My old 80s Personal Stereo (Walkman)

Recently I found this in an old box, yes it's my favourite Personal Stereo from the 1980s.

I got it working again too by replacing a battery spring that had come off, though it's missing the battery case lid, and the aerial is slightly bent. But it's all good, they don't make them like this anymore. That Matsui quality can't be beaten, even if it was a fake Japanese brand made by Curry's or Dixons or whoever.

This was no ordinary Walkman as many of my peers would have had in the 80s, this one was very special. It cost about £39 I think, which was a lot in those days. I remember saving up for it, longing for it. This was a superior bit of cheap tat, boasting two stereo built in speakers, a microphone, 4 band graphic equaliser and telescopic aerial.

You could record from the built in mic or from the radio. I remember thinking that was very important, my ability to record the radio on the move. Though I'm not 100% sure why now, I suspect it was something to do with my childhood being constantly preoccupied with making mix tapes from the radio. Remember those preachy signs on record sleeves saying 'Home taping is killing music', well that was me. Fast forward to today and the intangible world of mp3s and somehow making copies of songs from records doesn't seem that big a deal. At least in those days you had to buy a physical product for someone to actually copy first.

The Matsui PH6182 RSP has a vast array of features and switches though a proclivity for many of them to be pointless. A mono/stereo switch? for the days when Stereo sound was just too much, and you wanted to keep it real with just good old mono? Also the metal/normal switch, not sure it was actually wired to anything, as I could never get this thing to record with anything but normal cassettes. Also the 4th graphic equaliser fader could be moved to any position without any discernible difference to the sound, but that didn't matter. I had 4 bands of EQ, and most of my friends had at most 3. So I won the Graphic equalisers, it's important we take a moment to remember that, as life was to offer very few later triumphs!

Why did we need to move away from Cassettes? I mean records/vinyl were fine, then with tapes, surely that was it, why would we need more? No, you said 'let's move to digital, CDs then mp3, and the internet'. Do we have to I replied, yes you said, don't worry nothing bad will happen! (No nothing except the complete inevitable collapse of the music industry!)

Anyway back to the Matsui PH6182, it works really well, and I'm keeping it, I'm going to get out all my old cassettes and listen to them again, as I rock gently back and forth into gradual mental illness. What? what's that you're saying, what if I want to listen to a track further on the album, well then I simply hold down the FWD (Forward) button until in my mind I guess that's where on the tape the track will be, in continuous iterations of trial and error. That's what real music appreciation is about, now it's all been lost. Lost i tells ye. Nowdays it's all about convenience, though the words 'One Touch Recording' on the front were a pre-cursor to that. Even in the 80s holding down PLAY and RECORD at once was obviously becoming to much for consumers.

Here's a tape i listened to then and will do again now, a classic too by AC/DC!

Here are some more pictures (some would say too many) including the mysterious normal/metal switch.

Sometimes I would spend the whole day listening in Mono, then move the switch to Stereo for a treat! but just for an hour!

Well that's about it, that is my tribute to my trusty old Walkman.

This was for you PH6182, enjoy this brave new era, old friend!