The 1982 Sony Walkman M-80 Micro-Cassette recorders supports metal tapes and has high quality stereo sound. The M-80 even has stereo AM/FM radio with built-in antenna. It comes in beautiful blue and red colors.
Most Micro-cassette recorders were designed for recording speech such as voice memo, meetings and interviews. It is uncommon to see Micro-cassette recorders with stereo and metal tapes support. This looks like it was geared towards music recording and listening. I've tried recording some music from the radio station on a metal micro-cassette tape using the M-80. While it doesn't sound quite as good as regular metal cassette tapes, it definitely sound much better than the average micro-cassette tapes for voice recording. The first I noticed was that the noise level was significantly reduced and it has much better clarity. The stereo radio still sounds amazing even after 37 plus years.
The 1981 M1-PD has similar design as the M-80 with over-sized buttons. It comes in dark blue or pearl white color. The M1-PD does not have the AM/FM radio function. The pearl white color look so amazing in person. Unfortunately the M1-PD I have has a loose belt, it probably requires belt replacement and speed adjustment, so I can't really tell how good it sounds. I assume that it sounds as good as the M-80 since they have very similar design and both support stereo and metal tape. Working or not, these two beautiful Walkman should be on the wish list of every serious collectors. You have to see it and touch it to feel the quality of the material and workmanship of it.
