I’m Using a Cassette Player Now. Yes, Really

Reading Time: 17 minutes.

A few months ago, I was exploring small assorted and quirky shops with mom while visiting my parents. I spotted an album I know I like, Nirvana’s Nevermind, but it was on cassette. I lamented that I didn’t have a cassette player. I knew I didn’t have room in my luggage for vinyl, but I could have grabbed a few cassettes. I told myself I’d get a cassette player one day.

A while later, I went to play an album on my computer only to find it was missing. Apple lost the rights to the music, so they deleted it off my drive. They deleted my music that I purchased on a CD and imported on my own because they lost the rights to it. I was furious. Fortunately, I still had the CD and could re-import most of my music, but it’s a hassle. Most people don’t even have a CD drive anymore, a decision that Apple themselves made when they took those drives from our computers. It feels like Apple’s intentionally trapping them in their service. Leave Apple Music and lose all your music, they don’t make it easy to preserve your catalog. We pay more for products and services than ever, and they can do less each year. Why on earth should they replace my own music with their copies?

I began to think about ways to preserve my music and how I like to listen to it. Burning playlists to CDs isn’t as easy anymore, both because it’s expensive to get CD-RW drives, but also because Apple Music will block you from burning songs that you own, but Apple Music replaced with their own versions so you can’t prove ownership anymore. Letting Apple sync your music across devices is basically the same as giving up ownership of those songs. I couldn’t back up any of my music anymore in a physical medium I could take on the go.

However, you can always record to a cassette. That’s just analog playback. It won’t be “full” quality, but at least you’ll have something to preserve your collection on a physical form of media. You’ll have something Apple can’t delete on a whim to force you to rely on them.

I always wanted to make a mix tape. I was born too late. I had mix CDs, but it’s just not the same. You just plot out a playlist and then hit burn. The easiest physical media to directly record to, to take with you everywhere, and to listen anywhere, is the cassette. Neither a CD player nor a record player can fit in a pocket, but a cassette player can. I barely had to think about it. Everything came to this. I had to get a cassette player. So I did. I got a few, actually. Some I need to repair, others in good shape. I fell in love with the machines that made music a greater part of our lives and the portable medium that made it possible. I came to realize why the portable cassette player may be one of humanity’s greatest inventions, and gained a new level of respect for the medium. I use a Walkman now. Here’s why.

An Intro to Millennial Music

Two words: Lime. Wire.

I was too young to really take part in the cassette era, but I remember wanting a Walkman as a kid anyway. I loved those sleek little portable players. My parents got my brother and I discount brand sports models that were just right for us. It wasn’t the sleek Sony Walkman I wanted, but I was also a kid, and having a cassette player made to take a beating was the right choice. Not that I was really listening to much anyway. There wasn’t much I was into. I was too young to be creating my own tastes. I liked rock, I knew that much, but not much else. I wanted to be a rock star, but beyond that? I didn’t really develop my tastes yet. Besides, nearly all the music I’d enjoy later would come with an explicit label, and my parents were not buying a 7-year-old that. Music just wasn’t a vital piece of my life yet, even though I wanted it to be.

By the time I was getting into music, CDs were everywhere and the first MP3 players were coming out. I had to carry my CD player in my backpack because it couldn’t fit anywhere else. Eventually, I got an MP3 player. It was a small Sandisk 256mb player, enough for a few compressed MP3 songs at the time. Soon, I’d get my first 2GB iPod Shuffle and some time later, my first “real” iPod, the iPod video. Little did I know that convenience would be the enemy of enjoyment, and I was looking at the beginning of a catastrophic shift in the industry.

I missed out on having cool tapes, making mixes, collecting these durable little cassettes that just served one purpose: holding music. Saving music in a compact little reel. Instead my music came from the iTunes store and… other sources. I didn’t know better. Now I do.

Enter the Walkman

The cassette is such a romantic concept. A simple plastic device just for preserving music, and it fits in your pocket. It’s cheap to record to and distribute, making it instrumental in the rise of indie music and especially the spread of my favorite genre, punk music. Given the impermanence of the streaming era, which I hope is finally starting to see the blowback it deserves, a cassette is special. A reminder of halcyon days, when garage band demos could make it to the radio and a larger audience, all with a single tape mailed to a local rock station. When music was still in the hands of the people, traded between friends and shared at gatherings, instead of algorithms driven by the desires of billionaire-ran companies funding AI weapons of war. When musicians could make money, even if they don’t hit 1,000 streams on their song every few months. We had musicians speaking to listeners directly, not with a robot calculating the most profitable songs to suggest in between them. Music was about connection. It was art. To some of us, it still is, though, to others it’s just a commodity Spotify digs up from the music mines of nepo babies, just about the only people who can afford to make art full-time anymore.

Radio was bought out, physical media was nearly killed, and now AI gives you a profitable playlist to listen to every morning, afternoon, and night, tailored “for you,” or for whoever stands to make Spotify the most money. The connection factor, the very soul of music, has been scraped away. They turned it into background noise instead of the soundtrack of your life.

I had to fight back in my own little way. Maybe we all should. Maybe, even as consumers, we can find better ways to support artists. Revive physical media. Bring back the concept of ownership. Make fandoms about the art, not what sounds good over a short video on the latest meta on TikTok. Be fans, be a little cringe, actually show our enthusiasm for the things we love.

We need to make music more than the background noise you need to focus on tasks because without a distraction in the background your brain starves for dopamine hits and scrolling. I wanted to be a part of that, so I did what every artist on social media has been telling me to do for years: I got more active on Bandcamp.

I started building out a physical collection of vinyl, CDs, and cassettes. And, while I’ve had a record player for years, and can still rip CDs, I had nothing for cassettes. Some research later, and I found a surprising fact: the best players are repaired ones from the 80’s and 90’s. So I found one eBay, ordered it, and began listening.

I heard what I’ve been missing out on for over three decades of life. I finally had a Walkman in my hands. Thinking of little Danielle, envious of her peers who had them, knowing how cool she’d think it was, fills my heart with a sense of accomplishment I didn’t expect. A childhood musical dream achieved. Wait until she finds out I can play guitar now too.

So here’s how a secondhand Walkman, a WM-EX660, became one of my most cherished pieces of tech, and lead to many other cassette players, cassettes, and a growing appreciation for music.

The Cassette Players I Use

I knew Walkmans were the best cassette players, but, back then, I had no idea why. Of course, now I know sound quality, features like auto reverse, bass boosting, tape type selection, and noise reduction are key features to look for. I also know all about wow & flutter, and ensuring my cassettes sound best. With that in mind, I finally picked out a Walkman. I grabbed a few cassette tapes, some used, others new, and I was ready for its arrival. About a week later, I had my very first Sony Walkman.

I found a refurbished Sony WM-EX660 (the EX-654 is the closest version I could find on WalkmanLand) on eBay from a seemingly reputable seller. The cassette player sounded great, and they even included a gumstick battery and battery charger. I had everything I needed to start listening. And I did! I loved it. In fact, I took it with me everywhere. Quickly, a cassette player became something I had to have on me at all times.

But what if something bad happened to it? It’s nearly 30 years old! It would take me weeks to replace or maybe repair! So I found another inexpensive and similar one that, again, seemed to be a good Walkman, with good features, and in good shape. It wasn’t. Opening it up, I found a number of issues. But I really liked the design of it, so I found another one that didn’t even seem to be in as good shape. I figured, I could combine parts from the two models and make a working Walkman. Turns out, I didn’t have to at all. The second WM-EX511 I got worked for a time. I got it for a steal and can use it to build one working model from those two mostly broken models.

Later, while testing the sound quality and wow & flutter, I realized I wanted something really good. I needed to know what my cassettes could sound like at their best. I waited a few months, looking around on eBay until I saw what I was looking for at a price that wouldn’t make me cry. A Walkman DD30. These are from 1989, and some of the best sounding Walkman players you can get. They use a quartz locked drive to ensure extremely consistent sound quality. Plus, the DD30 had Sony’s “Megabass” bass boosting. With that, I had a walkman for high-end listening, and two for on the go. Still less money than I’d spend on a similarly top-of-the–line vinyl or even digital music setup.

I finally had a Walkman, a backup, and something to listen at home. I even grabbed a cheap old cassette deck from 1985 that was in functionally great shape, if a little scuffed, and, for the sake of reviewing them, modern cassette players from We Are Rewind and Fiio. With everything together, a process that, I’ll admit, took the better part of a year (hey, I’m not made of money), I could record mixtapes, make duplicates of my tapes, and listen to them anywhere. I finally found the joy of having a Walkman, just a few decades late.

But Why Cassettes?

Cassettes have gotten an unfair reputation over the years. I, myself, used to buy into it as well. I heard cassettes had a lousy sound, that they got jammed frequently, stuff about pencils for rewinding them, the works. But, the truth is, a tape that’s in good shape, in a decent player, with decent headphones, actually can sound great. Will they sound as good as CDs or vinyl? No, not really. But in an era of streaming, they’re certainly passable. Don’t expect audiophile quality, many players can’t even cover the entire range of human hearing, from 20Hz to 20kHz. This can give them a more mid-range tone in most players, especially if they don’t boost bass on their own. It’s not bad at all, especially with the right headphones.

A cassette is often the cheapest way to buy a physical album. I’ll sometimes grab brand-new cassettes for $10 off Bandcamp, while the digital album also costs $10. However, the cassette also comes with a digital copy. So for $10, I get the high quality lossless version of an album for my computer and phone and the cassette for my Walkman! I do usually add a few bucks on any purchase though, because Bandcamp does take a bit off the top for themselves, and I like ensuring artists get their due. Plus maybe if they see people who buy cassettes are generous, they’ll keep releasing music on cassettes?

With digital backups straight from a source like Bandcamp, and a physical analog version in the form of a cassette, it’s nice to have multiple copies. I feel like I really own the ability to play these songs. I’m not renting it from some corporation anymore. It’s mine. It’s here. In my hand. Having a cassette to force me to play a full album or one of my mixes feels much more curated than shuffling around a playlist some robot made for me on a soulless streaming app that pays artists next to nothing for their work. Cassettes connect me to my music and the humans that make it, and help me curate my own collection and mixes better.

Buying a Cassette Player in 2025

So, let’s say you want to buy a cassette player. You might be tempted to do the same thing you’d do if you were thinking about buying any other electronic device. Just buy something from a store. But there’s a pretty big problem with that. Most modern cassette players are terrible for sound quality, consistency, and portability. Even the ones that sound better are still far below the features you’d expect from even a mid-range cassette player in the early 90’s. On top of that, from the cheapest to the most expensive new players, they’re using the same base mechanism. Some may have added better parts, like a metal flywheel for reduced wow & flutter (speed and volume variations), and others have better sound quality through electronics. Some add Bluetooth. But they’re all using the same base mechanism, which is bulky and not very good. Think cheap players from the 80’s. Still, there are two main choices that aren’t too bad. These two keep wow and flutter to a minimum, though they don’t have features like bass boost, auto-reverse, and they’re very bulky, especially in the case of the second one.

If you’re buying new, my first suggestion would be the We Are Rewind cassette player. It allows for easier sound adjustments for speed, has Bluetooth, can record line-in audio, and I’ve found it works more reliably than its competition from Fiio, but a full review of it and the Fiio CP13 is on the way. Neither option is necessarily bad, but I was disappointed that the Fiio required head azimuth adjustment out of the box and could let the cassette move around enough to actually affect the sound if played facing the “wrong” way (yes, really). Besides, due to the mechanism and lack of bass boosting or any other kind of equalizing, these can’t play type 2 or 4 tapes as well as older tape players, and lack bass. They would have passed as budget cassette players in the 90’s, but couldn’t have competed with even cheaper mid-range options from Sony’s Walkman lineup.

As pretty as these new players are, there’s a much better option. However, it might take a bit of research.

Buy an Old Cassette Player!

I keep comparing these new players to older ones, that’s because you could just buy an old cassette player. eBay is full of them. You will have to do some research, and if I were to provide a full guide on everything I know to help you, it would still be woefully incomplete (and quite a long post). So here are a few short tips for finding your first used retro Walkman.

First, you’ll want one that has been repaired or serviced, not just “tested.” Many of the people selling their old cassette players are either selling them “as-is” for parts or repair, or they quickly tested it, saw that it seems to turn on when they hit play, and are selling it as “tested.” The problem is, these cassette players rely on rubber bands that connect the motor, flywheel, and drive gears. Those rubber bands are likely 30 years old or older if they’ve never been serviced. They’re going to be worn out. You’re going to want to specifically find one that has been serviced. Replacing these rubber bands isn’t very difficult on most models, but you still don’t want to do it with your first cassette player, especially since that rubber could melt and also require some cleaning of the gears and everything else inside the player. Instead, find one that has already been professionally serviced. Along with the bands, they should have replaced the other rubber part that can wear out and get dirty: the pinch rollers. These press the tape against the capstan, a roller to move it through the cassette. Some will just need cleaning, but it’s always best to get a Walkman that has brand new pinch rollers and new bands. This will greatly increase the longevity of your device.

Next are the features. Auto reverse is a great feature that can play a tape “backwards,” allowing you to listen to the B side of the tape without having to physically flip it over. I also highly recommend anything with bass boosting. This may be called DBB or Megabass with Walkman players. I cannot recommend this enough. Without it, your tapes will definitely be missing that bump in sound. Many will also boost the higher range of the mids, to give your sound more of that pleasing “v-shape” equalizer curve. Speaking of sound, anti-roll is a great feature that ensures the sound remains consistent, even as you walk around with your Walkman in your pocket, bag, or clipped to your hip. While CDs could skip, cassette players can have inconsistent speeds if you move them around too much without anti-roll built in.

Grabbing a deck with Dolby Noise Reduction is also a key feature. Tapes can have a bit of a hissing sound in them. Dolby’s noise reduction is a clever system tat requires the tape was both recorded and played back with Dolby noise reduction on. Many players will have NR-B, and you should try to get it. A few of my prerecorded tapes have had it, and, while it can sort of “compress” the sound range, it can remove that hiss. It’s up to you to decide which you prefer, but you’ll want to have the option.

No modern cassette player will have any of these options. They’re all inadequate for cassette players from the 90’s, and would never pass. But it’s the best we can buy new now.

Look at how the cassette players your shopping for are powered. Some will use a “gumstick” battery, which is basically a flat thin AA battery. I highly recommend these. They allowed cassette players to be only a little larger than the cassette itself. Plus, you can still buy them brand-new. I have a few that I keep charged up in case I want to swap them out. Many models that used a gumstick battery also had an external expandable battery pack that lets you add a AA battery in case of an emergency. With it, you can easily get over 20 hours of listening with modern batteries on some models. That’s longer—likely over twice as long—than the modern players can get with their lithium-ion batteries.

Finally, check the seller themselves. Make sure the description has the details of what they did to service the Walkman. Look at their other auctions. Do they frequently sell cassette players? That means they’ll know what they’re doing. Look at their reviews. Are there a variety of them from multiple people who seem like real buyers? Toss the images from the listing into Tineye and do a reverse image search to make sure the seller didn’t just copy some photos from somewhere. You’ll want to make sure the photos in the listing are definitely of the device you’ll be getting. This is especially good if the photos include a serial number and they list that serial number in the description too. Trust your gut, and don’t be afraid to message sellers to learn more about the device.

I’m quite partial to Sony’s EX models. These came out in the 90’s and were midrange to top of the line models, depending on the model number. They had a number of key features like blank space skipping, auto levels, anti-roll, and bass boosting. However, if you want FM radio, you’ll have to search for something from Sony’s “F” lineup. Also, Sony wasn’t the only cassette player manufacturer. You can also find excellent players by Aiwa, Sanyo, Panasonic, Toshiba, and others. Search for reviews and advice, people have been asking about the best players to pick up for decades, you can find reviews of many cassette players online.

Other Retro Options?

Not comfortable trying to find a seller on eBay? It’s not your only option. Retro tech company Retrospekt will sell you a “vintage refurbished” Walkman that they’ve serviced themselves. These do come with guarantees and a 90-day warranty. You’ll pay more for it though. They also come with headphones you definitely shouldn’t use. Get some real wired headphones. I recommend the Koss Porta Pro headphones, if you want to get some good sound and bass boosting with those retro looks.

Most of the models Retrospekt carries seem to be on the lower or midrange area, and you can expect to pay around $200. It’s pricey, but it’ll sound better than a new cassette player. Retrospekt also sells their own modern player, which, again, you may want to avoid just because older models had more features. My advice is still to go to eBay. There’s more of a risk with your purchase, but you can get much better players for less than the low-end ones you can get from Retrospekt for the same price.

Battery Life!

When these initially came out, they had around 8 hours of battery life. But battery tech has improved. I found the little gumstick batteries can last around 13-15 hours on a full charge. That usually lasts me a few days of listening, depending on how much I’m working or traveling. That makes these slimmer and more pocket-friendly than any of the modern competition on the market, while also having more battery life. It’s obvious that we’ve lost so much quality over our cassette players over the years.

You can still buy new gumstick batteries. Some have built-in USB-C chargers, but I just use more standard style rechargeable batteries, as I have a few universal battery chargers. If you’re looking for one, you can search “gumstick battery charger” and find plenty. However, many old models also just use AA batteries. I definitely prefer the slim and light design of the gumstick batteries though.

I also bought an external battery pack for my old Walkman. These allow you to use a AA battery to extend your battery life. I was meeting up with a friend recently and I knew I hadn’t charged my battery in a while, so I threw the battery pack in my bag. Sure enough, it died while I was walking up to meet him, so I just plugged in the external adapter and started my music back up. It’s so easy. It reminds me of when I first got a MagSafe battery pack for my iPhone. Slap it on and start playing music. It can even charge up your rechargeable gumstick battery slightly. With it, you can just about double your battery life, easily getting over 20 hours of battery life. My far larger, heavier, and bulkier modern cassette players can’t come close to that.

The Drawbacks

The most obvious drawback is the reason the iPod became popular in the first place. Tapes take up space. I’ll be real with you, I didn’t get as into having my music with me everywhere when all I had was a CD Walkman. It was clunky and I’d need to have my CD player in my bag. Backpacks back then even had special pockets for them! I’m always a little surprised that the cassette player didn’t survive longer, because it’s far more portable than a CD player. Still, as portable as they are, even an old iPod can store more music in roughly the same amount of space as a cassette. Hundreds of albums in one device the size of a cassette.

When I go out, I often bring a mixtape. Albums have about 30-45 minutes of content on them, sometimes as much as an hour, but my mixtapes can hold 1.5 hours. I’ve even made mixtapes that contained a few albums that copied from cassettes and vinyl I owned. It just has made it easier to bring more music with me when I knew I’d be on a train for a few hours. Though, if I have room in my bag, I sometimes do just take an album or two.

The biggest drawback of cassettes is that the best cassette players are around 30 years old. The modern ones are good, and I actually love my We Are Rewind player, but your best players will be your old ones. These players need to be serviced or repaired, and you may have to do it yourself. There are services that could do repairs for you, but it’ll be easier to learn how to do most repairs on your own. With the exception of repairs I’ve had to break out the soldering iron to do, service is mostly just cleaning the heads or replacing the bands. It’s not difficult, but when I had a button break on one of my logic boards, it involved replacing the entire logic board due to the contacts breaking off. This was not an easy task, and I’m still only about halfway done as of this writing.

Is it Worth Reviving?

I was picking up some food I ordered online. As I walked to the store, I put my hand in my pocket, flipped the hold switch, hit stop, and talked to the person at the front about my pickup order. On the way out, I just hit play. I never looked at a device. I never had to take anything out of my pocket. I hit play, I got music. It was that easy.

Should you get a Walkman? Maybe. If you love music and want an analog way to collect music, take it with you anywhere, and play it off a device that is simple, easy to use, and made for music, not 10,000 other things and also sort of does music (without a headphone jack), then it’s an easy answer. Hell yeah. It’ll even give you a new way to support the artists you love because Spotify is starving them to death. You’d think the end of creativity in the music industry would be a bigger motivator, but people are truly addicted to convenience.

The Walkman—or another cassette player—might be perfect for you. It’s a music device, and it just does music. Faster and easier to use than a phone. Our devices have gotten so ridiculously minimalist and obsessed with things that don’t matter like screen size and thinness that they’re more difficult to use for music than a 30-year-old Walkman. Perhaps that’s why tapes are making a comeback. Maybe with enough interest, even new cassette players will catch up to their older counterparts.

I love that I have devices just for music. Devices dedicated to one of the greatest things humanity has ever done: music. I love that I don’t need my internet-connected glass slab distraction machine out all the time to play music. I can go for a walk listening to music without ever looking at the dopamine trap in my pocket. It’s liberating in a way I wasn’t expecting.

I love my Walkmans. I love having an easy, fun, convenient way to listen to music that doesn’t pull me into other notifications, apps, or distractions. In trying to be the device that does everything and looks like it does nothing, the iPhone became something that’s not really good at anything. It should have physical controls, a headphone jack, a smaller screen size. Instead, it’s unwieldy, thin, fragile, and traps you with notifications and addictions. It saps the fun out of everything you could do with it and becomes just a screen for you to stare at. My Walkman, on the other hand, makes music fun. It makes it engaging. I feel more a part of what I’m listening to. It helps me support the artists I love. It’s a better experience, and even the artists I love listening to are better off for more people listening on physical media.

I wanted to get a cassette player so I could collect tapes. Artists are putting out new tapes and it’s a great way to buy albums, support the creation of music, and often get both digital and physical analog copies of your music. However, I fell in love. I wasn’t expecting that. Listening to my music via a cassette player gave me a deeper connection with music than I ever have. It reminded me of how I used to love to go to live shows multiple times a month before the pandemic and I’ve started doing it again as a result. It even got me picking up my own guitar and practicing again. Maybe one day I’ll sell my own cassettes! This physical connection to music feels like it’s exactly what the music industry needs today. Direct connection between the music and the medium holding it. Cassettes help us support art and it makes art feel accessible again. It’s something in our hands, not something we borrow via a stream from some shitty record label. My Walkman helped me be a part of that, and I’m thankful for it.