Four new Walkman-style cassette players - Are they any good?

Testing four models trying to be a modern-day Sony Walkman cassette player: the Mulann B-1000 EW, FiiO CP13, We Are Rewind WE-001, and Tomashi F-113.

Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
1:29 The contenders
2:27 Features and sizes
3:51 The mechanism
5:57 Speed and wow & flutter
9:30 Audio quality
13:51 The verdict

#RetroTech #cassette #walkman

[gwheregwhizz]

1980s - How did they build the pyramids all those years ago?
2024 - How did they build a decent cassette deck all those years ago?

[themaritimegirl]

That email response has some strong "you'll eat what we feed you and you'll like it" energy.

[kevinh]

Basically all Fio need to do is allow access to the speed pot and it'll be a decent little player.

[angelfire]

Finally! A decent comparison of newer portable cassette players. It's nice to see a good comparison between a lot of new ones; most videos online pertaining to newer cassette players tend to go after a singular one of these models, and then compare it to a fully refurbished, high end walkman from the 80s. I'm glad you didn't do that here, as I think this will be a nice little guide for newcomers getting in to tapes for the first time.

I would like to throw in the cheapest alternative to all of these, that being the Jensen SCR-75. You can usually get them under 20 dollars, and they still output in stereo. Not the greatest in terms of fidelity, but it's a good way to get a decent stereo playback-only cassette player for the lowest possible price.

[WillWill]

FiiO CP13 does have a speed adjustment point, its just inside the front cassette bay, and very well hidden... there's a rectangle cut in the black plastic near the top right, and the adjustment point is inside that hole.

[Thisispick]

This is the channel that got me into collecting audio cassettes, so it’s great to see you talk about these models! I got the B-1000 as my first real cassette player in January of last year. It’s a great selection for someone just getting into cassettes, but it makes me sad that the really good players have been left in the past.

Great video!!

[Kartoffelliebhaber]

I saw another review of these devices, and i was really hoping you would make a video! Thank you, my favorite tech reviewer on Youtube.

[ettinold]

My son wanted a Walkman-esque player. We spotted a boxed Ferguson ( budget 1980's brand here in the UK ) model in a local charity shop for £30.
It had clearly never been used. It is from around 1983-4.
Unbelievably it plays perfectly. I put some Energiser AA lithium batteries in it as there is no danger of them leaking & have given him strict instructions to look after it.

[Onteo]

Love the DAK equipment at the 13:00 mark. My very first Walkman was right out of his catalog in the very early 80s. I still have it and it works great. Nice overview.

[GaryKeepItSimple]

I noticed that the WOW & FLUTTER figures came out very similar to the We Are Rewind that I tested. Which was well run in.

[manoflego]

A brand new day, a brand new VWestLife video on cassette players. Life is good.

[AdamRamseythetouchable]

I could tell they were all the same cheap mechanism through before you even opened them. You can see it through the windows.

[PSSSSOd]

The only thing that brought the step up in quality in the 80s for walkmans/personal radio cassette players was competition. So many amazing technical achievements in sound quality and innovation were driven by the immense competition. I doubt we'll ever see that kind of drive again for the format, but it's good to know the high end vintage pieces from the time still hold up. I managed to get a nice amount of high end Walkmans including my daily-driver WM-F1002 before the prices went silly. The quality of the manufacturing is really something to be appreciated, compared to virtually anything mass produced today, let alone the performance. Really enjoyed this comparison video, it's something I hope you''ll keep doing as hopefully more surface and I sincerely hope you thrift a high end Walkman at some stage, you really deserve it.

[Xeraser]

The mechanisms for these are dirt cheap and yet most of them cost as much if not more than a modern full size player...

[CARLiCON]

cool test V-dub, sounds like we have 2 issues here; all of these players seem to be playing at different speeds/pitches & then there's the W&F. What's really interesting to me is how you've illustrated that acoustic piano music is really a great ear test for wow & flutter, especially when it sustains, you really notice the speed is inconsistent, while the bass & drums don't really sound that bad

[twocvbloke]

It's a fun comparison, showing how the same mechanism can vary so much in performance, and the fact that at least one of the case-makers pretty much say "Meh, not our fault!" because of those differences...

[ilusha]

I preordered a Fiio. Hope they hash out the speed issue so thanks for telling them about it!

[Nile]

I actually contacted We Are Rewind about the W&F aswell about a year ago as my player had a W&F of 0.6. I have had four of them so far though and all the others measured in at 0.3 to 0.4. They're also very sensitive to playing with the wrong azimuth, when you carry them around, the sound changes a lot, some tapes sound better when you hold the cassette door slightly open or stick a paper in it. It definitely has it's weaknesses, but at least there are new models available now, for a long time there were only the trashy 10$ Amazon or AliExpress ones. We've come a step into the right direction, but we're not quite there yet.

[moar_nightsong]

Thank you so much for making this video. I feel like newer cassette players tend to have way more variables going into their performance as opposed to cheap record players which all generally perform same. I'm so glad to see this topic being explored in depth.

[mickaka]

Worth noting that unlike many others which have fixed level recording, the We Are Rewind has auto-levelling, which has to be used with an amplified input not line level.
The manual suggests the device you’re recording from be at its maximum output volume!

We’ve managed to make some acceptable recordings on my son’s unit from his laptop following those instructions.

Given how much I ended up spending restoring some of my Sony Walkmans to working order, I’d probably still recommend one of these for someone just getting in to the format.