stevans (12/28/82)
The biggest problem with Walkman type players is not hiss or frequency
response, but wow and flutter.
I bought a Sony Walkman II for $99 last month after listening to
it in the store playing a favorite tape of mine. The reproduction
sounded fine then, because the music was changing rapidly, but
when I used it at home playing another tape where there were some
guitar solo passages, there was a very disturbing quavering in the
sound. I made up a test tape from a Crown equalization test
record, where there was a 1KHz sine wave. Playing it on my home
deck (A JVC KD-A5), it sounded smooth, but on the Walkman II there
was a constant rhythmic wow (speed variation) of about 3%.
I took it back to the store and demonstrated this. I tried the
test tape on others of the same model -- with the same performance.
Then I tried the tape on an Aiwa KS-225(?) auto-reverse model. The Aiwa
had almost no audible speed variations. I paid only $30 more to exchange
for it, and it has worked great ever since.
I recommend Aiwa micro players over Sony's by far.