WM-EQ9

The WM-EQ9 is the final model in Sony's Beans series and one of the only ones to introduce a genuinely new functional twist by adding built-in mono speakers behind a mesh window over the tape compartment. The translucent bean-shaped shell, belt-carry logic, auto-reverse transport, and two-AA power setup all remained familiar, but the speakers changed the way the object could be uses by allowing short casual listening without headphones. It was still recognizably a Beans Walkman, but one with a slightly broader role.

This model is Sony trying to give the series one last practical reason to exist beyond color and novelty alone. The added speaker did not transform it into a serious shared-listening machine, but it did make the playful form a little more useful in everyday life. It is a compact closing gesture at the end of one of Sony's strangest cassette branches.