Hi-Fi Hall of Fame
2025 Inductee
Sony Walkman

Introduction

Our next inductee is an inexpensive portable stereo with rather mediocre “hi-fi” credentials: the Sony “Walkman” portable cassette player. First introduced in 1979, the first Walkman was a surprising hit for Sony. The company had modest expectations for sales, but the product flew off the shelves. The Walkman revolutionized the way that people listened to music.

Let’s look back at this miniature piece of Hi-Fi history.

Genesis of the Sony Walkman

In 1963, Philips introduced the Compact Cassette format to the world. At the time, it was designed for dictation and voice recording, and the low quality of the recordings made it unsuitable for listening to music. But over time, the cassette underwent a remarkable transformation to become a high-fidelity audio format, with the added bonus of portability.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Sony and other manufacturers were developing cassette recorders and players for a wide range of settings. There were cassette decks for the home, cassette players for the car, and “boomboxes” for playing anywhere.

Sony made some of the better cassette recorders and players, and they were getting quite good at developing portable cassette players and recorders. In 1968, Sony released the TC-50 recorder, which was good enough to accompany astronauts into space on the Apollo moon missions.

By 1978, Sony was producing the TCM-100 “Pressman”, intended for journalists and students who needed the ability to record on the go. It was very successful, and Sony sold about 500,000 of these.

That same year, Sony released the TC-D5 “Densuke”, a portable cassette recorder with Hi-Fi aspirations, it was a stereo machine with Dolby noise reduction.

Then in 1979, the story goes, Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka wanted to “listen to music in stereo on an airplane while traveling abroad,” so he had a Sony portable cassette player converted into a stereo version. Akio Morita, another co-founder of Sony, was very impressed and decided to put the new player into commercial production.

Sony bundled the new player with a pair of lightweight headphones, and went to market. The new player was the TPS-L2, which would soon be known as the “Walkman”. Sony created an ingenious advertising campaign to promote the new lifestyle of enjoying stereo sound anytime, anywhere. This new way of enjoying music quickly captured the hearts of young people, and the iconic Sony Walkman was an instant icon!

Sony Walkman Evolution

That first “Walkman” was very successful, despite it’s lack of a recording capability. People used it to play prerecorded cassettes, or they recorded their own cassettes at home. The Walkman was simple to operate, was reliable, sounded good, and used inexpensive AA batteries, making it easy for users to keep the player going.

Sony began developing newer, better versions of the Walkman. BY 1981, a “second generation” model, the WM-2 was released, and this model was branded as a “Walkman”.

By 1983, the 3^rd generation Walkman WM-20 was available, smaller then the original and equipped with Dolby for better sound quality. Sony continued to evolve the Walkman over the years, and within a decade of that original product, Sony held a 50% market share in the United States and 46% in Japan.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary, Sony released a special model (the WM-701S/T) in Japan, made of brass and plated in sterling silver. Then, a 20th anniversary edition (the WM-EX20) was created and released on July 1, 1999.

The most recent anniversary edition was the NW-A100TPS 40th Anniversary Walkman, released in 2019. It came in a special box that recreates the packaging of the first-generation Walkman, with the 40th anniversary logo printed on it, a special soft case that mimics the design of the original TPS-L2, and stickers featuring the Walkman logo.

Sony Walkman – End of an Era

Of course, as with any technology, the Compact Cassette would soon be superseded by newer, better alternatives. In the case of the cassette, the newer technologies were digital formats, which had a number of advantages over the cassette’s analog design.

By the 1990s, there were a number of digital formats to choose from: MP3, Compact Disc (CD), Minidisc (MD), and Digital Audio Tape (DAT) were the most popular.

These formats were all available in portable players, which meant that sales of cassette players like the Walkman quickly dropped off. Sales of cassette-based players declined slowly. The last Walkman to be sold in the United States was the WM-FX290W, around 2004. The Walkman was discontinued in Japan in 2010, which marked the end of an era. The Sony Walkman era lasted 31 years, from 1979 until 2010, which is a remarkable run for any technology.

Despite the decline of the cassette format, the Walkman brand was still very strong, and so Sony has kept the name alive all these years. Here are some of the digital Sony devices that have been called “Walkman” or “Discman” over the years.

Sony Walkman – Impact

The Sony Walkman has had a major impact on the world.

First, the Walkman significantly improved the fortunes of the Sony company. It is estimated that Sony has sold over 400 million “Walkman” branded products since 1979! The Walkman was so popular that it raised awareness of the company’s other products, and so Sony televisions, stereo equipment, and other equipment became more popular, as well.

Second, the Walkman has changed human behaviour, through a phenomenon sometimes called the “Walkman Effect”. The Hi-Fi Hall of Fame does not have any expertise in psychology, but here is a brief description of that phenomenon from experts:

The Walkman Effect describes the cultural and social transformation that was triggered by the introduction of portable music players, like Sony’s Walkman. These devices revolutionized personal listening experiences, allowing individuals to immerse themselves in their own auditory world while navigating public spaces. This phenomenon changed social interactions, as people could now choose to isolate themselves with their music, creating private soundscapes. Additionally, the Walkman effect influenced fashion, technology, and media consumption patterns, ultimately reshaping how society perceives and interacts with personal entertainment and public environments. It’s a fascinating glimpse into how technology can alter our daily lives.

Shuhei Hosokawa, Professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies

You can see the Walkman effect in some of the marketing and advertising that accompanied the rise of the Walkman. The ads show people, or sometimes couples, in their own little world, listening to music, and cut off from the rest of the world. Here are a few examples.

Finally, the name “Walkman” has changed some languages. In English speaking countries, and in Japan, and even in Germany, the word “Walkman” has been added to the lexicon of words, not as a Sony brand, but rather as a new word simply meaning a portable music player.

In German: Ich hatte meinen ersten Walkman bekommen

This translates to “I had gotten my first Walkman”.

The Vintage Walkman

There are many people who own, collect, and restore vintage Sony Walkman players. They can be a challenge to maintain, as each one contains a myriad of moving parts.

If you’re interested in learning about traditional cassette-based Walkman products, there is a fantastic website dedicated to these devices. The website is called “Walkmanland” and it’s got loads of information on players from Sony, Aiwa, Hitachi, JVC, Panasonic, and many others.

Click here to visit the “Walkmanland” website. Make sure you check out their “Wall” of Walkmans: here’s a sample:

The Modern Walkman

We started this induction by saying that the Sony Walkman had “modest” Hi-Fi credentials. That was certainly the case for those early generations of players, but the latest products to bear the Walkman name deliver superb audio performance.

For example, the NWA-306 is part of Sony’s Walkman “A Series”. It uses the Android operating system, high quality components, supports high resolution audio and codecs, and has an elegant control panel. It delivers real Hi-Fi quality in a pocket-sized package.

And for audiophiles, Sony offers the Walkman “Z Series”. An example would be the NW-ZX707, a superb portable player built on a milled aluminum frame, employing high polymer capacitors and oxygen-free metals, and lossless codecs.

So clearly the modern Walkman is still an impressive product! You can see the latest range here:

If you’d like to read Sony’s official “Product & Technology Milestones” for personal audio, from 1968 to present, click here:

Induction into the Hi-Fi Hall of Fame

The Sony “Walkman” cassette player is not a typical inductee into the Hi-Fi Hall of Fame. Those early products delivered mediocre performance compared to a home based system.

But the Walkman “liberated” your music, allowing individuals to listen to their favorite music anywhere, anytime, without being tethered to a stationary radio or record player. This created a more personalized and intimate listening experience.

With its compact design and lightweight headphones, the Walkman made it possible to take music on the go. People could now enjoy their tunes while walking, commuting, or travelling.

The Walkman popularized the concept of “personal space” through music. It enabled listeners to create their own private auditory world, even in public spaces. This shift in listening habits influenced social interactions and the way people engaged with their surroundings.

The success of the Walkman paved the way for future portable music devices, such as the iPod and modern smartphones. It set a precedent for the importance of personal audio devices in daily life.

The Walkman changed how music was consumed and marketed. It forced the music industry to adapt to a new era of mass consumption and individualized listening preferences.

Overall, the Sony Walkman was a game changer that transformed the music landscape and influenced how we interact with audio technology today.

For all of these reasons, the Sony Walkman is inducted into the Hi-Fi Hall of Fame.