We see a lot of Bluetooth turntables these days, but Bluetooth cassette players are a little rarer.
We Are Rewind’s Cassette Player is a throwback to Sony’s iconic first Walkman from 1979, the TPS-L2. Its metallic casing and simple rectangular shape are a clear nod to the original portable cassette player, with modern touches bringing an additional 21st-century flair.
The player includes all the controls you would expect to find on a classic portable cassette player – Pause, Play, Rewind etc. It also includes a Record function, so you can create your own mixtapes the old-fashioned way.
Gone are the days of disposable batteries. We Are Rewind includes a rechargeable battery, which is said to last up to 12 hours. Alongside this is Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity, allowing the player to be paired with Bluetooth headphones or speakers nearby. There is also a headphone jack and an auxiliary input for recording (both 3.5mm).
Alongside appreciation for audio quality, nostalgia is a big part of what keeps physical media ticking over. There’s a certain magic behind tangible discs, or in this case, magnetic tapes.
The devices being heavily featured in blockbuster hits such as Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t hurt, either. The BPI reports that cassette tape sales rose from just under 4000 in 2012, to more than 195,000 in 2022.
Some may sniff at the idea of playing an analogue media format over Bluetooth, citing issues in the analogue-to-digital (and back again) conversion process and the inherent loss of quality that comes with it. However, for those of us with mixed media music collections and wireless headphones or speakers, sometimes a certain record, CD, or tape isn’t available on our streaming service of choice. Sometimes a song, album, or mixtape needs to be heard, by any means.
We Are Rewind’s Bluetooth cassette player is on sale for £133 / $164 / $268AUD and is available in three metallic shades: orange, blue, or grey. They also sell cassette tapes, either individually or in bundles if you find yourself in need of fresh stock.
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When MiniDisc took on the mighty cassette: What Hi-Fi? magazine, January 1993
