WOLF retro DESIGN REVIEW. 9th August 2022
An old boombox for an old break-dancer?
A retro review looks at products that are at least over ten years old from a present-day WOLF design perspective. While the technology and fashion of the period influence design, and are taken into consideration, great design ideas will transcend their eras to be timeless.
Interesting and factual information may be provided, but our review aims to deliver insight from the perspective of a designer’s mind and eyes.
Simple and affordable.
Introduction
Product description
The Sanyo M-W22F was a double cassette player and recorder from 1984.
Price and Availability.
Sanyo made a lot of affordable boomboxes and Walkman’s in the 1980s that aimed at being an affordable alternative to brands like Sony and Aiwa. The M-W22F was a budget unit that was relatively popular. They do show up occasionally on the second hand market and can range from $50 to $200 depending on the condition.
Additional information
There is very little information available on these units. From our research it seems that these were also available in dark grey and red colours.
Review
First impression/ Delight
It looks just like a typical boombox out of the 1980s. Perhaps a touch too classy and slight to be slammed down on a concrete floor in front of break-dancers.
Exterior Design Review
It has all typical elements of a cassette recorder from the 1980s. Proportionately it is longer and slenderer than most from having dual cassettes.
The plastic body is mostly in a mat finish with just the buttons and rims around the speakers contrasting in shiny chrome. The unit in this review is silver so there is less contrast to the chrome. Black was becoming very fashionable in the mid-80’s so we think this boombox would have dated very quickly.
The front of face the unit is in mat silver and the back section (about 2 thirds) is in a beige/grey colour. There is a slight bevel to the upper front side that frames the tuner section. It runs across the full length of the unit, including the speakers. A few elements of blue and red graphics animate the silver face. Other than that, there isn’t a lot more to comment on in regard to the design. It’s plain and straight forward in looks and layout.
Craftsmanship.
Apart from the buttons and end caps to the handle bar, most elements are made of plastic and that was representative of this being a budget unit. It also made it rather light and hollow feeling but also good for portability. The white speaker cones are visible through the metal grills and for some reason that contrast looks a little crude in our opinion.
The unit in this review is like new, but most will have rather worn edges as the plastic is thin. The plastic rear side also tends to discolour and yellow with age.
FUNCTION- Experience.
Our research tells us that the W5 was not a breakthrough in anyway. It was more of the same in a new package that looks underwhelming. We felt the screen is too small and the buttons don’t feel nice to press. The front panel arrangement is too condensed into one area and feels insufficient for a flagship model.
The new positioning of the disk drive looks neater that the SY model and does away with all those busy lines, but as a result has lost that clever space for holding a few disks which was rather useful.
The W series also introduces a new double alpha dial. While this seems clever it is confusing and Yamaha never used it again on future models.
The Yamaha W synths also reverted back to just two controller wheels, but they introduced a rubberized texture (first released the previous year on the VL1), which was a nice touch and significant improvement over the all previous wheels.
Desirability / Collectability
The W7 is not as rare as big brother W5 but still scarce due to poor sales. It is still a powerful machine that had remained undervalued. It’s unlikely to significantly rise in value given that it was not a breakthrough in any way. Even from a design perspective its rather bland compared to most other models. All those flat surfaces mark easily so it will be hard to find clean units.
This is probably going to be the Yamaha flagship synthesizer that most will forget but we will make mention that it is probably much rarer than most other Yamaha synthesizers. The Version 2 will be slightly more valuable than the Version 1. At the time of this review we could not find any images of the original case for this machine.
WORD OF THE WOLF
It almost seems as if this synthesizer was forced onto the market because the SY99 was getting a bit old and they needed a new product to compete with other brands. In hind sight they probably could have just given the SY99 an upgrade until the EX5 model was ready and available in 1998.
Nevertheless, the W5 & W7 still form a part of the Yamaha’s Synthesizer story and if you do find yourself in front of a mint specimen it would be worth knowing that they are very rare. People are not going to rush into buying them when they come up for sale, so most likely you could demand a bargain.
The WOLF W7
The W7 was one of the last synths to complete the WOLF collection. While inexpensive they are rare and even more rare to find in Mint condition. Two specimens were purchase so that parts could be swapped to make one near mint example.
WOLF DESIGN EXCELLENCE SCORE = 5.8
Disclaimer
The information in this review is intended for informational or educational purposes to provide readers an understanding of how something may be seen from a certain design perspective. In this case it is from the view point of WOLF DESIGNS. As design is subjective this review should only be considered as an independent opinion. Information further to being of an opinion is provided to the best of our knowledge based on our own research at the time of doing the review. We cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies or inconsistencies and reserve the right to change or update any content as appropriate.
The final responsibility of the design resides with the original manufacturer.