Giving up my iPod for a Walkman

BBC UK ^ | 29 June 2009 | Scott Campbell

[ShadowAce]

When the Sony Walkman was launched, 30 years ago this week, it started a revolution in portable music. But how does it compare with its digital successors? The Magazine invited 13-year-old Scott Campbell to swap his iPod for a Walkman for a week.

My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.

He had told me it was big, but I hadn't realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.

When I saw it for the first time, its colour also struck me. Nowadays gadgets come in a rainbow of colours but this was only one shade - a bland grey.

So it's not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing choice of music player. If I was browsing in a shop maybe I would have chosen something else.

From a practical point of view, the Walkman is rather cumbersome, and it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets. It comes with a handy belt clip screwed on to the back, yet the weight of the unit is enough to haul down a low-slung pair of combats.

When I wore it walking down the street or going into shops, I got strange looks, a mixture of surprise and curiosity, that made me a little embarrassed.

As I boarded the school bus, where I live in Aberdeenshire, I was greeted with laughter. One boy said: "No-one uses them any more." Another said: "Groovy." Yet another one quipped: "That would be hard to lose."

My friends couldn't imagine their parents using this monstrous box, but there was interest in what the thing was and how it worked.

In some classes in school they let me listen to music and one teacher recognised it and got nostalgic.

[Ole Okie]

My Sony Walkman is black. And I still have it. I don't know if the cassette player still works. I still have some cassettes in the basement.

I have a Sony FX-251 on my desk, right by my MacBook Pro and my 3G i-Phone. A lot of the music I recorded from FM is on tapes, and I use the Walkman and an excellent Sony desk type tape player to listen to them.

And I have a large library of 33 rpm vinyl. Just bought an Ion turntable to convert these to MP3.

Old goats do learn new tricks, but sometimes older technology is useful, too

[mysterio]

I have a tape deck, cd player, record player, and an 8 track player. Just got my first ipod as a gift. I like it. Have to admit, it’s a fine bit of technology.

[antiRepublicrat]

You could even freak them out with this.

The Sony Discman D10 from the mid 80s. I had one, made of metal, almost a pound without a battery. The battery was half as thick as the player and weighed even more. The player attached on top of the battery, and the shoulder strap (no belt hook for this) attached to the battery.

[TChris]

That was an extremely well-built device. My older brother bought one when they first came out. It was audiophile component quality, but portable.

I still remember what a paradigm-shifting event the invention of the digital Compact Disc was. Raspberries to all the analog-loving folks!

[Mediocrates]

Reading this made me realize what a teenaged elitist I was. My Aiwa was better than a mere Walkman.

[RansomOttawa]

My friends couldn't imagine their parents using this monstrous box, but there was interest in what the thing was and how it worked.

Still got one myself. Rarely use it since I bought an iPod, but a) my iPod doesn't play radio, and b) I need something to play all those hundreds of tapes I bought in the 80s as a teenager.