BBC’s web sites has an interesting article on the Sony Walkman from a 13 year old’s perspective.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8117619.stm

I had a number of Walkmans, including a Discman (which is still functional) before I moved from that to Minidisc and then to iPods.

That made me laugh out loud. Not at the kid, but at how old that story made me feel.

I only recently stopped using my cassette walkman (top of the range (at the time) £60 jobbie with an inline remote and rechargeable batteries) when the main battery decided to leak acid all over the housing unit and fail after 10 years or so

I had an outstanding Aiwa Walkman (essentially the same as Sony) about 15 years back.

And the true crime of the 20th C was that minidisc failed as it did. Pre-MP3, it should have ruled....better than CD, cheaper to buy blanks, brilliant sound quality. I believe that for many journalists, it even beat DAT as the "weapon of choice"

I'm loving having my PSP as a music player as it's so easy to use. I can't see my ever needing an iPod as it just adds another layer of [LIFTED] (ie. iTunes) between me and my enjoyment of music. Incidentally, I just bought my other half a 4gb Sony MP3/4 player which is just as good; in fact maybe slightly better as it syncs to WMP11...

I still have a compact Walkman in a cupboard somewhere. Haven't used it in about 6 years - and that is the only portable music player I have!

Trust me, it's still in use by many journalists. As well as being broadcast-quality it's cheap and easy to use (although I did record over one essential quote once, thank God for shorthand).

I didnt know but you can still buy a brand new Sony Walkman today

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/paw-cassette-walkman

And somewhere in my collection of relics is a very small reel to reel tape recorder/player. It’s almost Walkman size, and is much older. Think Mission Impossible tape player. A precursor of the compact cassette.

I have 5 Mini Disc players all in active use.

I read that earlier today.

There is a whole generation of kids who can obtain music more easily than I did as a kid. No having to make sure you press record on the tape player at the right time to catch the Top 40 without ruining it with the presenter's antics. No having to rewind tapes to listen to a song again, or fastforward to skip songs.

I got my first 'walkman' when I was about 12. It was a panasonic unit. Loved it. Worked until recently, when the battery acid decided it didn't like the battery casing anymore and wanted to explore.

Later, I bought a minidisc player, rather belatedly. It was the MZ-N910S I think. A supposedly new range of MD players that would connect to your PC via USB. Loved it for the short time I had it but the software was too awkward and cumbersome to use. A lot of 'check in' and 'check out' of tracks (for piracy reasons). Complete PITA. Main reason I stopped using it was because the Sony EX71s earphones I bought for it stopped working after a few months and I'd lost the receipt (despite having every receipt for every purchase ever made for the last three years prior to that). I didn't feel like shelling out another £30.

A few months later, I had the K750i and listened to MP3s on the phone like everyone else did.

iPod, ftw.

The end.

I've still got my MD player at home, I'm sure it'll still work as well.
Bought it for uni as we had to do lots of recordings and it was nice and small. Must have cost me £300+.
Didn't put much music on it though as it was pre-usb. I had top hook up a CD player and do everything in real time.

I've got a recording MD Walkman, too. I still use it for source recordings, especially as it's got an optical output. It used to be used all the time for music playback, and I also have a Sony MD head unit in the car. I never could afford to splash out on the multichanger, though.

In the 90s, I bought a lot of music, but to be honest, I hardly listen to anything.

I probably have 300 albums (CD and vinyl), but I think I listen to less than 1 track a month on average, over the last 4 years or so.

Going back to the OP, I used to use proper cassette Walkmans before the MD came along. I always went with ones that had AM/FM radios, too, so I could tune into something other than the wowy-fluttery tapes I had.