Sony WM-FS221 Sports Walkman Cassette Player
See it at Amazon.com for $199.99Average Customer Rating
(3.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(1 out of 5)Laughably Fragile
Learn from my mistakes. Don't buy this product!
The name "sports" walkman is tantamount to false advertising for this unit. Each one of these lasts appoximately 2 months . . . if you drop it even once from belt-high -- and it is likely that you will, because the belt clip breaks very easily -- it is finished.
The plastic shell does not protect the mechanism from impact any more than the shell of a [less expensive] model. I've now bought three of these for use while lifting weights at the gym. Because they break so quickly, I've returned all three under warranty, and never heard ANYTHING from SONY. That's three walkmans, within the past year. Three strikes, and it is out.
The design of the product is also poor: the headphone outlet is positioned such that the wire plugs into the bottom of the unit. That means that you lose about 4 inches from an already short headphone cord. Any kind of stretching (such as when doing pull-ups), and the headphones either unplug, or pull the unit off your belt. And when it hits the ground . . . it's finished. Here's another example of a design snafu: the nylon wrist strap is positioned in such a way that it interferes with your use of the belt clip. This configuration means that you must make a choice as soon as you buy the unit: either commit to strapping the device to your arm or wrist with the belt-clip bulge on your skin, or cut the nylon strap off and wear it on your belt. Yet another example of poor layout: the battery door opens counter-intuitively: unlike other walkman-like devices I've used, you must push the clip toward the direction of the door hinge. This wouldn't be a problem, except that Sony chose to also put the battery compartment inside the cassette player itself. Accordingly, removing the cassette often results in opening the battery compartment (and dropping the batteries).
The bottom line is this: if you buy this product expecting "sport" to equate to "durable" (as I did), you are kidding yourself. If you buy it for listening to music while safely cradled in a nest of pillows, you're wasting your money: units half the price that do not hold themselves out to be "sports" anything will deliver the same sound quality.
(4 out of 5)I was impressed
with all the features this thing offered for such a low price. I like the design and didn't even understand everything that it offered when I bought it. My only complaint is that it eats batteries. I use mine to listen to books on tape while cleaning the house and exercising. I hit the off button and lay the thing down to go to work but come back to it eight hours later and see that it came back on again and the battery indicator shows only half strength. I have learned to open the battery compartment and take one battery out when storing it. It's a bit of an inconvenience, but not an unsolvable problem.
(5 out of 5)am-fm,cassette,tv,wb
This is a great and slimple portable unit. It has outstanding reception on all bands. Extremely easy to program, with scan to preset 40 stations. It's rugged and has great sound. The best on the go unit I've ever owned.
(4 out of 5)Could of got more for the money
Great Sony product BUT for the price it should of came with auto-reverse and a button to change the tape direction(You have to open up tape compartment, take tape out, flip over).
(3 out of 5)Sony WM FS221 Cassette Player
My last Walkman Cassette Player lasted twenty years, because it was simple and indestructable. This new model has got a lot of extra features that are a nice improvements over the older models. But, there are several design problems that make it less pleasant to use:
1. The battery life is a fraction of the older models because of the extra features, and
2. The on/off button is exposed to the easiest activation which results in the player unintentionally consuming battery power when not in use.
You definately have to be careful when you put it away or it will be dead then you next want to use it!