Sony Walkman WM-EX150

The Walkman WM-EX150 was one of the consumer Sony Walkman Walkmans, but despite this it boasted both Dolby noise reduction and compatibility with Chrome cassette tapes.

Sony Walkman History Includes:
Sony Walkman WM-D6C Professional WM-EX150

See also: Sony Walkman Apple iPod

The Sony Walkman WM-EX150 was one of the later Walkman players that was aimed at the domestic market.

Despite this, it was able to provide good performance with a surprising number of higher end features including Dolby noise reduction and the ability to use normal and Chrom tapes.

This Walkman was launched around 1995 and followed the progression of Walkman cassette players.

The WM-EX150 Walkman offered a surprisingly good level of performance, bearing in mind its cost.

It offered what most people wanted and it gave good reliable service, and bearing the Sony Walkman brand name it was sought after by many people who wanted to use this type of player.

Sony WM-EX150 Professional Walkman
Parameter	Details
Overview	A domestic Sony Walkman player
Year of introduction	1990s
Tape types	Type I, CrO₂
Noise reduction schemes	Dolby B
Output	5 mW into headphones
Power	2 x AA or 3V DC supply in
Playback time	16hrs using alkaline batteries
Dimensions	89 x 111.5 x 34.1mm (w x h x d) including projections
Weight	180g including batteries

Belt replacement

One of the issues with any tape recorder and many vinyl record turntables is that the drive belts perish and degrade over time.

This is true for any of the Walkman and other similar players, and often these belts need to be replaced.

It is not difficult to find replacement belts as they are stocked by a number of different companies and these can normally be easily located on the Internet. The cost is also not particularly high.

Some of the earlier Walkmans were assembled using screws and these are easy to disassemble to gain access to the belts.

However the EX150 was one of the later units and it was manufactured to a cost. This means that getting into them can be a challenge.

The assembly of the outer casing used press fit clips on the plastic mouldings to clip the casing together and there is no easy way to disassemble the unit.

Often the only way to get into the unit is to pull the two sides apart and this can result in breaking a good number of the clips.Any disassembly should be done with care to preserve as much of the integrity of the case as possible.

The Sony Walkman WM-EX-150 is a great little cassette player and ideal for many uses even today. Like all units of its age,some maintenance may be needed, but they sell for a reasonable cost ont he second hand market and most of them should work very well.