*Correction:* The Mulann and Tomashi do have a metal flywheel, not plastic as I said -- just not as large or well-balanced of one as in the FiiO or We Are Rewind. And it is possible to adjust the speed of the FiiO without opening the case -- see my follow-up video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/sKyFo5h7t921has.html

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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!!

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

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

That big window on the B1000 is nice, you can really see the cassette!

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

Wow, the wow and flutter on the "Tomashi" was brutal on the music sample. And of course the Fiio was far too fast. Very comprehensive and entertaining test, as always, vwestlife -- thank you!

Such amazing video, Kevin! Loved every minute of it, and got to learn more about them and which ones are better to buy and which ones to avoid ♥

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.

Helpful video, I've been wondering about finding something like these. Great selection and presentation of information.

I personally bought one of those "Super USB cassette capture" walkmans, knowing they had trash mechanisms. All I needed was something that can fast forward, rewind and test tapes when I'm out at the flea market, after someone stole my Sony WM-FX271. It honestly does a decent enough job for that, and I would absolutely not recommend it to anyone, because it has terrible wow and flutter, and its speed keeps drifting as soon as the batteries are slightly used. If I were to go somewhere, like say, on vacation, I would actually carry my 2005 Panasonic boombox with me. It may weigh a ton with all 6 C batteries inside but it's probably my best cassette playing device so far. Even has full auto-stop and has a metallic permanent magnet erase head which causes less background noise and wear on recorded tapes than the typical blue erase head found in the players shown in this video, which is actually like sandpaper for your tapes.

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

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

Mulaan wins hands down. I like the large window on it too, especially these days when artists releasing tapes have really nice graphics and the tape shells come in a lot of cool colors. Seems there's a small niche market to be had for someone to manufacture a decent modern tape head/transport.

I also bought the FIIO CP13 during the initial offering and think it does sound decent for the price. No issues with the speed though. I also have the We Are Rewind in Orange which I bought last year. Not bad either I find it has a bit more bass on the eq than the FIIO. Mind you I do have other vintage Sony Walkmans like the WM-3 Metal Version of the TPSL2, WMD6 and another one. I didn't have high expectations for any of the new ones. The only thing they offer is they are new and don't require maintenance and for commuting they serve a purpose. I also like to listen to them through wired headphones not bluetooth as there is some loss in the transfer. Thanks for the reviews.

Another bangin Vwest video. I kinda want one of these with Bluetooth because I spend a lot of time listening to my JBL outside. Would be cool to listen to my tapes on it.

I‘m still rocking my Aiwa HS-GMX 700 from back then. Never did anything to it besides cleaning the head. Still works with Dolby and full logic controls etc. A fine piece of tech! Probably wouldn’t buy a modern one.

I got the 'We Are Rewind' unit and I'm pretty happy with it. I normally listen with AKG K371 headphones and the sound is very acceptable. The battery seems to last forever. I charged it when I first got it and been using it many hours since then and still going strong. I also have a Philips AQ6542 from around 1992. It's a playback only unit with integrated AM/FM radio. Thanks for the great review!

I have bought a Retekess tr606 on November which was my second knock off walk man I bought last year. It works well and I had recorded 4 mixtapes on it since I bought it using my mic and audio adapter with an audio cable connected to my phone. Only problem, the wow and flutter is terrible especially during the recording but the playback is mostly tolerable but the audio output is MONO both through the built-in speaker and through the headphone jack. Hope you'll find some time reviewing it too. I bought that Retekess Tr606 at around 1100 Philippine Pesos almost 20 US Dollars from our own local online store.

Wowwww , that first Sony walkman you showed in the video I had that one. It was great with the TV and weather bands. Takes me back👍

Thanks 😊 for the tests and advice. I remember about 40 years ago when good Aiwa's had Dolby, solenoid controls and a radio with digital display.😊

Thanks so much for all the work you have put into this much NEEDED comparison vid. It really is something we need when looking at forking out your $$ on what is literally a minefield of quality variables despite prices at either end of the scale. I just wish a quality portable tape recorder could be put to market. It is obviously a difficult ask as the market is a small one.

I remember DAK. I used to get their catalogs and wanted the bubble jet printer and the linear turntable from them.

Nice a walkman video thanks Kevin for bringing me in the past. Very interesting video

what i like about the wearerewind is the built in battery, audio-in, and BLUETOOTH. its so tempting

I like the 'We are rewind' and FIIO, but love the Realistic, great looking machine and sounds pretty good too.

Very interesting. Thanks for your footage. I love this kind a videos. Old audio tape equipment is getting rare. I have to look out for my two sony TC D 5 M, if they still work. Keep up the good work. I used the sony devices for my field work back in the days.

These videos have been awesome. I still rock with cassettes on my hi-fi equipment.

Well, I wasn't gonna buy a new walkman anyway, but I did just discover that my speakers are reversed. Damn Altec Lansing PC speakers aren't labeled. This is why those old DOS games had "reverse stereo channels" options.

Maybe open that blue one and find out where to drill a hole in the casing

I have that exact late-model silver Sony cassette walkman that you showed at the opening of the vid.

Thank you for this video, it's just what I wanted to see, thumbs up!

Thanks Kevin excellent video as always. The belt on my 1999 MD Walkman is still original!

Even though my current Sony Walkman is still working and I use it in my newer vehicle with auxiliary, that lacks playback of any physical media like cassettes and CDs. I’m glad there’s at least few decent quality portable cassette players like the Fiio and Mulan players are worth getting for a brand new cassette player!

I could tell using my EARS the first one was the best! I have a Sanyo M1010 portable tape deck that dates back to 1980, it is like a walkman in size but has an internal speaker, mic input, internal mic, remote, headphone out, DB meter. Only mono tape heads, recording and playback. Still works somehow!!! Takes 4x AA batteries. My old 1997 Sanyo "walkman" clone died whilst sitting in a box, this was the beginning of the end of long lasting tech! Lead free solder, it apexed with the Xbow 360 with the RRoD - the solder would heat up cool heat up cool etc, then eventually the CPU would disconnect from the motherboard, thus killing the console. They fixed this, but when using lead free solder things do not last as long!!

Love your channel Kevin one of the few I still watch.

I have two Sony walkmans from the 90's in a drawer. Both work perfectly fine. Haven't used them in over 20 years, because I'm not going back to that.

I only had one cassette walkman as a kid, probably around 1987 - a bottom of the line Sanyo with no radio and no rewind. It wasn't practical to walk around with it in the city (and not hear the traffic coming at you) so I used it to play tapes while I fell asleep (mostly Beatles and Monkees.) I remember the batteries were good for about two hours of play maybe, so that got expensive for a 12 year old. Would pick one up if I ran across one again for old times sake.

when I close my eyes I can imagine my self back in that era, where night sky are full of stars, open grass breezed gentle wind passing by without sound only the sound of music i heard this walk man have superb head quality, auto replay, soft earmuff. ahhh 9pm time to go home with my bmx, next cassette will do accompany my commute home

Fiio making a portable tape player? That's funky. They're known for pretty good DACs and Amps. My Sony WM-EX50 has the same flaw with its case. It's really not thought trough very well.

During my younger years of operating a photo studio in LA I used cassettes to set the mood for the shoot! At the time I had a few thousand! I loved the sound and was easier to handle then lps! Being close to Hollywood I walked to the theater listening to cassettes on my Walkman ! Hate to admit it I miss those days! I still have cassettes and buy them from a local shop! Yes I have cds, lps etc I enjoy them better than cd no way better than lps maybe! Do I use a Walkman no I listen to my phone and the cds I’ve copied on Amazon music! Love your show at 77 can’t afford the stuff you discuss but I enjoy your shows!

I have found speed to usually be fast. I believe this has a lot to do with the belt and lubricants used. Just as you mentioned, they may be calibrated perfectly at the time of assembly, but after a few minutes of play, the belt tension eases and so does the viscosity of the lubricants. When I install new belts, I almost always adjust the speed a little slow. Unless it's a very high quality belt, they all almost always stretch slightly and pick up speed over time

A consise and fair comparison of these four new "Walkman" that leaves it to the viewer to work out where the price Vs performance value lies so thank's for making it. If only the slot to adjust speed was getatable in the Fiio that would go a long way to replacing older well made players that are showing their age.

Thanks for the memory jog. Many hours spent listening to my Walkman. Not a care in the world. Just the music. Those were the days.

I’ve never owned any of these, but the most rarest one of the bunch is the Superscope Story Teller TP-101 cassette player from the 1970’s. It only has a fast forward switch, but earlier models doesn’t, and it doesn’t rewind. If you turn the tape over, and switch it to fast forward, it would use as a rewind. The Superscope Story Teller cassette player was designed for kids, and it usually came with the Superscope Story Teller book and cassette tapes that you get back in the 1970’s.

How does the recording work on the models that support it? is there a mic built in or a line in jack?

Great video and I appreciate all the testing... I thought the Mulann B1000 sounded the best of all of the new ones, maybe even a bit better than the vintage ones.. seemed "warmer" sounding or something..

When my friends went to Japan in the 1980's, many of them came back with a Walkman that looked futuristic and sounded amazing.

The Radioshack deck passes the Amiga interpretation of stereo with flying colors

Although Sundays used to be my relax day with a new VWestlife video, I'm glad you started posting more on Monday, as it makes the trauma of the start of the week (working from home) a bit easier to bear.

Great and thorough video

Holy shit I had no idea old walkmans were selling for such insane prices. I have three that still work that I haven't used in years. Definitely will sell now. Thanks!

Great video! I know this isn’t particularly important compared to everything else about these players, but the design of the We Are Rewind player bothers me in that they couldn’t get the tape reels centered in the lower half of the circular window, or rather, didn’t adjust the design a bit to get the window’s lower half centered on the reels. The other players with windows seem to have done a better job with that in their designs.

Cheers for the vid. I've been recently trying to fix up an old Realistic walkman (SCP-40) and while a new belt has gotten the thing working, only ac power works, which kind of kills the portability. Fingers crossed they fix the Fiio issues

nice to see the much better HD camera back

Good to know what the wow and flutter is supposed to be, also actually measuring it after changing each thing when restoring is KEY to not making it worse. I'm glad my Sony TCS-430 is probably where it should be, as it has .22% RMS wow and flutter after doing a lot to it. Funnily enough with the old belt, as the new ones from Decktech (specifically for it) and from Aliexpress (assorted) were actually worse. So I can finally not muck about with it, as it sounds OK to me. I had to: -glue the broken off rear capstan bearing back in place (I was like ha ha, oh come on when I saw it, probably a good enough reason to throw it away) -relap the motor commutator because it was emitting too much purely magnetic noise (even when powered from an entirely separate battery I could hear the motor in the headphones when I placed it roughly where it should be, without even touching the metal parts with it, but couldn't find a new motor), -change the rubber idler that drives the reel in play mode (that one was hard to find, so I tried 3D printing it. Right flexibility and size, but zero traction due to being TPU and not rubber. Used what I think was some water pipe gasket in the end), -restore globs of solder where the screws attach the mechanism to the PCB actually connect to ground, to decrease motor noise, -3D print a rubber motor damper, because the old one was so soft the belt would fall off, -lubricate the motor and capstan with 50-50 mix of watch mechanism oil and 5W30 engine oil, and the rest just with engine oil, -change some capacitors in the motor driver, -clean switches and pots, -bend the pinch roller holder tip a little to make the pinch roller press more onto the capstan (the end of the holder acts as a spring), -lose several retaining clips and find new ones that fit, because it happens, -change the belts, but I only kept the new counter belt since that was missing entirely and the older capstan belt is better, -change the microphone cable as that was broken, reattach the speaker many times as it kept coming off as I opened it and closed for each of the other things, clean and demagnetize things of course, adjust head azimuth with a We Love Analog calibration tape and an oscilloscope, rearrange some cables to make motor less audible, but it's old so it's still slightly hearable,but less so with an actual tape inserted, let it run overnight on a few occasions to let the belts and stuff run themselves in and become less wowy, and then calibrate speed again. And I got it from 2% wow and flutter (after gluing the bearing back in place and changing the motor mount) to 0.22%ish (after everything else). And it sounds good enough to listen to without suffering, even the recordings made with it, and I'm fed up with repairing it. Also most of it is wow rather than flutter, so it's not too annoying. So yeah, getting a Walkman to work once it doesn't can be just a belt change, byt it can be everything else than that. Which is why it's so annoying the new mechanisms are at very best only as bad as a 40 year old one with a broken and reattached capstan bearing and 3D printed parts. I also have a transparent Chinese Tanashin clone player that had about 0.35% wow and flutter when new, but now it has about 0.8% after letting it run for a few hours thinking it will get better. And in terms of sound it has like just the mids and hiss, so not a recommended buy at all.

Okay i am interested in FiiO model the most

Just clicked and cant wait to see what's up here, been looking for a way to bring my old Stompin Tom tapes on dog walks and road trips

I wish someone could crowdsource a new mechanism, designed by tape lovers for tape lovers.

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.

Great review!

The Mulann seems pretty good, but the one thing that I do like is the very large window. Since a lot of record players were visible, many labels were very artfully done and is arguably why we see so many records today on coloured vinyl. This might be because when I was a kid I was fascinated watching records spin on the turntable, so when I found out CDs spin even faster, but most players were closed units, it hurt my feelings.

I love my We Are Rewind. I like a lot FiiO, I think I'll buy it in the future.

Man I feel old I fondly remember my walkmans from the 80s that had auto reverse, flip heads to change sides, track search and even smaller size than those available now.

My first portable cassette player was a Sears house brand. I got it in 1983. It did not have a rewind function, but I did not care in my freshman year in high school.

Great and seems a rather honest comparison, thanks for this! What's the software you are using for measuring W&F, please? Thanks

I still have one, and I have some cassettes where I recorded my songs, those are so beautiful!

This is fascinating. Thank you for being so thorough.

It's good they're making stereo Walkman still.. I have a vintage Emerson from the 90s that I like because it has the FM and AM radio bass boost . The only thing that sucks on it is the Auto stop doesn't work that good anymore. It was the typical personal stereo that you would see at Ames department stores and Caldor. When I get a bigger place thankfully I have stored away a pioneer Auto rewind play dual cassette deck as well as a sansui cassette deck. I hope to stack these with my Optimus linear tracking turntable. And then I'll have a nice stereo set up when I find for the right price a receiver. Anyways good review and in depth as always.

Excellent content, thank you very much

I am sticking to my Sharp 722 MD player and record . Crystal clear sound.

Why so expensive . They all seem to cost far too much . Glad there is still interest in tapes though . I love them .

Great video and very timely for folks who might rush into buying any new arrivals assuming that all new would be great. Thanks! On another note for folks having old equipment in great physical condition, it will be extremely helpful to point to sources of bels, pinch rollers for restoration and, and, most importantly where can we get these Test Tapes for calibration restored equipment

One thing I thought I would mention to all the cassette lovers out there looking to entertain in your automobile like myself with old mix tapes. I have tried many vintage and newer portable cassette players & they all go crazy with my cell phone transmitting electrical interference. I had to place my iphone in the drivers side door tray with the player on the passenger seat & even still it was intermittent. Recently I purchased the "We Are Rewind". Its been great in the car! Maybe it has something to do with the metal case as a shielding or better internal circuity but it sounds great with it plugged into the AUX port (3.5mm jack) there’s plenty of volume and bass.

Cool. Thank you! I'm gonna have to dig out my 2 personal cassette players. I've got a Sanyo auto-reverse model, considerably larger than others and I have a Sony Sports Walkman with radio. Have you seen how much these are going for now? Astounding! Maybe I'll have to sell my Sony. The last few times I used it was at football games to hear the play-by-play.

Would you recommend the tomoshi here or a Sony tcm 500? I was interested in a tcm500 but read on Reddit that they’re mono audio and that means they sound bad, really disappointed and out of my depth

A great start to my week lad. Brilliant!

Thank you for the comparison and video. I really hope to see a premium "walkman" in the near future. It's crazy that we can't buy a decent one! Really disappointed with the Fiio and WAR. Was thinking about buying the Fiio, but changed my mind after this video. Please post the response from Fiio. Really interested in their response.

Great video!!

thanks so much for the comparison

The best cassette player I ever owned was an Optimus SCP-43 that I purchased on 1990 when it was on Sale for $100. If it hadn't wall from my shirt pocket I would still have it with me.

what program did you use to detect wow and flutter?.also the drive mechanisms on all those new players are the ones that chew up tapes if the take up reel jams as it won't dtect the problem and will keep using the pinch and capstan to take in more tape.

Thank you, thank you so much!

I've got the We Are Rewind one, and I have to say that it sounds very good, with unnoticeable flutter (no distorsion on pianos and guitars at all). My biggest concern is about the recording quality: I didn't expect much from a permanent magnet setup but... omg my ears...

5:33 Can you get around this by degaussing the tape beforehand?

Snap, Crackle & Pop vs. Wow & Flutter. How did we survive? I was reborn when CD’s came out.

The video i have been waiting for is here!!

That opening segment reminded me that I need to get the belts replaced on at least one of my Walkmen. I've got several, and all of them need new belts. I just haven't gotten around to changing any of the belts, mostly for fear of half-assing the replacement.