I really like this walkman. I have had it now for about 4 years. It hasn't been totally reliable, after a couple years no sound came out when the radio was turned on, and the radio never really got any stations anyway, and then the whole radio part (the digital display and buttons) all died. So nothing happens when you press the buttons. I think this happened because one of the buttons got knocked off when my friend was using it and someone kicked it into a snowbank, so water got in and fried it. Like I said though, the radio never really worked worthwhile anyways. The tape player has worked fine for 4 years though. It sounds okay on good tapes, but if you use bad tapes that are dirty or something, or not recorded well it sounds like crap. But you have to expect that when you use cassettes. I hardly ever use the thing anymore, cause I listen to cd's only pretty much. But I use it on the lawnmower, cause I dont want to damage my Kenwood portable cd player, but I guess that doesn't matter anyways cause the Kenwood is almost dead now at a couple months old.
This Shockwave walkman has been discontinued for a long time now, but the point of the review is that if you are looking for a good reliable walkman and dont think you would ever use the radio, then you should get a new Panasonic shockwave. They have 24 hours of battery life on one battery as well. Way better than my old one. I find the Sony walkmans radios get a lot better reception, but the reliability of the tape player is not that good. My friend's Sony Sports walkman is only a few months old now, and the tape player constantly clicks, and the rest of it is falling apart as well. He is kind of hard on his stuff, but he used my Panasonic for about a year cause I stopped using it, and he was just as hard on it and never had problems.

This is a really good walkman. It's water resistant, so I can take it skiing, and it's got a lot of good features, like a digital tuning radio, and auto reverse. The only problem is that the headphones aren't the greatest.