Cassettes do have a heat and distinctive sound, although—after getting a style for gentle hiss, you might end up lacking it in cleaner codecs. The distinctive issue of skipping songs offers the album format a primacy no different medium can—you might end up studying to love songs you’d have skipped. (Whereas penning this evaluation I noticed Liz Phair’s “Crater Lake” is an absolute banger.)
For the collector, cassettes are nonetheless comparatively low cost and reasonably priced in an period while you see a vinyl copy of Billy Joel’s extraordinarily meh 1980 album Glass Homes marked at $25. Additionally, they appear cool and really feel good in your hand. Briefly, accumulating cassettes is sensible as a result of they’re available and solely the 1% can feasibly accumulate MiniDiscs.
Being Form to Rewind
The Rewind has a really sturdy aluminum case and a built-in battery that recharges with USB-C. It weighs 14 ounces, just a bit lower than two iPhone 15 Professional Maxes. Along with the headphone audio out, there’s a 3.5mm audio in so you’ll be able to document your tapes—you might discover it enjoyable to shock that particular somebody with a do-it-yourself combine tape.
{Photograph}: Martin Cizmar
I’ve owned a half-dozen cassette gamers since falling into the passion as a result of I purchased an outdated Suburu with a damaged CD participant that ate my copy of Want. The Rewind is much and away one of the best—I prefer it a lot that I nonetheless use it to hearken to my tapes whereas driving though I offered that Suburau and now have a stereo with CarPlay.
Anybody who’s ever needed to re-spool 100 ft of tangled tape, praying there’s not a tear, understands how necessary it’s to have a dependable transport. The Rewind has by no means eaten a tape, not like half of my different gamers. There are some nice classic gamers on the market, however except they have been fully cleaned and refurbished you run the chance of 1 weak element inflicting cascading failures. A high-end refurbished participant will price not less than as a lot because the Rewind and you will not get any of the added fashionable options.
The rewind sounds nearly as good as any moveable participant I’ve heard, which is to say it reliably reproduces the sound of the cassette, pops and hisses included. That is even true while you use the Bluetooth perform to broadcast your tapes to wi-fi headphones. I am a kind of individuals who does not perceive the enchantment of streaming a bodily medium—if I needed to listen to a digital model I would just play it on Apple Music—but it surely’s good to have the choice right here. I used to be in a position to simply pair the Rewind with a set of JBL Tune headphones, however I wasn’t in a position to get it to work with my automotive stereo, as an alternative counting on a 3.5mm cable. The audio is muted utilizing Bluetooth in comparison with wired headphones.
A Little Hiss
The one problem is the shortage of auto-stop when the cassette has run out of string rewinding or fast-forwarding. The poor little motor continues to whir away with an disagreeable squeal that additionally means the tape inside could also be confused. The participant does not ship with headphones. I paired it with an affordable set of clear Koss headphones, however I used to be additionally despatched Rewind’s Bluetooth headphones which I used to be very unimpressed with—the classic look is cool, however they’ve a flimsy really feel and flimsier sound for $50.
These are all comparatively minor gripes, although, contemplating every part the Rewind does higher than anybody else proper now. This French cassette participant is one of the best in 2025, and relying on the accumulating developments, which will find yourself making it the final finest tape participant there’s.
