WM-EX615

The WM-EX615 is a close continuation of the EX610, built around the same slim metal-cased platform and ergonomic circular-button layout while carrying Sony's refreshed 2000-era Walkman branding. It retained auto-reverse playback, Dolby B noise reduction, Groove bass processing, Automatic Music Sensor, blank skip, remote operation, and extended battery life through the external AA pack, with only compact cosmetic and market-level differences separating it from the adjacent model. Mechanically it remained part of the same mature late-period EX formula.

What makes the EX615 interesting is that it shows how stable the Walkman had become by then. Sony was no longer revising the cassette player through dramatic yearly reinvention, but through compact controlled updates to already-proven hardware. It reads as the kind of model that existed because the company still knew exactly how to make a good everyday Walkman, even if the world around it had changed.