Walk to my sound (Sony WM-FX193)

Member Name: Nickycool

Product:	Sony WM-FX193
Date:	21/08/05 (356 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Available in grey and blue, listen to radio and tape, good quality sound

Disadvantages: The price in the online shops

I bought this in 2001 for £19.99. You can still buy this walkman on various places online like http://www.electronics-online.co.uk for £24.99 or on www.amazon.co.uk for £39.99. Also you will find it on online auction sites like www.ebay.co.uk and www.ebuyer.com. I can't believe that the price is that high for a product that has been on the market for 5 years already.

This walkman is available in two different colours. Blue, which the code for is WM-FX193L and Grey, WM-FX193H. I don't think the colour makes a different to the walkman itself to be honest but it's nice to have the choice. I have the Grey walkman.

Looking at the walkman, it's aesthetically pleasing. The size of the walkman is 8.9 cm wide, 3.8 cm deep and 11.9 cm high and weighs 240 grams.

It has an overall grey colour with in the middle a dark grey see through window that's shaped in the form of an eye. Under the window, you can see the FM and AM frequencies with an orange pointer that's was two lines, like it was isolating the radio frequency between it. In silver letters, it says SONY and then at the bottom is say AVLS FM/AM WM-FX193 Walkman.

You can stand it up as it has a good base on it. On the top, you have various buttons.
There's a sliding button to change from FM/AM or TAPE. Then you have 4 separate buttons. First, Stop then, Rewind, then Play and the last button is Fast Forward.
Just above the Stop button, there's a small light, which telling you if the batteries are working or not.

On the left hand side, you have AVLS sliding button. AVLS stands for Automatic Volume Limiter System. It adjusts the volume automatically when the volume varies on the recordings to improve sound and give the listener comfort. There are two options with this, Normal or Limit. Normal is for when you don't want it and Limit is for turning it on.
Then you have a green circle where your headphones plug into.

Then there's another slide button above that, to have control if you listen to the FM radio or your tapes in Stereo or Mono sound.

Then you have the tuning dial for the radio. With this dial, it's easy to pick up the exact radio station you want to listen to as when you move it, it only moves a fraction.
Then above that there's the volume dial that of course regulates the volume. The volume on this walkman can go quite high so even people that are sitting next to you can even hear the song.

On the right hand side, there's a small groove so you have open the cassette player easily. When you open it, it looks pretty much like any other cassette player I've seen. You slide your tape in upside down so the film of the tape is at the top and then just shut it and slide the button onto tape and you're set to listen to it.

On the back of the walkman, you will find a belt clip, which is great if you want to use your walkman for exercise or like to do your homework to music. It gives your hands the freedom to do what they want to do without have to hold your walkman all the time but you can remove the belt clip if you don't want it or it's annoying you.
Also at the back is where you find the place to replace the batteries. This walkman uses two AA batteries. When the batteries are gone, the red light won't come on anymore but I think it's a bit pointless because you know when the batteries are gone, the walkman doesn't work anymore or sound really warped when it only has a bit of energy left.
The batteries should last 24 hours of tape play and 55 hours of just radio play. About 30 hours if it's a mix of both.

When you're listening to the radio or your tapes, the sound quality is great. I think that has to do partly with the headphones. As they are Sony's best. MDR, which stands for Micro Dynamic Receiver. That basically means that it makes the best of the sound and gives the best quality. The headphones are the ones that you put in your ears so it's really earphones. You can put any different headphones in it and it works.

The earphones have no foam on them and has quite a long cable, which acts like an antenna for radio. The problem is because of the length of the cable, catch on things. I've tried a different set of headphones with a short cable but the radio reception suffers from it. I've found if you wind the cable to make it short, the radio reception is still of good quality by doing that.

The walkman has two other special features that are mentioned in the manual. Anti-Rolling Mechanism and Automatic Shut-Off in Playback Mode.
Anti-Rolling Mechanism is for when you're walking about or running, it stabilises the tape so the sound doesn't jerk about each time the walkman gets moved or when you jump up and down.
Automatic Shut-Off in Playback Mode stops the tape automatically when it's finished so it doesn't wear out the walkman or doesn't drain all the batteries.

They are a couple of features missing on the walkman that could really benifit the user. For one, the ability to recharge it through an adapter is missing. So you don't have to keep replacing those batteries all the time and you just put rechargeable batteries and when you need to recharge you just plug it into the adapter and hey presto. It's reloaded to listen to and you didn't have to fiddle about with trying to put the batteries back in it.

Another features that's missing is autoverse which switches the tape from A to the B side without have to turn the tape around yourself. Although that wouldn't work with the feature that's already on the walkman Automatic Shut-Off in Playback Mode.

I received a year's guarantee on it but that's long gone but the walkman is still running perfectly and I've never had any problems with it at all. It's not even damaged one of my tapes in the 4 years I've had it.

What comes in the box
The walkman
Manual
Headphones
2 AA batteries

Overall Comment
It's a lovely little walkman. It's handy and if you can get this at a good price like £7-10 on Ebay, I'd recommend you buy it. I mean it will last you for ages and gives you lots of music and radio fun.

Summary: It's a lovely little walkman

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