Sony S2 - The oft-overlooked 2000s sports audio redux

[@BenHur872]

@Techmoan There's a blast from the past. As a freelancer for Sony I built the website for the S2 range in the UK, so I can confirm that they did get sold here! Sony branded up a classic VW campervan and took it on a tour of the UK surfing locations to promote the S2 products. I'll have a copy of the website in an archive somewhere if you're interested?

[@kutter_ttl6786]

I just learned today that the UK has surfing locations. Cool.

[@jadedheartsz]

i'm interested

[@BoxOfToasters]

Ooh, can you share a link to this archive?

[@DJRickDawson]

would be cool to see the website.

[@karolkozik5918]

​@@kutter_ttl6786 UK was somewhat early to the surfing game. Thanks to an oddball man born in Ceylon called Jack Churchill.

[@Gary85Paul]

Orange and white was also the design language of the early Sony Ericsson Walkman phones, released at the same time as these devices. Coincidentally, I was tinkering with my old W800 the other day. A fun trip down memory lane.

[@munkSWE88]

Felt like everything was a mix of silver, orange and white back in the 00´s

[@Milamberinx]

Ah yeah, I had a W810i. It was probably my third mp3 player, but I used it a LOT... just a shame that Sony didn't include a proper headphone jack on their "media" phone.

[@CMDBob]

Yeah, I had a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone back in the day, was my first actually good media player after an older CD player. Good phone too! Replaced it with an Android smartphone (as a gift from my parents for getting into uni) in 2010 though. Good times...

[@Onewheelordeal]

Dang dude my W810i was the shiz. Used the same memory cards as my PSP for a full on MP3 player built into my phone and the free online audio subscription was my first introduction into getting any media from the internet. Also had a great camera for the day and I still have you could get an external telescopic lense that clipped onto the phone

[@Onewheelordeal]

​@@Milamberinxthe headphone jack cord was also sneakily the FM radio antenna

[@Astrosynthesist]

I still (literally) daily drive Sony's gift to biking enthusiasts at 8:43 ! I can give a rundown of its features: Firstly there is one of those hall effect bike wheel sensors that lets it track the rotations of your wheel and keep stats. What is notable is that the wheel sensor and magnet are stamped with S2 and even the Zip ties to attach the wire to your bike frame are custom-molded with S2 on them and a funky shape too! The radio attaches (slides in and out with a compliant thumb button to release it) to a black platter that is affixed to your bike handles. This allows you to easily remove the radio and take your stats with you/prevent theft when bike is parked. The radio detects when removed from the bike and stops displaying speed at that time. Radio still operates. It has a little oval antenna under the back which also props it up and acts as a stand on a desk. Bike stats are: Speed, Odometer (848km or so on mine!), trip odometer, moving timer (clock stops counting when wheel stops spinning for a few seconds), and average speed. Those three reset at once when holding the reset button while any one of them is displayed. It also tracks your maximum speed, which you can reset independently from the other 3 stats. Memory is retained even if the batteries die. 2 AA batteries. I use NiMH. They last for months as I don't use the radio much. Orange backlit display. FM radio has DX/Local toggle on bottom left of radio. Volume is a wheel on bottom right of radio. The knob sticking out in the pic is the tuner/preset selector. The radio is waterproof and tunes AM/FM. No TV or weather though I am Canadian, the TV audio feature would've been cool! Sound quality is mid-poor but loud and clear voice on the radio so not bad for biking at all. Certainly not unlistenable. DX mode has never helped me improve a station signal quality. There's no megabass function but like it's a single 2.5"/6 cm speaker so temper your expectations haha. I love taking this thing on a bike trip, unclipping it, and walking with it to wherever my destination is and dumping my trip stats into a spreadsheet. Been tracking my bike trip stats for years with it. I've taken some major falls and the radio has never been damaged. The screen has some scuffs but nothing major. The white paint on the metal grill is still intact too! The platter it mounts to has cracked in 3 or 4 places but I preemptively superglued the cracks and it is still 100% functional and looks fine under casual inspection. I worry about ever moving it to a new bike though. The hall effect method of capturing my wheel spinning matches a GPS track of my bike trip to about 3% agreement which is good enough for me. Maybe I gave it a slightly wrong bike wheel size but I don't want to mess up the stats now by correcting it. 10/10 product would love to see an updated bluetooth radio version. Would buy again as-is, but I'm sure people have little glass cockpit displays for their bikes now with maps or something. Personally given some of my wipeouts I'd never want to put my phone on my handlebars. I love this thing and will use it until something gives. Side note, I like having cylindrical batteries on certain classes of products. Putting a rechargeable lithium in everything is another way to plan obsolescence of it when it inevitably loses its ability to hold a charge and/or becomes a spicy pillow. This radio has decades of life in it thanks to being able to keep updated fresh NiMH batteries with no challenge or drama at all to me. I miss the days of smart, thoughtful, consumer-friendly engineering (admittedly Sony itself has trended away from that especially in recent years). Thanks for coming to my Techmoan talk! I hope you found it interesting!

[@koraypekericli]

I remember gifting an S2 CD Walkman just like 14:50 to my friend who was in the army and spending weeks on mountains. He still mentions how much of a life saver it was under the pressure of duty. Thanks for documenting these relics for us!

[@shark.bait12]

Love how the boombox has controls on the handle so you can control it while carrying it.

[@profosist]

It also points at you while carrying it.

[@robertschnobert9090]

That's what she said haha 🌈 ​@@profosist

[@thejoojooman6538]

Oh gr8....the Techmoan effect is gonna make finishing off my collection of these impossible (it was already hard).

[@grilnam9945]

You can sell yours for a profit now. You will just have to use the money start collecting something he hasn’t covered yet.

[@LaurentiusTriarius]

I was collecting obscure brands of watches before the pandemic, then they started making vids ... 😅 I cannot collect them anymore.

[@matthewrease2376]

Really just... any KZbinr covering something. Not just him.

[@thejoojooman6538]

@@grilnam9945 😂😂. I do want that minidisc player though.

[@seanlavoie2]

I think he did point out more than once that It would be something to buy if it’s cheap it’s not like a highly engineered field recorder that doesn’t need belts.

[@Takodate]

Bulbous glossy white plastic with orange accents is very much a 2000s aesthetic

[@davidsentanu7836]

The Frutiger Aero aesthetics

[@monotonehell]

Add a blue LED to that and you're in peak early 2000s.

[@rimmersbryggeri]

@@monotonehell And it must absolutely be excessivly bright so that it will light up your whloe livingroom should you happen to want to charge it.

[@volvo09]

​@@rimmersbryggeri I had a radio in my car in 04 that had a blue "source" button. I had to tape over it because to this day it was the brightest single blue LED I had ever seen until modern "cob' LED's came out. It lit up the interior like I had blue neons in the car, and affected my vision at night. It was so dumb.

[@vintagecapgunsatyourmomshouse]

Despicable Me

[@5ublimate]

The boombox is a prime candidate for a bit of peroxide treatment!

[@jubbetje4278]

The 8-bit Guy doesn't do that anymore.

[@rosco-reigns]

I used thin bleach to re-whiten my Raleigh vektar

[@SiD3WiNDR]

@@jubbetje4278 He prefers dremels these days, right?

[@SiD3WiNDR]

Nah, that's just that typical Sony Sports Yellow!

[@auroragoose3414]

My S2 minidisc player survived my high school years traveling to track meets and other bus rides. I would record a full md off an electronic music channel, overnight, and had hours of good vibes for the next day - as long as I remembered a fresh battery 😅

[@pederb82]

I worked at an Euronics store from about 2004 to when we closed it down in 2015 or there about. I do remember the S2 products. But just barely. We never had any in stock I believe but I did see the S2 range offered here in Europe for the mp3 and headphones ranges as well as portable cd-players. At one point I had a customer who wanted a portable cd-player but could not find any in any store around here anymore. I ordered one specially for that customer. And it was a S2 model. So they were here in Norway but not common.

[@roscat_]

I used to have that boombox!! It was awesome. I would take it to my cousins when we would hang out and play basketball.

[@Sigma-INFJ.]

This almost seems like a 3 part series, starting with the Sony 360° cassette player video, then the Sony Sports Yellow video, and finally this video.

[@yannisgk]

indeed!!!!

[@richardpuente867]

This guy needs his own museum

[@JC20XX]

I think that's called his storage locker

[@marcusdamberger]

@@JC20XX Pretty sure that happened years ago. There was a video a while ago where he goes sleuthing around the storage locker shelves to find a tape recorder ala Mission Impossible style. About tape recorders used in the show. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5bNlZmVjbl1ipIsi=ZITrI0HEPq-5RCzr You got a glimpse of just how much is put away.

[@DJRickDawson]

has LookMumNoComputer got a bit of space to show some items?

[@richardpuente867]

@JC20XX how much for admission? 😂 Is there tour guides?

[@ryansheldonart6358]

The techmoan-ium

[@apricebcd]

You have to love Sony's name in conventions. So catchy they just roll off the tongue.

[@sednoid]

and how easy to remember!

[@extrahourinthepit]

I feel like their naming convention gets too much of a bad rep from tech enthusiasts specifically, and that’s precisely because of how they’re meant to work: you’re not meant to use them. None of these are meant to be sold to the consumer by their model number but by their line name and featureset. “Come buy a Sony S2 product for your sports and active life! We have CD players, MiniDisc player, armband radios, boombox systems…” and the consumer just buys a Sony Boombox from the S2 line with MP3 capability, and they’re not expected to remember that alphabet soup any more than Mazda expected consumers to know they were buying an FD3S. Product names are just vaguely descriptive identifiers for customers to order parts, and they just need to memorize the few things they do have one at a time, and at most for nerds like us, who’ll memorize everything anyway. Far be it from me to say they couldn’t be more logical or more easy to memorize or both, but people seem to judge them in terms of a strategy that isn’t Sony’s.

[@md_vandenberg]

@@extrahourinthepit I'm with you, the "jokes" about Sony's naming schemes are lame. I don't give a damn what the S2 Walkman is called; does it work or not? Besides, Sony gives the things that matter proper names. Trinitron? *PlayStation* for crying outloud?! Be sure to blame DankPods for this trend. Wade doesn't know when to shut up sometimes.

[@vcprado]

​@@md_vandenberg it's just a joke, you know

[@extrahourinthepit]

@@md_vandenberg The thing about Wade is that, like all of us, he’s a nerd, to whom the cool names and logos Sony actually intended you to call their products by are just a weird form of marketing material irrelevant to the quest for the specific product’s “actual” name. Especially given his familiarity with the notion that two seemingly similar products from the same company and the same line can be extremely different in quality. It is judging fish for their ability to climb trees, but some may justifiably object that they do need their trees climbed.

[@limerent72]

My husband still has one of those armband radios new in package. He bought two at the Sony outlet store when those stores were still around maybe 15 years ago. I never imagined that one day it would be mentioned in the same sentence as "obsolete," "relic," and "blast from the past." Sony was transcendent back in the day.

[@baddudecornpop7328]

The 2000s tech aesthetic is so good lookin. I think it still holds up today.

[@ChrisCTurner10]

I had the discman- for three weeks anyway, some wonderful person took it from the locker room when I sat it down and went away for a minute. It indeed was a GREAT discman!

[@Henchman1977]

I worked at Radio Shack in the early 2ks... That Sony lineup was YUGE! At that time most Sony portables came is blister packaging which was difficult to open cleanly and difficult to repackage for sale. Most Panasonics at the time came in boxes which we much preferred as it could be repackaged cleanly.

[@mhoppy6639]

The UK equivalent was Tandy, which stocked “RadioShack”- branded stuff in their stores. I don’t remember whether they carried Sony gear back in the day, but I sort of remember some of the stuff they sold being a bit crappy : lots of knockoffs and tinny speakers galore. Am I remembering that right ? I remember the high end stuff was usually in Lasky’s which was (at least in Chester) dark and seemed to my uselessly immature eyes, very classy and upmarket as a result. 😂

[@OxycodoneHelpsMyBack]

I completely forgot about having an S2 Walkman for over 21 years. It unfortunately died during a hockey tournament when staff at one of the rinks threw all the bags on top of each other without asking us first. I was pissed.

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

Oh man, that sucks. My Pinecil v2 died fhat way.

[@uncled39]

Serves you right for drinking

[@OxycodoneHelpsMyBack]

@@uncled39 lol what? I was 14

[@siwynjones]

@@OxycodoneHelpsMyBackYou said you were pissed.

[@OxycodoneHelpsMyBack]

@@siwynjones not in the British manor lol

[@JosephFarthing]

Orange video released on Dutch Koningsdag (a national holiday where everything is orange!). I thought it was deliberate for a moment...

[@taofanarchy96-renzomaracas14]

With my free to air satellite in Italy, I watched the Inauguration of King William Alexander back in 2013. I can confirm: everything is orange.

[@cthulpiss]

That orange/amber + grey + white combo looks fantastic!

[@rate733]

I still have the S2 Cd player and use it regularly as my mobile music player around the house; the audio quality is still great paired with AT's. Thanks for taking a look at these Sonys Ive always had a soft spot for them.

[@Sonnell]

You are getting the air pressure part wrong. On the plane, the pressure is lower than at ground level. So if the player has ground level pressure, it will be easier to open. So no real pressure releasing required. If you opened it on the plane, and you want to open it again at ground level, then you would find it difficult to do that as the pressure inside the player is lower. So then you have to let air IN to the player to be able to open it.

[@marcusdamberger]

It's like when they hand out snacks on the airplane and yours comes in a sealed cellophane bag it's all puffed up because it was packaged at ground level. Pressure inside is expanding the bag.

[@SayMcGillicuddy]

Never was Sony's DGAF naming convention laid more bare. Heroic effort Mat. I doff my cap

[@CptJistuce]

Model numbers are not names. I don't believe most of these devices HAD names, really. "Walkman S2 sports radio" covers a lot of devices, as does “Walkman S2 sports cassette player"

[@PascalGienger]

RDS in the US came out 1992, they adapted the European RDS standard a bit so RDS chipsets needed to be modified to also accept the US variant. It was standardized by IEC in the year 2000 worldwide.

[@volvo09]

My first experience with RDS was getting into a Chevy around 04 or something. Thought it was pretty cool.

[@PeterBellefleur]

Yeah I was going to mention this, we have RDS in the US, but it really only over took off on car radios and some home av receivers. Rarely saw it on anything portable or lower end

[@PascalGienger]

@@PeterBellefleur Chipsets to decode RDS came out extremely cheap after the IEC standardization. But - radios became rare as people stream. Main usage of RDS is the car stereo as the information carries alternative frequencies for the same radio station. Something very common in Europe but nearly non-existent in the US (local vs affiliated). The other challenge in the US are long distances to emitters. Often the stereo decoder turns off already so RDS is gone already for a long time already. Stereo uses carrierless 38kHz in the "audio" signal, RDS 57kHz (3x the pilot tone).

[@ProbablySteven]

Late stage portable cd players were really good and plentiful. I guess that tends to be the case for most products right before they run their course. As a teen in the early 2000s, I loved these types of things, plus early MP3 players. Lots of fun unique designs.

[@El-Ritmo]

I'd forgotten all about these - it's definitely the yellow that comes to mind with Sony Sports - but I do remember them now: I always thought the glossy white with orange looked really clean and classy.

[@nukfauxsho]

I had a sport 2 walkman radio during my primary school years. It was indestructible. Loved it.

[@paulrippcord506]

I love the late 90s and early 00s melted bar of soap aesthetic. Getting rid of hard edges because round is futuristic.

[@palladen1933]

Love the show so very educational, can't believe they make all those models with only very small variations it's crazy, you have enough Electronics there to start a museum of classic devices that's what you need to do, thank you 😊😊😊

I always thank you from my frozen land Patagonia Argentina. Your videos help a lot in front of a heater. Gracias

[@hudde814]

It's been said before and it's being said again to further emphasize the point, Sony really loves naming their products that aren't PlayStations like they're making a new password for each website

[@drworm5007]

It's a test to judge who is worthy to download the manual.

[@MrStimpanzee]

I had one of those S2 CD players. What set it apart for me was the anti skip performance. It never missed a beat.

[@TheInredibleMrH]

My dad got one of the portable CD players in 2003 or so. I’ve always loved the look!

[@BenGoldNYC]

I had that tape deck when I was a kid and would listen to the radio on it in the morning on the way to school. It also picked up TV stations. They also made a pair of over the ear headphones with a built in radio.

[@Nomad-Rogers]

I was a young teen in the 00s' and these brought back memories of me wanting one of those portable S2 CD players so bad I couldn't stand it but we were on a budget and couldn't afford one. A family friend for Christmas bought me a very nice Panasonic maybe it is just nastalgia look back on my very early teen years but I have never had a CD player sound that good.

[@compzac]

My Minidisc! I had that model when I was a kid. It was a gift after a CD player died, but i was the only one in school who had a Minidisc machine. being in America of course they didn't really catch on. but for at least a couple years i was the cool kid who had the portable audio format literally no one else on the playground had. At least until the iPods got more popular then i was the dork who was still carrying discs around. but that chonky metal player with its c shaped cover over the ejector lever the analog recording even that it had NetMD which meant i didn't need to record anything I could just transfer stuff over using sonic stage. oh man brings back some memories. I have been really wanting to get back into Minidisc for a bit now and to find that S2 Minidisc machine. Alright now I'm actually gonna watch the video. i only made it 28 seconds in so far.it would be rather hilarious if Matt totally panned the machine. Update: if Matt ever reads this. I can't speak for anything else other than the minidisc. But those headphones you got with the arm band radio where the exact same as the ones that came with the minidisc. They were generally Ok for sports type use, running and the like as they didnt fall out easily but they were very much small headphones, I had nicer over ear headphones (from radioshack) that sounded a little bit richer. but for outdoor type use those worked pretty darn well. got pretty loud too actually. As well no there was no case for holding it, what you got was a wrist strap that was grey with a white reflective section with the S2 logo on it.

[@GYTCommnts]

I have the arm radio! Still works perfectly! About the "TV / Weather" options: TV was very useful to be able to hear analog TV stations, so if something important happened and the power went out, you would still be able to hear TV news for example if you wanted to. I used it many times when analog TV existed. About "weather", not in my country but in the U.S. there is/was a specific transmission for the weather. There is other excellent portable radio model from Sony, not a sports one, very durable and sturdy like this S2 that was available in black or silver colors, with the same functions. My Dad has it, I bought it as a gift and still works nowadays too.

[@Mr-Trox]

I thought that's what the weather option was for. When I was a kid I thought the weatherman on it sounded creepy. Then in my teen years, I'd tune to the weather band and pray for him to mention snow.

[@DeathInTheSnow]

Sony usually keep a catalogue of their manuals online on their website. There's also manuals lib too. With that knowledge, as well as Sony's method of product naming (it isn't catchy, but it's usually consistent with a range - MDR being headphones, Xperia being phones etcetera), you may be able to trawl through there to find more of the S2 range! Mind you, this is coming from a guy who sat through one of your MiniDisc unboxing videos and catalogued everything you opened and put it in a comment, so...

[@Jimyjames73]

A nice selection of Sony Sports Walkman!!! 😊🚂🚂🚂

[@glitchwolfe]

The S2 CD player with the hand strap was my main player for pretty much all of middle/high school until I got my first iPod. The anti skip on that thing was incredible, I used to go skateboarding with it!

[@jaracgos]

I had the S2 portable CD player. Was my favorite as it had skip buffer.

[@pizzaface4079]

I love the S2 line, the srf 80 is my favorite, I use it all the time.

[@speedm222]

I have a working s2 minidisc player and it’s absolutely gorgeous. also, the two latter stick-type mp3 players you showed are now gaining popularity because of persona 3. also you should make a follow-up about the XPLOD line for car audio setups, which includes not only a bunch of bizarre items, but also just a straight up the edgiest boombox i've ever seen.

[@dabblerblue]

I really loved this line. I had the S1 portable sport NetMD and to me it was absolutely amazing. I still think about it. Cracking it open, ejecting the spent MD, slapping in a new one, and chunking it closed felt like I was loading a revolver with deadly tracks.

[@mutavhello6654]

I had one of those S2 CD players when i was a teenager. It was really cool, the ability to play MP3 CD's was the main reason i bought.

[@NigelMelanisticSmith]

A FM transmitter makes alot of sense for showcasing radios on these old electronics, good thinking.

[@joet4774]

Damn it lol. I've been trying to buy the MD model forever at a good price. I'll have to wait for the Techmoan price bump to settle down

[@davehedgehogUK]

Join Vinted. It's a place very few people look, and the kind of thing I've picked up at crazy cheap prices as people throwing "old outdated" stuff out think it's almost worthless.

[@yannisgk]

@@davehedgehogUK thanks!!!

[@Carl-vq6ww]

Love these videos he does, very fun and knowledgeable 👍👍.

[@RococoAlmanegra]

The future of the past was so beautiful! Now we've been living in the 80's for over a decade and it's gotten boring....

[@BobbyS1981]

When I saw the S2 boombox I immediately thought “we have one similar to that!” Then you mentioned it. The ZS-X10. We’ve had it since new. It’s been on many camping trips and is now more commonly used as a garage radio and entertainment while doing yard work. It’s still going strong after all these years. Thanks for creating this excellent video about the S2 series. Brings back memories of browsing all of the Sony products at the stores in the early 2000’s.

[@toby182]

Back when design was fun

[@R3volutionblu3s]

I had a S2 CD player (The one with the giant clamp to keep the CD tray closed) as a teenager that I bought very lightly used from a pawn shop for the princely sum of $15 after a bit of haggling. It was a constant companion through most of my high school career and survived numerous drops (Including one down a flight of concrete stairs), I can't recall it ever skipping either. Eventually gave it to a friend of mine after I picked up an ipod, and he got several more years of use out of it.

[@StephenFinkNRP]

I bought the CD S2 back when they were for sale at Best Buy. Recently picked up the armband radio and cassette Walkman. I've been looking at the boombox but have not seen one in the condition I would like. I am glad you did this episode. The series seems to be mostly ignored on KZbin.

[@mattmanslim]

I see Techmoan and I click

[@F3udF1st]

I like how the handle on the boombox puts the music controls right by the thumb.

[@criggins1]

I've still got my MZ-S1 minidisc player, and inspired by your video, I pulled it out and it still works! Nice video!

[@latexbeep]

That was my first Walkman

[@deadGrlz206]

I totally remember all these. These were out when i was in middle school.

[@aner_bda]

If nothing else, I've always liked the colour scheme of the S2 line. The white with orange and black is very clean and nice looking.

[@the_ultimo]

Had the CD player as a kid, and thought it was amazing how it wouldn't skip when I was mowing the grass.

[@OmegaPrime-xt5rg]

Saturday is here!!😊

[@davidbrown5646]

They won't go cheap now. They'll go up in price, because of the Techmoan effect!

[@markmarkofkane8167]

Thank you for carrying out your promise! Very intriguing!

[@scottysunday]

My favourite discman is from this era, the Sony D-CJ01. Plays CD, CDR, MP3 on CD, and displays text on a little handheld shuffler (same as what you get on minidiscs). It's silver and clear, which is very on brand for the time, though I could have seen in being white with orange text instead.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

I had the ZS-X3CP. It looked weird, but it played MP3 CDs and it had excellent bass so it was a win in my book and an excellent birthday present. It also had this little secret audio visualization that you could make appear on the tiny screen.

[@KevReillyUK]

21:20 Nice to see Matt trialling his _Voyager_ Doctor cosplay ready for the next _Star Trek_ convention.

[@WhitmanEntertainment]

Good lord. No offense to you but I was born in 96, so most of what you cover doesn't really spark any nostalgia for me, I just normally watch out of curiosity. But this video, holy shit. Growing up in the early 2000s I used to listen to cassettes on that FS555 radio-Walkman all the time, I never left my house without it. I think i still have it around here somewhere. My family also had that initial "Boombox" you showed in the beginning. Super nostalgic, thanks for the video.

[@autumnwyvern489]

I'm about the same (95) but my boombox of choice was this terribly hot pink chunky thing lol. I was obsessed with it though. I am however a little jealous I'm so charmed by that sony boombox the curves of it and the look of the speakers makes it look like a weird little creature face and it has captivated me lol

[@JoeDibajio]

As boomboxes go, there also is ZS-YN7. It bridged a bit of the S2 creation from the psyc lineup. There are regular, and psyc colored ones. But there is one model boasting orange, and the same lit up orange display.

[@OlavAlexanderMjelde]

Remember taping radio shows late friday nights so I could listen to them while bicycling as a paper boy while I was in primary school. Played them on my Sony walkman with digital fm radio. That was before I got my own discman, but it was a panasonic one with remote (back lit lcd), also it had antishock. Then the first mp3 player was the Diamon Rio PMP300. I was briefly also into minidisc, but it was the MZ-N series. While in theory good, it was let down by the DRM in the software.

[@TheLordBarker]

I had the cd player D-FS601 model. I loved it for how the skip protection worked flawlessly. I'll have to see if I can find it, if I still have it.

[@pawanharish]

Love my S2 WM-FS555, bought it new in 2003, loved its sound signature and kept it going until one of its channels died. Just a month ago digging through my old stock found it and decided to retro bight and fix it. Had to order a new Toshiba IC (TA2160FNG) to replace to fix the audio channel. After retro bighting and replacing the IC it sounds as good as I remembered. Also replaced the belt and now it is ready for another 20 years of service, will be using it frequently now.

[@daveubermensch]

I love my WM-FS555. Loved seeing you do a video on these.

[@Gojirosan]

Once again I am reminded that I've been trying to find a (well priced) CD Walkman with optical out for years and that I never did replace my dead, sadly missed MiniDisc recorder portable. Another Techmoan inspired search imminent I suppose!

[@norahjaneeast5450]

I had that armband radio AM FM presets local American television channels available 2 through 13 as well as weather radio

[@DanielJTeichroew]

My father used to have the Sony S2 D-SJ301 Discman, good times using that thing.

[@RJDA.Dakota]

I have still to this day a minidisc player-a Sport MD by Sony. Still works somewhat. It does seal completely.

[@delusionnnnn]

The design of the boombox reminds me a bit of the Panasonic Panapet AM radios. Those things weren't great but my god they're beautiful.

[@jochenstacker7448]

Those Sony product names are so catchy, i can remember literally none of them.

[@OSuKaRuTV1]

Very neat designed. I love them :D

[@Jiddy12345]

Very nice! I have my handheld cd player with strap just feet from me right now.

[@AlyxxTheRat]

I recall seeing the S2 products back in the early 2000s. Always wanted one of them.

[@Digimess88]

I wanted one of these so bad in grade school. Around that time before the Nomad Jukebox and such, I always dealt with track skipping since I rode a schoolbus to school every day and all the bumps in the road made me envious of new anti skip tech. I literally remember obsessing over the adverts in a Best Buy printed ad I'd bring to school with me lol.

[@Raptor50aus]

When I saw that S2 boombox I could not stop thinking of "Baywatch" with their Red life pod.

[@themadmallard]

Dude, the Sony sports line was some of the best sounding, loudest, and toughest portable gear ever. Yes it was tacky as heck too, but I gifted the stuff to friends and they loved that shit for years.

[@MustacheDuctTape]

I have the SRF-M80V you mentioned, and displaying it is such a pain because of that "inverted LCD" lmao. It's one of my favorite Sony product lines, love the coverage and god do I need some of those other radios.

[@andrewchapman2039]

After the last video, I half expected the video to end with a collection of splashes!

[@immer74]

Remember having a orange and white Sony Ericsson mobil phone some time after 2006-2008, think that one also came in withe and orange, it had a walkman focus, but it reminds me of the S2 design.

[@Minalkra]

I had the S200 CD player, bought when I was working overnight at Target. Good anti-skip and used the hand-wrap threaded through my belt so I could walk around with it bouncing on my hip while I stocked shelves. Later on, bought a set of speakers and rigged up a 'desk unit' in three parts to I could listen to CD's while working as QA in a medical supplies warehouse, testing microscopes and fluid heaters and such. I still have it somewhere ... probably in a drawer. EDIT: DFS-601, that was the one I had. The strap was polyester 'cloth' instead of the rubberized type of the style you have, no controls on the strap. All controls were on the machine itself. The front latch was chunky for what it was, to prevent the lid from jostling open and spilling the CD on the floor. It worked but heaven help you if you wanted to quickly change CDs.

[@emperor-zelch1850]

This is my favorite educational channel ever

[@janiprice6117]

As an American, I admit I never had my cd or cassette radios labeled TV/Weather. This is new to me

[@ComposerSyterious]

I used to own the lowest S2 model of the cd player and used that thing for years mainly as a teenager. Seeing this brought back memories.

[@Psythik]

4:48 RDS exists in the US as well, but for some reason it's not included in every radio sold here. Which is why I always check for the RDS logo before I buy any sort of radio. (HD Radio too, while I'm at it. It's not nearly as popular as DAB is in Europe but it's still nice to get a few extra stations beyond the standard AM/FM dial.)

[@shawn_530]

I had the armband radio (SRF-M80V) and it was fantastic. Used to listen to the news radio station to catch up on events of the day as I walked home from work

[@pylbetajv]

Aww man that brings back memories. I had one of those cd walkmans (the d-fs601) and would carry it everywhere. I especially loved it when running laps in gym class.

[@kenmore01]

Mat jogging by the beach with his discman: "If only this thing had an optical out, I could be making a mix on my mini disc in my other hand!"

[@pb_zep3838]

I quite enjoyed this brand specific product line-up. More please 😊

[@LargeDivisor]

At 4:10 I thought we were about to witness the most unexpected collaboration ever.

[@robertkovacic4623]

Got the ZS-X3CP😃 It's beautiful...and I also have the original power adapter that came with it...heavy, strong...I really like it.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

4:14 I was so worried until it scrolled. Mat wouldn't sneak a dirty word in on us!