 80s are beautiful even to simply showcase

[@AKAIGXF71]

Excellent! BIG respect from Romania, Bucuresti! Laurentiu.

[@Crlarl]

However, that is a remarkable player even when it's not fully operational. Can't win them all.

[@fmtelevison]

It doesn't matter what you show me , I just enjoy watching and learning 👍

[@wojciechtechtips1602]

YAY He finally uploaded a tape video!

[@roo_parfrey]

I bought some belts off of the same guy to repair my Wm-Bf65. He's a life saver!

[@numbers9to0]

So your clock in the background can display the number of subscribers. :D

[@Techmoan]

Purchasing links are always posted in the video descriptions of the videos I upload...you'll find them there.

[@The76Malibu]

He has actually made a video on this clock. :) Here it is: watch?v=aEIhc-2vmIM&t=1s

[@arimago]

Lars Bolduc scroll up.

[@The76Malibu]

***** Hah! We must have been typing our comments at the same time.

[@ikongod]

I'm such a Sony fan boy. I enjoyed this episode and all the older tech videos you make very much. Thank you for making them for me.

[@izzieb]

Techmoan video, instant like.

[@leopold7562]

You're clearly better at this than I am. I bought a second hand CD Walkman in 1990 and it had some issues playing CDs, so I took it apart (making careful note of where everything went) and found the issue: the spiral cog which drove the lens was full of gunk, so I wiped off all that crap and regreased it, then put it all back together and... it wouldn't work at all, as it was getting no power from either the fancy clip-on battery pack or the AC adapter. I pulled it apart again and noticed I'd severed a small black wire, by pinching it in between the housing as I reassembled it. Given my soldering skills are non-existent and the wire had almost no slack in it for a bodged repair, I put it all back together again and dumped it.

[@PardonJulianAssangeNow]

Never clicked on a Techmoan video so fast

[@azzajohnson2123]

I like the fact he persists with it, can’t repair it 100%, took the lessons learnt from playing with it and uploaded the video anyway. The learning effort and take home is worth more than the device.

[@passacaglia28]

As cheesy as this may sound, I feel like my IQ goes up a few points every time I watch one of your videos! Your KZbin channel is one of my favorites, and I always look forward to new uploads. Thanks for all you do! :D

[@Runicen]

Always fun to watch these tear-downs and repairs. Great video. Oh, minor tip about messing with belts: This is something I picked up on a lark when buying new belts for a full-size tape deck, but they make what I saw listed as a "belt tool," which has metal picks on either end. One is a hook for pulling belts off of wheels and the other is sort of "L" shaped for pushing the belts into place. Made the exchange considerably easier.

[@Big_Not_Good]

Great video! I enjoy the haphazard repair. Fix something older!! Like, WAY OLDER! I dunno, doesn't matter, whatever you'd pick, doesn't matter if you fail either, that's just part of it; some times ya win, sometimes...anyway, I mean, I like the other videos you produce (I'll watch 'em all the way through), but I think I like these the best. That was more like my three cents, but hey...

[@thomascott7425]

Hi, Tom from the USA. I have opened up more devices than I can remember and I would like to make a suggestion or two to you to make your reassembly a bit easier. One, find the British equivalent of Harbor Freight and purchase a magnetic parts dish. I have seen them come in round, kidney and square shapes. They make the possibility of accidentally nudging a conventional parts tray and sending parts flying virtually nil. Second, get a suitably sized piece of corrugated cardboard, make a rough sketch of the device in question on the cardboard and put the screws, nuts, etc. in their respective place on the cardboard. This eliminates the nagging question of "Now which screw goes where?". I hope that this helps. Keep up the good work, I love the puppets at the end. Bye.

[@peterunlustig719]

3:40 ,,I f*cking get them all together "😂😁😂

[@peterunlustig719]

i know he didnt actually said that but it still sounds like he did...

[@carsonking5549]

I noticed as well. :)

[@Techmoan]

*...if I just show you here in my hand, if I can get them all together, there's four tiny little screws...*

[@vulgarpestilence]

Peter unlustig Alles soos?

[@id104335409]

if I can get them all together = I fucking get them all together LoL

[@pandapomkin]

@techmoan This is why I prefer your channel to others, you are not an electronic engineer but a normal dude. Bravo!!! :)

[@willstaffan3229]

Now this is why youtube notifications were invented

[@jonathanwatmough]

Nice, I have a Aiwa JS HX101 (350 of your GBP back in the day I think) that no longer plays tapes, but radio and clock are just fine. Hoping it can be brought back to life.

[@MarshMellowChronic]

it's a techmoan video, I press like before I've even watched it.

[@niallhunter5045]

Seeing a new vid on this channel always makes me smile!

[@NaviRetlav]

I'm looking for the walkman/portable cassette player that does have the manual TAPE SPEED, knob or slider. Can anyone share any models for me to check ? Both regular size cassettes and mini cassettes would be good, as many as you know ;)

[@MrMakeDo]

Another excellent and entertaining video about something I have no genuine interest in. I have no idea how you do it but I could watch you talk about the minutiae of analogue sound media for hours and not get bored.

[@Rovnijanko]

7:36 Proud to be Slovak :D

[@turczech]

Já jsom Čech z Mostu ako Brno, čo bývá v Istanbule, ale taků radosť jsom dlho nemal, samý Polák, Čech, Juhoslávec a já neviem čo, ale keď Slovák, tak sa tak rozradostním.

[@AshAndCamilleMiller]

I remember I saved up 90$ in 1995 to buy the Sony recordingWalkman, it was a single deck but recorded fm/am and had a clip on stereo mic, I was in love, besides tape dubbing I have a full use boombox in hand, it even had a speaker in the door, it still works well.

[@MaZe741]

"In about 30 years, we will be doing the same with today's iPhones" - said nobody ever

[@guruoo]

I have one of these socked away in a sort of personal electronic museum collection (Couple drawers of a vintage filing cabinet) . I bought when it had just come out. Still works!

[@ethann_browne]

*Sees new Techmoan video* *Clicks on it* *Likes video* *Watches video*

[@itis3000]

Sony has incredible technologies back in 80s. I hope to see more unique stuff like that on your channel. Thank you

[@Da40kOrks]

500+ views uploaded 4min ago...

[@btinsen]

Bravo Sir! Always enjoy watching you dive in to sketchy gear!😅

[@Cylume.]

It's sad and ironic that the most problematic part that kills these machines is the simplest technology in them. The belt. It's too bad they weren't built with longevity in mind, perhaps with servos or direct drives for the moving parts.

[@Techmoan]

Almost all the Sony DD models (the direct drive ones) have broken as the centre plastic drive cog snaps due to a contraction of the plastic which surrounds a metal drive wheel. The plastic cog then has to be re-manufactured using epoxy resin which is a much more complicated process than swapping out a belt, so in the end the belt drive machines are a lot easier to repair and a better bet.

[@nerd1000ify]

If you really wanted them to last you could use metal gears on every part of the drive system. It'd be a bit noisy though, and the noise would only get worse when the grease dried out and turned into a crumbly mess ;)

[@julosx]

Or replace the belts with… chains, lol.

[@foureyedchick]

There is a term for that: It is called planned obsolescence.

[@azzajohnson2123]

Belts were cheap, win for the manufacturers! Belts were an easy replacement repair if something was to go wrong as TechMoan mentions, easier to repair than plastic parts. But belts also have and advantage over metal gears, they are soft and spongy, this stops the tapes from snapping or getting damaged, and at the time for most people the tapes were the most expensive component. The cost of your royalty paid music tapes , a hand full of them at the time would of cost more than the player compared to the belts. So it’s a good safety mechanism and increases the playability of the tapes. That would of been kept in mind, tape stress, so the tapes would not of got chewed (but sometimes still did with dirty heads and pinchers). Even own dubbed audio would of been more valuable than some rubber belts to most people.

[@ciphermatrix]

A very very desirable object back in the day when we would all get excited over the latest currys, laskeys and richer sounds pamphlets and the stuff within, but none of us could afford one. I get ridiculously nostalgic about walkmans...

[@gijsyo]

Portable piracy machine :)

[@R0n8urgundy]

I say this on every video.....MORE CONTENT PLEASE. Absolutely love this channel

[@perlarsen3645]

Hi. What's your background, and what do you do for a living? Any wife or kids?

[@pegtooth2006]

beautman1 ha ha ha... an ex girlfriend thought I had too much "sh!t" but never realised how much crap she had. lol. Techmoan, or Harrold, as his name truely is, is lucky his missus seems to share his interests. P.S. he is a Barista Trainer and travels Europe and as far as Antartica opening Starbucks.

[@perlarsen3645]

I was just wondering, how he got the time and money for all this? I'm happily married, and have 3 kids, and an old house, and I'll never find the time for making half the videos Harold makes.

[@pegtooth2006]

Per Larson on his patreon channel, Harold said he makes extra money selling haploid cells and blood.

[@Fopenplop]

blood for tape... techmoan's a real one

[@Sammie1053]

I love how you can see on the display in the background that someone subscribed while you were filming this. Right around the 12:25 mark

[@AspenSnowfox]

Great video, don't mean to be a hater - but maybe next time you can review some hand lotion?

[@UNKNOWN-le2tu]

i like your videos. you talk about different and off the wall types of media equipment. your viewers arent rude and they dont talk about how you are doing things wrong like they do in other audio videos. everyone seems to know more about sudio equipment than the owner of the equipment. i think they are jealous someone has nice stuff that they dont and wishes they had.

[@laurentiucristian1]

A new Techmoan video is what I need after 2 hours of learning for exams

[@brokenscart7989]

I think this is my favourite channel on KZbin. Im overjoyed at every new video. Keep it up

[@Milnoc]

Can't remember how many times I've disassembled small devices like that when I was young! Surprisingly, I was able to reassemble most of them. I've learned that your success rate depended entirely on how well you managed your screws.

[@Toadfox1]

This is my favorite KZbinr ever. I guess that's not saying much, since I don't watch many KZbin channels at all, but this guy reminds me of myself if I had been born in Great Britain.

[@Toadfox1]

...and had money and time to mess with all these ancient electronics...

[@lfgavioli]

Congratulations, your videos are exceptional, and I watch everyone to remember the 70's and 80's. Greetings from Brazil

[@stupask3834]

I still have the Sharp model above the one you are featuring. Probably about 16 years old at the time. Many a lunch break spent in Birmingham's Virgin Mega Store checking out new tape's to buy. Sadly it stopped working a long time ago but i might check it out having watched this. Served me well on the train from Wolverhampton to Brum New Street and back for years. Good times. Thank's for the video.

[@descore7578]

Love the videos where you take stuff apart. Don't worry, not everybody is an electronics engineer, but your videos show that some problems can be fixed with just basic mechanical knowledge and perseverance. Personally would have probably donated that particular walkman to Dr Walkman :)

[@Ax3lN3ri]

techmoan dont give up on this walkman finish it a great walkman see it working

[@awakekiwi]

I was in Japan in the 1980s and they were always into pirating in a big way and mixtapes. Before the minidisk they had twin cassette walkmans! That looked like two sony walkmans back to back. You could visit a friend and copy their latest music tape on the fly. I never saw these outside of Japan. Sure you check could get twin cassette gettoblasters but a twin cassete walkman was super portable and i thought it was the coolest thing ever!

[@grgr3074]

I'm always very excited watching you taking care of the belts, screws, etc...i would be unable to do the same....

[@mistakay9019]

great vid mat! and props for putting a failed fix video up, it was interesting none the less!

[@Lucien86]

I had one of these for quite a few years. It was a great little machine and I remember it always having pretty good sound. The biggest problem with it was that it didn't have a graphic equaliser which meant that you couldn't tune the sound. What it really excelled at was of course tape to tape copying. It was also useful because it let you carry two tapes in the machine at once. The reason that I actually brought it for specifically though was for portable hifi sound recording, which it was quite good at - but not brilliant. There was very little choice at the time that had reasonable quality and was at any kind of sane price I could afford.

[@James-cd8ih]

This is quickly becoming my favorite youtube channel.

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

Neat. It's always fun to see the guts of old electronics.

[@wildbilltexas]

I would have loved visiting the Sony Factory where they made these. I had a couple of recording with AM/FM tuner Walkmans (Awia and Panasonic) in the 90's and they were all DC bias recorders. Their recording quality was about as good as a cheap boombox. But they were handy when I was on vacation and wanted to record the local stations.

[@richardhuckaby4728]

excellent video. I do believe that cleaning the pinch rollers with denatured alcohol will remove the stickiness and solve the wow & flutter problem. I often had to clean all types of cassette tape players back in the day. in extreme cases it will stick the tape to the roller & eat your cassette. also electronic contact cleaner & a can of dust-off used on the record switch (compressed air) will likely solve the no audio output problem. enjoyed this very much & would like to see it fully restored.