Many years ago, thanks to Laura Ritchie, I got a load of VHS tapes from England. It was the impetus for the first of many re-watchings of The Sopranos during and sinceCOVID-19. I think it’s been 4 full re-watchings and it gets better every time.
The Sony Walkman Sony MZ-N710
Anyway, amongst all the VHS tapes was this weird digital Walkman that had two mini-disks labelled with a collection of classical music. To be specific, it was a Sony Walkman MZ-N710 that went on the market in 2003. How could these devies compete with the iPod’s 1,000 songs?! I tried to plug it in all those years ago, but the 3V power cable was frayed all to hell. I don;t think I have ever seen a cable deteriorated so completely. Moving on to the next goody, I packed it back up and forgot all about it until this weekend. I started cleaning out my basement to make space for all the various diorama pieces accumulating. Turns out after you build those things and then tear them down you need somewhere to put them. Space is limited here in Italy, but I’m loath to throw anything out ever. So, I am trying to re-organize the torture chamber in the basement to make some room.
Basement torture chamber in the midst of a clean-up
Given I horde shit, part of my process end up being going through all the boxes I’ve thrown stuff in over the years. I’m the worst kind of horder, one without a system.I came across a ton of old computer accessories from over the years—this was the only fun part of a painstaking ordeal. In one of them I found this digital Walkman and I decided to use it as an excuse to take a break. The power cord was even more deteriorated than 5 years ago— it was flaking dried up plastic everywhere—so I had to quarantine it to its own plastic bag. The actual Walkman is ostensibly in perfect shape, but it won’t turn on. I’m assuming that is simply cause there is no power (I am good at troubleshooting). When I looked closer I realized it does take batteries, so I was hoping I could finally test it. Turns out, this was not like any ordinary battery I’ve ever seen.
The Sony Walkman Sony MZ-N710 uses a NH-10WM gumstick battery
It was what the old folks call a Gumstick battery because, you guessed it, it’s long and thin like a stick of gum. It just reminds me the world is full of wonders. I’ve never seen such a wonderfully bizarre thing. I looked for one that was not spent and corroded online, and I found one for $9 on Amazon—that’s in the mail. So very soon I will be able to at least test the unit before I trying to find a replacement power supply and inline headphone remote control (the other missing piece of this confabulous object).
The unit should work with a normal set of headphones, it also has an optical mini port for recording audio from your CD-play or computer. It also as a Microphone in. It’s crazy because this thing is a mini mixed-tape cd-burner—to mix my media format metaphors. I have to try this thing out.
The soon-to-be-revived (hopefully) Walkman Mini-disc player
While reading around about this unit, I learned the USB mini-b port connects to your PC (running XP?—I have one of those!) and uses Sonic Stage to copy files from the computer onto the disc. I totally want to try this, the following video takes you through it, and it does look pretty simple. I’m getting excited!
Anyway, if I blog it it doesn’t quite feel like the weirdly niche waste of time that it is, but I guess that’s why i love it so.
Also worth noting that this Youtube video demonstrates how to deal with curosion on battery door: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG6r0Yd-dZ0
Finally, this Reddit thread highlights which headphone remotes are compatible with this model: https://www.reddit.com/r/minidisc/comments/1nrg795/does_anyone_know_which_remotes_work_with_the/
As a big MiniDisc fan, I’m here for this. I still miss my MiniDisc player, I used to have one in the car too, it was great. I also used to have one that loaded like a toaster / VHS player, that was my fave a think, although I had a really swish Sony one near the end, before the iPod stole the crown!
Not only do I have a reply coming, Alex, I have a full blown post in the works. I just got this thing working today, and I am transferring files on a Windows 98 machine like it’s 2003. You would be proud of me, so hold steady, more to come. But I have to say I love this little machine, they were not popular at all in the US, so really the first time I ever played with one and I can see the appeal, even beyond the nostalgia.