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Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

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Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#191

Post by ragall »

Xymist wrote: post #148
ragall wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But then why Nike/Adidas/Quicksilver/etc cannot bring back clothes from the 90s? They can, but people wouldn't want to pay the price. When adjusting for inflation, clothes today are much cheaper than 30 years ago, and the main producers of high-quality cotton (Kazakhstan and Egypt) are having continuous drought problems so the best raw material is even more expensive. The combination of customer expectation for low…

Which companies are those? My last batch of Levi's moved them into "never again" status - noticeably cheaper fabric than the previous batch, flawed stitching, cheaper logos and tags. I paid more per pair than five years ago (unacceptable for a commodity) and got a worse product (doubly unacceptable for anything). I need tough black jeans I can trust to last a decade; I don't mind spending £250 on them but I do mind g…

* Iron Heart (UK): https://ironheart.co.uk

* Naked and Famous (Canada): https://nakedandfamousdenim.com. They also have a cheaper brand that uses the same Japanese denim but the garments are made in China (https://theunbrandedbrand.com), which is still better than Levi's.

* 3Sixteen (US): https://www.3sixteen.com

* The Flat Head (Japan): https://privateandco.ca/collections/the-flat-head

* SugarCane (Japan): https://sugarcanejeans.com/

* TCB (Japan): https://tcbjeans.myshopify.com/

Most of the Japanese brands are hard to get outside Japan, and flying to Tokyo is often the best way to get one, otherwise you're stuck with buying online but you have to know well what you're doing because Japanese denim is almost always unwashed, meaning it will shrink after use so you really have to know how much higher a size to order so that it will fit you well after 6 months.

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#192

Post by ragall »

ezst wrote: post #47
ragall wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But then why Nike/Adidas/Quicksilver/etc cannot bring back clothes from the 90s? They can, but people wouldn't want to pay the price. When adjusting for inflation, clothes today are much cheaper than 30 years ago, and the main producers of high-quality cotton (Kazakhstan and Egypt) are having continuous drought problems so the best raw material is even more expensive. The combination of customer expectation for low…

> and the manufacturers are barely surviving I feel for them because I wouldn't mind paying 2/3 times the price for something of measurably higher quality and durability, but it takes effort and dedication to accomplish that as a customer. Effectively the market is saturated with premium-branded items that are marginally better or sometimes worse (a lot of what you see as "technical clothing" comes across that way at…

> but it takes effort and dedication to accomplish that as a customer

Yes, that's true and IMO the main reason why even people with the money end up buying the same bad products: they often don't have the time to learn and form a taste.

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#193

Post by doublepg23 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #177
citrin_ru wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern economy cannot exists without economy of scale. It's unfortunate is that if you want something else than millions of other people the price likely will be prohibitive - small scale production is not viable economically, especially for high tech components and devices. > I don’t think it’s true that the capabilities to make these devices are lost. I think they are. Not all knowledge is captured in documentation…

This is - in passing - why billionaire prepper fantasies of surviving an apocalypse on a private island are insane. Sooner or later spares and consumables will start running out, and without global supply chains nothing is repairable. You might get ten years if you stock up on ten of everything you can think of, plus a few things you can't, but after that things will start breaking down, and you're going to start run…

I had this discussion with my friend before and it really doesn't take long until you really are screwed in an apocalypse scenario.

We could barely agree on the probable scenarios - "dollar collapse" is bad enough without even getting into "aerosol transmissible Ebola" or the like.

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#194

Post by steveBK123 »

ragall wrote: post #21
sdevonoes wrote: post #4

Got it. But then why Nike/Adidas/Quicksilver/etc cannot bring back clothes from the 90s? Buying second hand is not that nice (smells that never go away) and “vintage” places sell min. catalogue buy way overpriced.

> But then why Nike/Adidas/Quicksilver/etc cannot bring back clothes from the 90s? They can, but people wouldn't want to pay the price. When adjusting for inflation, clothes today are much cheaper than 30 years ago, and the main producers of high-quality cotton (Kazakhstan and Egypt) are having continuous drought problems so the best raw material is even more expensive. The combination of customer expectation for low…

Right while electronics prices have been kept flat via automation, simplification, maturing of technologies, reduction in moving parts, scale, etc..

Clothing prices have been kept flat more by making the products worse. Cheaper synthetic blends, lower stitch count, thinner fabrics, .. and of course by making them in cheaper places with cheaper labor and fewer laws..

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#195

Post by doublepg23 »

stevekemp wrote: post #73
jerlam wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MP3s have been on the way out for a long time, being replaced by music subscriptions. And "MP3 player" is a feature of other devices, not its own device. Both my Apple Watch and Garmin watch can store and play MP3s without a phone; both also support music subscriptions. The only market is in the "enthusiast audiophile flac player thing that costs way too much", just like it is currently for vinyls and DVD players.

I buy films from local charity shops for €1/film, but it seems the local electronics stores are not selling many DVD players any more. It seems like streaming "won", which is disappointing.

Considering both Xbox and PlayStation consoles support DVDs I think there will be quite a long tail for playing DVDs.

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#196

Post by ZekeSulastin »

andai wrote: post #176
trencedamp wrote: post #13

This is a really interesting read. But it doesn't answer one question I have, which is why can't Sony or Apple or anyone else bring back decent MP3 players? None of this technology is lost, and there are plenty of small-time two bit no name players out there still making them, often in a much smaller, much slicker form factor than than the original digital Walkman or iPod. If I want to buy a new MP3 player, I have to…

You mean why doesn't Apple sell music devices that can't run an App store? I think they make a lot of money from the app store, so they'd probably lose a lot of money by doing that. (I don't know about Apple's current iPod lineup but I'm assuming they all have the app store on them. I do miss my old iPod classic though.)

They stopped making iPods in 2022 :( the last one they did make was the iPod Touch (7th gen), which was basically an iPhone in a slightly different shell without a cellular radio.

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#197

Post by hmstx »

This is reminiscent of the reasons why Technics (Panasonic) could and would not just do a reissue of the Technics 1200 turntable.

In the mid 2010s after some lobbying, they eventually invested into new tooling to build a successor.

The new models have a handful of components in common, yes, a possibly even better re-engineered direct drive motor (and I don't remember about the tonearm) - but of course the prices put them in the "too much" range, even the more streamlined versions aimed at the DJ booth.

And they have worse feedback than the classics.

/me pets his M3D/MK5s

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#198

Post by [deleted] »

turtlebits wrote: post #32
trencedamp wrote: post #13

This is a really interesting read. But it doesn't answer one question I have, which is why can't Sony or Apple or anyone else bring back decent MP3 players? None of this technology is lost, and there are plenty of small-time two bit no name players out there still making them, often in a much smaller, much slicker form factor than than the original digital Walkman or iPod. If I want to buy a new MP3 player, I have to…

Why can't somebody take simple smartphone hardware and make a modern media player that is not a phone? Because you can do that with any phone and just not use the phone part?

[deleted]

Re: Why Sony can't bring back its classic Walkman models

#199

Post by molybd3num »

trencedamp wrote: post #38
turtlebits wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't somebody take simple smartphone hardware and make a modern media player that is not a phone? Because you can do that with any phone and just not use the phone part?

Because I want something half the size of a phone. I don't need a giant screen, I just want a player that can do music or audiobooks and be light enough to run with. I find myself researching, trying to find the smallest lightest old phone that either has decent internal memory or a micro SD slot, but it's not easy. Most phones are massive compared to an iPod shuffle

the unihertz jelly is pretty small and not very expensive
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