WM-EX21

The WM-EX21 is part of the simplest EX-series cassette players of 1993, built around a standing plastic body with carry clip, manual tape selector, anti-rolling support, and Sony's automatic volume limiting system. It runs on two AA batteries and deliberately omitted Dolby noise reduction, auto-reverse, and most of the sound-shaping features that appeared further up the EX range. The result was a very plain playback-only machine built almost entirely around cost control and routine use.

The EX21 only becomes interesting once you stop expecting every Walkman to be special. The EX21 sits in the part of the line where cassette had become so normalized that Sony could still justify selling very stripped players simply because people still needed them. It was a survival-tier Walkman from the mature cassette era.