WM-AF56

The WM-AF56 is a radio cassette Walkman released around Sony's tenth Walkman anniversary and one of the more feature-rich mid-tier tuner models of the year. It combined FM/AM reception with auto-reverse playback, Dolby B noise reduction, and a five-band graphic equalizer, all housed in a plastic body with manual tuning and a DX/local switch for reception control. It remained portable and battery-powered, but clearly leaned more into user-adjustable listening than the simpler AF units around it.

AF56 captures how Sony was using the anniversary period less for commemorative styling and more to push a more "enhanced" listening identity into the middle of the line. The equalizer matters here because it turns the machine into something more interactive than a basic tuner Walkman. In practice it was a model built for listeners who wanted to shape the sound instead of just receive it.