From Walkman to XBA moving iron Sony sound history chapter

In those days, color TVs were not yet popular, and TV programs were far less colorful than they are today. Most of the entertainment tools of people in that era were listening to the radio at home, listening to tape music... It was such an era that brought us wonderful memories for a generation. The first demonstration of the tape should be traced back to the public in the 1930s. At the Berlin Radio Exhibition in 1935, the tape was displayed in front of us, and it also laid the foundation for the new sound storage medium for decades. status.

After the introduction of the tape, after decades of technological developments, by 1979, the tape technology was very mature, and the size of the playback device became very small. At this time, Sony Japan officially launched the compact TPS-L2 tape player. At the same time, the MDR-3L2 stereo headset is equipped, and the “Walkman” concept first appeared. However, with the launch of TPS-L2 and the first appearance of the "Walkman" concept

"Walkman" was not promoted globally at the time, but when the "lightweight" stereo recorder of "Walkman" appeared in Japan's crazy craze at the time, Sony finally unified the naming of this type of product worldwide. "Walkman". The popularity of the "Walkman" Walkman began in the 1980s, if it was fashionable to have a "Walkman" at that time! Today, although the tape has been declining, the popularity of Sony's "Walkman" culture has allowed "Walkman" to continue to other Sony products.

The development of technology has made the upgrading of electronic products faster than before. In fact, in the 1980s when the "Walkman" Walkman became popular, Sony has jointly launched CD international standards with other internationally renowned companies, and also developed the first CD player. Machine prototype, of course, the volume of this so-called prototype is not free to move. But with the official launch of this CD with a diameter of only 12cm, it also announced the opening of the digital music era. The CD can store music for a longer period of time, and the sound quality is better preserved for a longer period of time. This is supposed to be a huge market success, but Sony's first CD player CDP-101 was sold for more than 160,000 yen. Such a price is obviously not free to consume.

After Sony's continuous research and development, it was not until 1984 that Sony finally released the D-50, a compact CD player with a relatively reasonable price. It was also because of the success of the D-50 that promoted the development of the CD. Later, Sony's CD player was called DISCMAN because it is more portable in size, and it is also classified in the level of the Walkman. After the D-50, Sony introduced a lot of DISCMAN, and many of them are classic models. After the development of DISCMAN more than 10 years, in 1994 Sony introduced a CD player that is active and supports shockproof technology and uses the 5th battery. D-335.

From the early tape "Walkman" to hear the later CD disc player, we can also see that Sony's pursuit of a more portable and higher-quality music player is so tireless, so whether it is the "Walkman" era There are still many classic models in the "Discman" era.

Just as Sony began to develop CD players in the "Walkman" era, Sony in the "Discman" era has also begun research and development of next-generation players, and eventually brought MD machines to market. However, it is most appropriate to use the word "timeless" to describe the situation of the MD machine, because the MD has not completely exploded and replaced by a smaller and more convenient player such as the MP3. But even so, Sony MD is still ahead of other brands in technology, and of course there are many classic MD models available. For example, the MZ-R900 is the first MZ-N1 to support the NET MD machine connected to the computer. The MZ-N1 supports downloading music files in the ATRAC format directly to the MD disc on the computer. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the launch of the MD format, Sony also officially announced the launch of a new generation of MD format - Hi-MD. Hi-MD's disc capacity has been increased to 1GB, and it also supports FAT format, which means that it can directly copy files to the disc, just like U disk.

In fact, Sony is not just launching a music player. As mentioned above, Sony considered the need to equip it with a compact and lightweight stereo headset MDR-3L2 when it launched the first "Walkman" tape player TPS-L2. . Sony's research and development investment in headsets is also quite large, and Sony's headset products also have classic models. Since the era of "Walkman" tape player, Sony has never stopped developing portable headphones. In addition to traditional headphones, it has introduced many stylish line-controlled earphone products, and it is very fashionable with Sony Discman player. Sony headphones not only continue to innovate in sound quality, but also have a surprise product launch in the design of the headset.

Turning on the development history of headphones, Sony has made great contributions in the field of dynamic headphones. Innovative technology and appearance optimization in earphone manufacturing and design have brought new heights to the industry. I believe that everyone has heard of the Sony R10 headphones, R10 used to be the overlord of dynamic headphones. The Sony R10 itself has very little production, and the R10 uses a natural bio-fiber diaphragm that is extremely lightweight and hard-wearing, and performs very well in response speed, thus producing a clear, natural sound. What makes the R10 famous is not only its excellent sound performance, but also its top-of-the-line amp.

A custom version of the headset has been introduced for specific people, and few brands have done so, but Sony has introduced the classic custom headset QUALIA 010-MDR1. The QUALIA 010-MDR1 is also a moving coil unit, but the dynamic technology of the QUALIA 010-MDR1 is more advanced. Thanks to the dynamic diaphragm used in the ultra-thin film, the performance in terms of sound details is perfect. In addition, the QUALIA 010-MDR1 also recorded a record of 5-120,000 Hz in the frequency range, while the impedance was increased to 70 ohms and the power was increased to 1500 mw. Or the price of up to 360,000 yen at that time is enough to illustrate the positioning of the Sony QUALIA 010-MDR1.

Sony's success in the field of dynamic headphones is no doubt, because there are too many classic products worthy of our aftertaste. But there are some differences in the moving iron earplugs. When the moving iron earplugs have become more common, Sony still has no movement. Sony did not launch the XBA series of moving iron earplugs until 2011, but at that time the moving iron unit was already the world of Knowles, and few brands launched the independently developed moving iron unit. But Sony is different. The mobile iron unit earphones, which was first introduced in 2011, are powered by Sony.

The moving iron earplugs that Sony introduced in 2011 are actually more general in the market response, or this is just the test of Sony's mobile iron earplugs market, so there is not too much action in the market. However, in November 2012, when Sony launched the XBA series of moving iron earplugs again, people seemed to find that Sony was somewhat unusual this time. The newly launched moving iron earplugs are still using the mobile iron unit developed exclusively by Sony. After the exploration of the previous generation of products, Sony has made great progress in the technology of moving iron units, especially the debugging technology of moving iron units.

The moving iron flagship earbuds XBA-40 and XBA-30, which were launched in 2012, are equipped with a quadruple moving iron unit and a triple moving iron unit structure. The newly-tuned full-range range moving iron unit, bass moving iron unit and subwoofer moving iron unit The high-pitched moving iron unit has reached a super high level in terms of frequency range, sound level, and bass.

After experiencing the "Walkman" tape player, "Discman" CD player, and then the classic dynamic headphones, it is precisely because of the uninterrupted pursuit of sound quality, the continuous innovation of technology has the exclusive development of the moving iron unit of Sony Earplugs. Sony's new mobile iron flagship XBA-40 and high-end model XBA-30 have been upgraded in terms of sound quality, and Sony has officially opened a new chapter in the history of moving iron earplugs.