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How has your music journey been from the first Walkman to now? [message #99690]

Wed, 12 August 2026 00:41

Cole
Messages: 22
Registered: December 2025

Chancellor

It was like yesterday when I got my first Walkman. It was heavy, the battery ran down fast, and the headphones weren't that great.

However, I can remember that I enjoyed those moments. I truly enjoyed the freedom that I had.

Nowadays, everything is now on our mobile phone. I can't argue against such technological advancements, but there are times that I wish I could have that experience of playing those old cassette devices.

How has your path been right from then till now?

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Re: How has your music journey been from the first Walkman to now? [message #99692 is a reply to message #99690]

Thu, 13 August 2026 21:15

gofar99
Messages: 2040
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona

Illuminati (5th Degree)

Hi, I didn't get my first cassette player until I was about 40ish. I did always have something that would play LPs though. I still play them now (I will be 80 in a week). The early gear was a one tube record player. I upgraded it with a better speaker and cartridge. It served me well for a number of years. I also had a huge Firestone console radio. AM and shortwave bands. A real beast with a 10 inch field core speaker. Nice sound in its day. Somewhere along the way I figured I could design and build quality stuff and now all the electronics are my own designs. A number of them went commercial and all were available for diy. Stuff accumulates. 5 turntables, 3 tube phono preamps, 4 SS preamps (my design), numerous amplifiers, R-R tape, cassette tape, 3 Marantz units (1 console amp and 2 receivers --yes I know they are sand based) and numerous speakers (the daily drivers are Martin Logan ESLs with 206 L subs driven by 4 custom Oddblocks. My storage "barn" is full, a large 4 door closet is full and lots of gear is scattered around the house. I hope your electronic trip through life is as full as mine has been.

Good Listening
Bruce

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Re: How has your music journey been from the first Walkman to now? [message #99694 is a reply to message #99692]

Fri, 14 August 2026 12:01

Wayne Parham
Messages: 19081
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

I never had a Walkman, or any other portable music player, for that matter. But I have always had good car stereos, even back when what the factory provided really sucks. I installed really good AM/FM cassette decks in my cars, starting with Concorde brand units. Those were incredible - response as good as the best three-head hifi or studio-recording cassette decks of the day. Car-audio was my only form of portable stereo. Still is.

So for me, not much has changed. I listen to a lot of vinyl. I record it on cassettes for my classic cars that still have decks. Put MP3 versions of music on flash drive "pucks" for my more modern cars.

One thing that changed for me is back in the 1980s, I used to record some albums on reel-to-reel. That way I didn't have to wear out albums for background listening. My turntable and cartridge were very good, but still, I played my favorite music on reel-to-reel back then for background listening.

Now I do that same thing with DVDs. I always buy music on vinyl and DVD, and I use the DVD media for background music and the vinyl media when I want to really enjoy.

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