I used to take my Walkman (a WM-GX100) all over the place in my pre-teen years; it was simply cool to have the ability to take heed to music on the go, and I used to be connected to that factor — most of my trip photographs from that period had me rocking that Walkman.
When Sony’s Discman grew to become accessible a couple of years later, I converted to these fashions. I ended up shopping for a couple of dozen cassettes (principally alt rock), however the assortment wasn’t anyplace as in depth as my CD catalog, and I have not paid any consideration to them for the higher a part of twenty years.
Lately, I take advantage of Roon to stream my lossless music library all through the home, and I do not actually use any analog media. However with a resurgence in retro tech, audio producers are as soon as once more catering to this area of interest, and when Fiio stated it was making a cassette participant, I used to be .
The CP13 is aimed squarely at customers who’ve an current cassette assortment and desire a dependable approach of taking part in them again. Fiio says it needed to faithfully recreate the feel and appear of an analog gadget, and as such, it would not have Bluetooth connectivity or every other extras.
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That stated, you get some niceties: there is a built-in 1800mAh battery, and it expenses over USB-C. The CP13 is now obtainable for $109 at Amazon, and it’s bought in attention-grabbing colour choices: Crimson and Silver, Sky Blue, White and Black (what I am utilizing), and a Clear mannequin that appears wonderful.
Let’s begin with the positives: Fiio did an excellent job with the design of the CP13, and the aluminum chassis means it’s extremely sturdy. The unit is smaller than Walkmans of yesteryear, and the design is on the minimalist aspect; I nearly missed all of the extraneous logos and branding that was a mainstay on all ’90s cassette gamers.
The CP13 simply has Fiio branding at the back and front, 4 buttons on the left — play, rewind, ahead, and cease — and a quantity knob together with 3.5mm jack and USB-C port on the prime. You get a knurled texture to the amount knob that makes it simple to entry, and the playback buttons have good tactility. There is a see-through window that permits you to view the cassette, and there is a display screen protector bundled within the field that may be put in over the glass pane.
The one challenge I’ve with the design is that the lid is a bit tough to open. Fiio added an intent to at least one aspect, however ideally, it ought to have added the identical on the opposite aspect as nicely — as it’s, it takes a good quantity of drive to open the lid. That stated, there are not any points with the construct high quality in any respect.
Utilizing the CP13 could not be simpler; simply slot in a cassette, and hit the play button. The cassette participant works with all cassette sorts, has the next voltage 4.2V motor, and makes use of a completely analog audio chain. The JRC5532 op amp has sufficient energy to drive nearly any headset, and I used the CP13 with the Fiio FT5 and Sennheiser IE600.
Coming to the sound, it tends to range considerably based mostly on the recording itself. I listened to my early 2000s assortment of nu metallic and alt rock, and whereas the general high quality is not as refined, there may be an simple allure to analog media. The digital rendition of Meteora in my assortment sounds noticeably higher, but it surely is not as a lot enjoyable as listening to the cassette.
In fact, loads of this has to do with nostalgia; I affiliate listening to cassettes with my pre-teen and teenage years, and that evokes loads of reminiscences. When you’ve nonetheless bought a cassette participant from the ’80s or ’90s that is in a serviceable situation, you do not want the CP13. But when the cassette head is broken otherwise you want one thing new to take heed to your cassette catalog, Fiio’s cassette participant is a superb selection.
As a client product, the CP13 would not have anyplace near the identical finesse as cassette gamers of the previous century; the noise flooring is larger, you may have to manually fiddle with the playback velocity, and there is not the power to file. However as a software that lets you play again older cassettes and relive the nostalgia, it’s excellent.
Fiio CP13 Cassette Participant
When you want a dependable participant to take heed to your cassette library, you may want to check out the CP13.