This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply. Maxell has launched a new bluetooth cassette player. With this masterfully engineered player, blending the nostalgic soul of the 80’s with the peak convenience of today’s wireless technology just became a reality. At its heart lies a stabilized transport—featuring a precision brass flywheel—that delivers High-Fidelity Sound to bring your cassette collection back to life with rich, steady audio. Experience total wireless freedom with up to 11 hours of Bluetooth playtime, or switch to the optional headphone jack for a classic wired session. When the power runs low, USB-C Fast Charging gets you back to your music in under 2 hours, ensuring your favorite mixtapes never have to stop. more Not all embedded content is displayed here. You can view the original to see embedded videos and other embedded content.
Will wait for reviews before I make any hard judgements, but there's almost no chance the sound quality on these will be any good. There haven't really been any decent tape decks made in 20 years.
Yeah this is pure nostalgia driven. I mean it's meant to play tapes probably recorded 30 plus years ago, so I wouldn't expect the sound quality to be a plus. I haven't owned a tape deck in over a decade and have an entire box full of tapes, so will be fun to revisit those even if they sound crappy.
What you're describing is a sort of nostalgia trap. You throw a tape into any modern player and you might think, yea this is how I remember them sounding (dull, hissy). But it's not. Even an un-maintained home deck from the 80s would deliver an improved sound. It's like playing vinyl on a cheap Crosley. Sure, it plays. But it sounds trash and just might ruin your media for good.
Yeah I don't imagine this being super high quality but would be a nice surprise if it is. For me personally, I have dozens of old tapes I'd love to check out (I don't even know what's on them, as they are mixtapes and not studio recordings, so not concerned with sound quality) but if you are looking for sound quality that's probably a different discussion. On an unrelated note, my favorite form of media is the minidisc but it never caught on in the US. Would absolutely love if a company made a bluetooth player but doubt that would ever happen.