Tag Archives: cassette

Old walkman becomes cassette player and storage unit

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“Everything old is new again” is an adage that we will probably never escape. How we listen to music continually evolves but it seems that we still have a certain fondness for the old way like vinyls, CDs, and yes, even cassette tapes. Streaming music on our mobile devices is the most convenient but there’s a certain nostalgia attached to “vintage” that we enjoy. And of course, the music quality is way different to the compressed ones we have now.

Designer Name: Love Hulten

This designer is obviously of the generation that still enjoyed listening to music on cassette tapes since the main component of this device is his old Sony Walkman WM-EX655. And he still has a collection of cassette tapes so we know he’s a serious collector. What he developed is something straight out of a 60s science fiction movie. But instead of using it to conduct experiments, you use it as it was originally intended: to play sweet, sweet music.

What he came up with is a cassette player and storage unit for the colorful cassette tape cases. There’s also built-in dual circular speakers, keyboard switches and buttons with various functions like play, stop, forward, rewind, etc. There’s also an audio waveform meter to go along with the beat of the music and even a tape slot to put in the case of the album you’re currently playing. The cabinet looking device blends design and technology to give you a truly retro piece of equipment that still performs its original function.

It’s of course a device that he made for himself since he has been collecting and keeping cassette tapes. But unlike vinyls and CDs that you can still buy from a lot of places, I don’t know that many stores that still sell cassettes. So the possibility of having a commercial version of this is very slim.

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This seemingly real cassette tape is actually a fun power bank in disguise

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Power banks or portable batteries are a common part of modern life. While our devices are continually getting more powerful, the batteries inside them haven’t exactly evolved at the same pace. Faster charging and power banks are our stopgap measures until batteries become a lot better without increasing their sizes. Thanks to this situation, the market for portable batteries has grown and thrived, offering people a dizzying number of choices ranging in size, capacity, and features. Of course, there are also different designs as well, but the majority of power banks seem to come in elegant yet drab shades of white, black, and gray. From time to time, however, we do come upon a distinctive-looking design, such as this rather cute power bank that emulates the look of an old-school cassette tape almost perfectly.

Designer: Remax

OK, it isn’t a completely faithful rendition of the well-known medium. It’s rather thick, closer to a Video 8 than a cassette tape, but the markings are all in the right places. Naturally, there are no reels to turn, which would have required a more complex internal design that would make it more inefficient as a portable battery. Accurate imitation shouldn’t get in the way of functionality, especially for a critical accessory such as this.

Regardless of those minor drawbacks, the Remax Powerbank Tape still packs quite a punch when it comes to visual appeal and “wow” factor. Whether it’s the yellow original, the Apple Lightning-equipped red variant, or the new green and yellow update, the cassette tape battery is sure to catch people’s attention, especially once you take it out and plug it into your phone. It even has a transparent case just to complete the illusion of an old-school product.

The Remax Powerbank Tape isn’t lacking in features either, at least on paper. The original model supports both the old micro USB connector and USB-C for input, while only the red has support for Apple Lightning to charge the power bank itself. The newer 2023 model sets itself apart by including two pull-out USB-C cables for output. There’s an assortment of other ports, though, including full-sized USB-A, and in some cases, a small LED flashlight. The location of the ports also depends on which model you buy, and there can be different options, depending on where you’re looking.

That said, you might have second thoughts about investing in this rather adorable blast from the past. Availability is a hit or miss, and you can’t exactly be assured of the quality when it comes to online retailers. There are also some inconsistencies with the specs, like the actual rated capacity of the battery versus its advertised capacity. Given its low average selling price, though, it still makes for an interesting gift, like those short-lived power banks some people give away at events.

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These cassette-shaped white noise machines play ambient sounds to keep you focused/relaxed

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Each cassette is representative of a different series of soundtracks, ranging from forest audioscapes to sounds of rain, the ocean, and even white noise.

Witchcraft is a series of ambient speakers designed to look like cassettes. Encased in the familiar clear cassette case, these palm-sized portable audio players play soothing serene sounds through their speaker units, helping calm, de-stress, and energize you. The cassettes can be carried around with you and placed on your desk or even in your pocket, although they’re best paired with their clear case, which doubles as a vertical stand/dock for the cassettes. Rather clever, no?

Designer: Wu Design

The name ‘Witchcraft’ comes directly from the translation of its Chinese name Wu ZhaoJing, although the cassettes themselves have nothing to do with magic or the occult. They’re more like relaxation tapes that are quite literally tape-inspired. A button on top lets you switch the cassette on or off, and a USB port on the side lets you charge your cassette when it’s running low on battery.

There are 5 soundscapes you can choose from, with a separate cassette and artwork for each category. What’s really lovable about the Witchcraft cassettes is their analog charm and handy design that you can carry with you anywhere. The audio tracks are actual sound recordings too, rather than being ambient electronic looped tracks. I like the commitment to keeping things old school!

The Witchcraft cassettes are currently just a conceptual project, so there isn’t any information on exactly how they work, what they cost, or how long their battery lasts. However, they’re interesting both conceptually and visually, and even though they don’t really repurpose old cassettes, I’d like to think that something of that nature is possible. After all, if you can fit an entire Raspberry Pi computer into a cassette, why not a music system??

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This DIY retro audio player is a cute homage to 80s cassette tape recorders

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Some of us may laugh at the fashion, designs, and technologies of the past, but sooner or later, they actually become the inspiration for products and designs of today. The number of successful and profitable “retro” recreations has proven the power of nostalgia, especially when you can avoid the limitations of the past. Tape recorders, for example, were rather funky-looking contraptions from our modern point of view, which also makes them a perfect candidate for a retro recreation. Unsurprisingly, someone did take on such an endeavor and gave the venerable cassette record from the 80s a modern makeover, one that relives part of the look and feel of the original but without the physical and mechanical restrictions.

Designer: Max.K

Given the technologies of that era, the cassette tape itself was a revolutionary invention that freed people to listen to music away from the hulking phonographs at home. Cassette players and recorders came in all shapes and sizes, but one of the most iconic forms was a flat box that would lie on a table or desk. You would see these devices even on TV, usually used as a prop for recording interviews, interrogations, or depositions, making their form easily identifiable even today.

A retro cassette player would have to stay true to that form, but it doesn’t need to have loyalties to the same flimsy and unreliable physical medium. In other words, this Retro Audio Player is practically a digital player in old-school clothing, but one with a few tricks and quirks that make it delightful to look at and fun to use.

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The 2.8-inch display on top, for example, tries to visualize the spinning reels of an honest-to-goodness cassette player, making it look almost like the real deal from afar. There are no extraneous elements on the screen other than the name of the file being played, the artist, and its progress, sticking closely to the unavoidably bare designs of its predecessors. And yes, it plays files stored on an SD card you slot into its side.

The DIY Retro Audio Player is also simple to use, with only a dial for volume and three buttons that are actually MX keyboard switches in disguise. The bright yellow paint job on top almost makes it look like a toy, and any child can actually operate it thanks to its simplicity. Whether it will survive rough handling from youngsters, however, is a different question entirely.

Its simplicity is also its Achilles’ heel, though, at least as far as audio players are concerned. Its diminutive size only has room for a single speaker, making it better suited for audiobooks than party music, but it does have a headphone jack in case you want more oomph. The three “buttons” can only pause or play the music and switch tracks, nothing to fast-forward or rewind within the same song like modern audio players. That said, the Retro Audio Player wasn’t envisioned to be a full-blown media player and more as a fun-looking nod to the past, and in that regard, it definitely scores an A+.

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Someone managed to fit an entire Raspberry Pi computer inside the body of a cassette

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This isn’t a throwback. If nothing, it’s actually a throw-forward. Designed to show how far we’ve come in a span of 4 decades, this cassette has a fully-functioning Raspberry Pi computer inside it running a ZX Spectrum emulator inside it. Hacked together by Stuart Brand, the cassette pays tribute to his first-ever computer, the ZX Spectrum. The ZX Spectrum was an 8-bit personal home computer developed by Sinclair Research. Ironically enough, Stuart would write programs on the ZX Spectrum and store them on cassette tapes. 40 years later, the entire ZX Spectrum computer can practically fit inside the same cassette’s plastic body, with a few minor adjustments made to allow the parts and ports to line up perfectly.

Designer: Stuart Brand

Making use of his time between jobs, Brand decided to head down to his garage and brush up on his tinkering and coding skills. “I wouldn’t have had a clue how to build any of this stuff before lockdown,” he said. “It goes to prove that you never know what you’re capable of until you give it a go.”

Faced with a space constraint, Stuart chose the Raspberry Pi Zero W for the project. “Cassette shells make for a great form factor,” he said, “I started with a plain black spare cassette shell and used a small hand file and side cutters to remove the plastic supports in preparation for fitting the heatsink.” The heatsink (shown at the top of the article) was created from scratch too, using a sheet of scrap metal and a bandsaw to fashion the crude shape of the metal heatsink. A Dremel, needle files, and fine-grit sandpaper were used to finesse the shape.

The 5mm interior of the cassette meant Stuart had to hack together his solution. To ensure that the PCB of the Raspberry Pi Zero W didn’t end up peeking out through the cassette’s two holes, he ended up carving out a portion of the PCB, ensuring the illusion was complete. Thankfully, this didn’t affect the functionality of his computer. “I lost some GPIO ports, but it was well worth it to get the tape looking right.” Stuart then cleverly used the top and the bottom of the cassette to house his ports, allowing you to easily connect cables to the device and get it working. That required a bit of cutting and sanding too, although it didn’t do anything to the cassette’s front profile, leaving it looking exactly the way it should. In fact, to complete his build, Stuart even printed labels that he would then stick on top of the cassette! He now uses his ZX Spectrum Pi Cassette as a ‘pick up and play’ device whenever he fancies “a quick bash at some old school gaming.”

Sadly, though, there aren’t any schematics for others to build their own ZX Spectrum Pi Cassettes. Describing himself as a haphazard tinkerer with little electronics experience, Stuart went into the project headfirst, with little planning or detailing, and with the entire process effectively mapped out in his head. “I don’t have any schematics to share,” he apologizes, “and never measure anything.” His only standing advice to people looking to emulate his build is to “leave far more room for cables than you think you’ll need.”

Stuart’s build was featured in this month’s official Raspberry Pi magazine MagPi issue 116.

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Sony Walkman music player docks your smartphone like a cassette player, reviving nostalgic memories

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This cool Sony Walkman is a modern audio player that doubles as a digital detox gadget for audiophiles who keep staring at their screen.

Who can forget the nostalgia of rewinding the same song over and over again on the good old Walkman cassette player? That’s one thing every millennial as a kid would relate to. Fast-forward to the present day, and we have the smartphone tending to all our music listening needs (unless you’re a hardcore audiophile) – virtually having all the music out there in the world just a finger swipe away. Such is the drastic shift in technology ever since the popularity of cassettes and cassette players in the late 1980s.

The analog side of gadgets has almost faded away in modern times and the digital age has overshadowed the charm of most classic stuff. But analog is not a fad – rather an ever-blossoming culture – and that’s a fact proven all these centuries when applied to any kind of domain. The Walkman SSS (Smart Sound System) by Ja Heon Lee proves it alright, mashing up the modern digital with the old classic to satiate the lust for music in a niche form factor. The Sony Walkman opens up like any analog cassette player and docks the smartphone with the screen facing outwards. The information screen of the compatible music player app displays the music information through the animation which resembles the look of a cassette tape.

On top of the music player, there is the detachable multi-controller which acts like an interface to control the music, take important calls or view lyrics on the fly. All this while your smartphone sits snug inside the Walkman. This is like a digital detox for all the screen time with a bit of added fun seeing the music being played out of the pseudo cassette player. It will surely transition you to good places in your subconscious memory, reviving old times when less was more!

Designer: Ja Heon Lee

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Fisher-Price Boombox Ready to Bring the Noise

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If you grew up in the ’80s, you might remember this classic Fisher-Price toy – a cassette player designed for just for kids. It was build from chunky, nearly indestructible plastic, and had big buttons on top for its basic functions. It also had terrible, tinny sound, but that’s no longer a problem thanks to HiFi Luggage.

These guys mod everything from suitcases to lunchboxes with high quality amplifiers and speakers, and for this build, they pimped out one of the aforementioned Fisher-Price cassette players and turned it into a boombox.

It’s now got 20 watts of digital amplification, a rechargeable 8 hour battery, and packs a two 3″ woofers, two 1.5″ passive radiators, and two 1.5″ speakers up front. The whole case has been sealed for optimal acoustics, and it’s been designed to kick out some serious volume for its size. Simply connect your device via Bluetooth, and you’ll be rocking today’s tunes on this classic ’80s relic.

Sadly, it no longer plays cassette tapes, which is a bit of a bummer, but as you can see, there really wasn’t any room inside to keep the mechanism. The LED-illuminated Bell Biv Devoe cassette has been permanently sealed inside. Still, it’s a pretty awesome build, but also quite pricey at $595. Check it out over on Etsy.

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