Review Sony WM EX190
Never expected me to review a walk man of all the things on earth eh? Well I AM a
technology reviewer after all and well. Walkman is technology. With the advent of
MP3 players you would expect this is a dying species but you couldn’t be farther from
the truth. I would attribute this to three factors (1) The unit itself is cheap (2). The media
(cassette) is cheap (3). The media is widely available. So it is a nice compromise if you
are not bent on topnotch quality.
There is nothing extraordinary about the WM EX190. It is relatively small, comes with
good bass and treble. It has an anti rolling mechanism and AVLS. The AVLS switch cuts
down the volume way down. Toggle the switch again and you are back to your original
volume. It’s a non-essential feature actually. The manual says that is used to prevent
damage to the ears. I use it as an alternative to switching of the set when someone wants
to talk to me. The earphones are the best you can get in this price range. The battery
usage is VERY efficient. Throw in a couple of Duracell (LR6 type battery) and you will
get around 18 to 20 hours of playback. Very impressive.
The price? I bought it for 90 Dhs 4 months back.
Now comes the fly in the soup. Initially the Sony WM EX190 seems perfect. Gradually (depends on how you use it) you will begin to notice two unpleasant things.
(1)Cassettes stop abruptly for no reason. You may have played it perfectly a zillion
times before but there it is dead as a doorbell. Forward it for a couple of seconds
and you are back online. I call it the dead spot. The dead spot affect both sides of
the cassette. But hey check this out, play it on another player (Aiwa, Sharp or
even another Sony model) and it runs perfectly!
(2)Side mixing: This is a very frequent problem for me now. At times when you play
the cassette you will begin to hear both sides of the tape at the same time! An
Easter egg thrown in by Sony I guess.
But in spite of these problems I would recommend this to the average and slightly above
average listener. Moreover it is possible that you may not face these problems.
(NOTE: The above problems DID exist in 2 of the units I tested)