Sony WM-FX261

The WM-FX261 was one in a series of similar looking Walkman radio cassette players consisting of WM-FX269, WM-FX267, WM-FX261SP, and WM-PSY02. They were virtually identical except for the accessories that were supplied with them. The most popular version was the WM-FX261SP, which came supplied with miniature loudspeakers as accessories. This multi-page article with photographs is for the basic WM-FX261 version.

• CR02/Metal Selector
• AM/FM Radio
• FM Stereo/mono switch
• Automatic Volume Limiter System (AVLS)
• Synthesized Tuner
• 20 Presets

Review

This is a very lovely stereo cassette player without auto reverse or Dolby and has a very clean and simple design. The electronic engineering is based around three principle integrated circuits (IC). The LA4582C is the pre and power amplifier IC for 3 V cassette player systems, manufactured by the Sanyo Corporation. It is capable of driving headphones, or 8 Ω speakers. According to the documentation of this IC, its typical power output is stated to be 34 mW with 16 Ω load. The TA2111F is a single chip radio solution by the Toshiba Corporation, which provides AM/FM RF amplification, mixer, IF amp, detection, and MPX. The D17015GS by the NEC Corporation is the system controller and LCD driver, whilst the LB1979 provides the motor drive and speed regulation for the three-phase disc motor.

The tape transport mechanism (TTM) does not have auto-reverse and therefore there is only one capstan flywheel thereby making the design very simple and light. The TTM chassis is an unusually small and light design with minimal metal parts. It also has plastic parts integrated into it making it very fragile. It has one good thing going for it which is the three-phase disc motor that ensures extremely smooth speed.

The cabinet of this unit does not employ screws and instead there are plastic locking claws. The panel on the side of the LCD and tuner controls comes off; however it consists of a top plastic fascia layer, which is also held with claws. Hence be careful that you do not remove the wrong layer. The following pages of this article show photographs of the claw locations so you know where to insert plastic strips to open it. Replacing the drive belt is fairly simple for an experienced engineer; however it is under the main board which will require lifting first. The ribbon cable from the head terminates to a socket; hence it is easy to disconnect it. There is however four wires that connect the disc motor to the main PCB. These wires can break easily if you move the PCB around too much, however there is a photograph in the following pages showing the wiring of the motor in case you need to solder them back on again. The reception of the AM/FM radio is excellent as one would expect from the Toshiba single chip radio solution, and the sound quality through the Sanyo audio IC is good too providing you use a decent pair of headphones.

Price/eBay

These units sometimes come up for sale and they are very desirable designs that could be of interest to an audio enthusiast and Walkman collector. A unit in mint condition would be highly collectable and can give many hours of enjoyment listening to the radio or cassette. A unit in mint condition with its original packaging and accessories would be highly collectable and worth a packet on a good auction day, however, keep in mind that this is a basic player.

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