You can now buy FiiO's portable cassette player in a trendy transparent finish

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The FiiO CP13 costs £99/$129

The FiiO CP13 portable cassette player in a transparent finish on a white background.
(Image credit: FiiO)

FiiO's CP13 portable cassette player is now available to buy, and it comes in a previously unannounced transparent finish. The player is also cheaper than we were told at launch, retailing for £99 / $129 (Australian pricing is TBC).

We first spied the CP13 at the start of the year, where our deputy editor promptly fell in love with it. Its boxy look is inspired by the 1979 Sony Walkman.

Unlike We Are Rewind's cassette players, there's no Bluetooth, though it does have a USB-C port to charge up the lithium-ion battery (which lasts 13 hours). Its audio circuit is all analogue, from the magnetic tape head to the signal amplification. This makes for a "classic, unmistakably analogue sound," according to FiiO. We'll let you decide whether that's a good thing.

The FiiO CP13 cassette player in blue on a table.

(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

The motor is powered by a 4.2V power supply, which is more than the 1.8V or 3V typically found in portable cassette players. This works with a custom motor speed stabilisation circuit to increase the drag when necessary to maintain stable movement speeds, mitigating against unwanted pitch changes.

It also promises a more stable signal transmission, higher signal-to-noise ratio and lower distortion than a typical portable cassette player.

Because there's no Bluetooth, you'll need a pair of wired headphones in order to listen. The CP13 is on sale now from Advanced MP3 Players and Amazon.

MORE:

This retro-tastic Bluetooth cassette player is a modern twist on a 1979 Sony Walkman

That Was Then... Sony Walkman

A look back at 1985 and the cassette tape's heyday

Joe Svetlik
Joe Svetlik

Joe has been writing about tech for 17 years, first on staff at T3 magazine, then in a freelance capacity for Stuff, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Men's Health, GQ, The Mirror, Trusted Reviews, TechRadar and many more (including What Hi-Fi?). His specialities include all things mobile, headphones and speakers that he can't justifying spending money on.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • manicm
    FOR: Cute.
    AGAINST: So are tears.
    SUM-UP: You've been had.
    Reply
  • Gnik_Nus
    People who have bought this player have reported some problems with it. Some have said the tape speed changes, so I hope these things are addressed, and improvements are made.
    Other than that, it looks good.
    Reply
  • bemaniac
    Sadly less stable than anything decent from the late 90s. Buy refurbed and recapped for £99 instead.
    Reply
  • Corpus_Chain
    bemaniac said:
    Sadly less stable than anything decent from the late 90s. Buy refurbed and recapped for £99 instead.
    Thanks for the recommendation. Who is selling such refurbished devices?
    Reply
  • Gnik_Nus
    Corpus_Chain said:
    Thanks for the recommendation. Who is selling such refurbished devices?
    The older Walkmans from the 1990s are sold on sites like eBay and Reverb. The refurbished ones can be expensive depending on the model but sometimes you can find a bargain. It is best to check seller feedback, and if there are videos of the unit in operation, check those out.
    I have previously bought some Walkmans in eBay but I got lost of mine before the prices started to go up. I tend to avoid the fancier models because a lot of the times they are harder to repair, and even if they have just been fully serviced and fixed, they are mechanical products with complex electronics and they will fail again, even if you don’t use them much. I had some Walkman models I bought around 2006/2007, and they were fully operational and I kept them in storage. By 2011, not one of them was working but they were easy enough to repair.
    Reply