FiiO CP13 Portable Cassette Player (Blue & Red Only) $99 Delivered @ Addicted to Audio

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FiiO CP13 Portable Cassette Player (Blue & Red Only) $99 Delivered @ Addicted to Audio
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narcoleptic-haze on 29/03/2026 - 21:24 addictedtoaudio.com.au (4440 clicks)

I've not used one of the portable players yet (though I've just ordered one), but I've been using a new TEAC W-1200 for a few years and have been buying a few albums on cassette. I know there are extreme limitations on the mech in these players, although the one used here is supposed to be spec'd up a bit.

Blue and Red variants only, at this price.

No bluetooth on this model and no recording function (unlike the We Are Rewind one), just playback only. But it does have a built-in rechargeable battery.

Please note that FiiO is supposedly in the process of creating a new cassette mechanism which is much thinner and will likely feature recording etc. Could be ready for this year - so there will be a new player out at some point which will undoubtedly be better than this one. Although i suspect it will have a bigger price tag to match!

But this, for $99? Seems like a great deal if you're curious about cassette playback.

Electrical & Electronics Cassette Player FiiO

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  • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 21:31
    +55

    Why?

    • GS-RN on 29/03/2026 - 21:40
      +26

      There is a reason why these cost so much, basically has to do with lost tech/good quality parts hard to source and no mass production like there was in the 80s and 90s which is why no one outside a few companies have yet to do better than the Sony Walkman.

      Why dumb tech like this? You own the crap you play on it/no subscription services/keep you off your phone/less distractions/is completely offline and can be used anywhere.

      If you want a modern alternative that looks like cassette player and been a decent entry point into DABs look into a Snowsky Echo or Echo Mini (one of FiiO's subbrands). I got that but just purchased a Hibby R1 and got like 11000 songs on it with all FLAC files.

      • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 21:47
        +15

        You own the crap you play on it/no subscription services

        Why not a mp3 player, a minidisc or a CD player?

        I've got all my music on a SD card on a burner phone, which I take with me when I want no distraction.

        Then I use the sim card from that deal if I really need to access Internet.

        • Clear on 29/03/2026 - 21:52
          +25

          Why not a mp3 player, a minidisc or a CD player?

          … because they don't take tapes?

          • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 21:56
            -5

            @Clear: Not like you had at least 30 years to "transition" off tapes. It's magnetic, don't they degrade with time?

            • Clear on 29/03/2026 - 22:08
              +31

              @ShouldIBuyIt: Wait until you find out people collect vinyls and old cars.

              • M00Cow on 29/03/2026 - 22:16
                +5

                @Clear: that's different. In no universe is cassettes a better technology to digital. It's like getting dial up for internet.

                I still don't understand vinyl, but at least they can (not so successfully) argue it's analogue to analogue so in theory (but not in practice) more "pure" or "natural".

                • Clear on 29/03/2026 - 22:20
                  +17

                  @M00Cow:

                  I still don't understand vinyl,

                  You’re focusing only on quality of sound and that's not why people collect vinyl or tapes. There's a lot of reasons around having the physical media, the artwork and nostalgia.

                  It's the same as cars. Modern cars and EVs outperform older ones in almost every way, but people still collect older cars for feel, character, design etc.

                  • fantombloo on 29/03/2026 - 23:58

                    @Clear:

                    It's the same as cars.

                    Not really. They're not making new vintage cars - vintage cars are just what they were. Theres no big market for new vintage cars, some shaped as replicas, others shaped as modern cars but with 1960s style motors under the hood, and that cost more than new modern cars.

                    But it's fine, people can like what they like.

                    • Clear on 29/03/2026 - 23:59

                      @fantombloo: They're not making new vintage tapes either. They are of course making new tapes.

                      But yes you're right. People can choose what they like to love.

                    • cydia9k on 30/03/2026 - 08:49
                      +2

                      @fantombloo: This isn't HIFI tech, this is purely nostalgia and a tactile experience. Case closed.

                • spaceflight on 29/03/2026 - 22:57
                  +2

                  @M00Cow: Are you also against printed media like books?

                • whyisave on 29/03/2026 - 23:54
                  +1

                  @M00Cow:

                  In no universe is cassettes a better technology to digital.

                  With cassettes, you're forced by the nature of its technology to be patient and listen to something in sequence / chronology and in real-time.

                  No quick skips to different tracks.

                  Nothing about cassettes is quick or quality, but more about it's own way of reminiscing something.

                • huggsymersh on 30/03/2026 - 17:58

                  @M00Cow: Apparently a lot of people who buy vinyl these days don't even own a record player, 50% according to a survey (note to self, and others, how do they actually calculate this???!!!)

                  https://www.nme.com/news/music/study-finds-50-per-cent-of-vi…

                  Anyway, vinyl does have some niche appeal for a certain audience. Music from the 50s-80s was mixed to take into account certain physical limitations of the vinyl medium, difficulty dealing with low frequencies as an example. This often resulted in a particular sound, for example necessitating a greater dynamic range than the music we hear that is currently produced that doesn't 'suffer' from these constraints. Remastering in the 80s and onwards of older material resulted in quite a different sound to the originals. A good example of this is the Beatles CD reissues, which were done in the 80s and sound pretty flat and anaemic. Perhaps ears in the 80s just wanted it to be clear and polished, but they are quite a bit less 'garagey' than the originals or the later remasters in the late 2010s (I think).

                  I had a Joni Mitchell album in original vinyl, remastered vinyl and CD. They all sounded different. Obviously the original vinyl had surface noise greater than anything else (and that was terrible) but it definitely was mixed a little differently to the subsequent albums.

                  For certain music enthusiasts with a decent hifi system it can be fun to track down 'original' recordings on vinyl to try and get to listen to these recordings as the engineers at the time envisioned them.

                  Anyone who says vinyl sounds better than digital is just wrong. But it can definitely sound different. It can also sound worse (i.e. Australian records were sometimes pressed from 2nd or 3rd gen masters so often were from a degraded source, and you can definitely hear the difference). Also some recent vinyl is just pressed from a digital source and (apart from the surface noise of the vinyl) sounds identical to CD. Which is just pressing it for the sake of making merch.

                  Anyway, there's definitely a niche appeal of vinyl for your music enthusiast. But it can get expensive. Which is why I sold all my vinyl + record player a few years back as I saw it potentially being the ruin of me!

              • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 22:18
                +1

                @Clear: Vinyls have never been dead, this is just a silly argument. Vinyls I understand. Cassette, nope, not even cool.

                • Clear on 29/03/2026 - 22:21

                  @ShouldIBuyIt: Cassettes are very much still a collector piece. I shop around the country for auctions and they're becoming popular again with collectors. Even CDs are starting to go up in value now that vinyl's have gone absolutely mental in pricing.

                • steve bennett on 30/03/2026 - 10:35
                  +1

                  @ShouldIBuyIt: There are plenty of cool young bands putting out limited releases of cassettes and people are into them. Obviously it's not the main stay of sales but it's definitely reviving, just because you're not aware of it doesn't mean it's not happening. Not only are small runs of tapes significantly cheaper than vinyl, but DIY artists can even duplicate the tapes themselves with some inexpensive equipment and print their own paper covers for next to nothing.

        • GS-RN on 29/03/2026 - 21:55
          +3

          I personally wouldn't get this but some people like it and some indie artists do modern cassettes. Yes a modern MP3 player will be a DAB, they generally play lossless FLAC format files and lossy MP3/M4A/WMA files. I have all my music on a 512 GB Micro SD card. The stuff i suggested would be cheaper than this from Aliexpress.

          I personally still use Spotify on my PC or Work laptop but i don't pay for it. Its ad free if you run a AdBlocker or use Brave.

        • integriti on 30/03/2026 - 09:02
          +2

          I think there's a lot of value to to these for those who have non-commercial recordings on tape.

          My dad's a retired audio/visual engineer with boxes of hundreds of recordings both at a personal and professional capacity. Sure digitising them is probably the way to go, but it's honestly not worth the effort given most have no meaningful value outside his own nostalgia.

          However there's a box full of random recordings of myself and my siblings when we were kids recording audio messages to my dad back when he worked overseas, and even if I don't really care to digitise all of them, it's pretty damn neat to be able to just pick up a tape and have a quick listen to my 7 year old self begging for an OG Nintendo. It's very niche, but there's plenty of us around that used to have those nifty tape recorders that probably have random recordings lying in an attic or basement somewhere.

        • sigh on 30/03/2026 - 15:27

          Why do you use a ‘burner phone’ with an sd card when streaming exists?

          Same argument.
          Some people like to interact differently with media they consume.

          • RocketSwitch on 31/03/2026 - 10:43

            @sigh: Streaming is horrible quality. You put any decent headphones on, and the lack of volume and clarity is terrifying.

      • justtoreply on 29/03/2026 - 22:46
        +3

        Just buy a CD then rip out to a high quality file. Owning your music does not justify having to tolerate the shortcomings of tapes, there are much more practical ways of achieving the same.

      • Skinnerr on 29/03/2026 - 23:45
        +4

        Im seriously regretting turfing my made in Japan/Korea/Taiwan legacy media players. They were built to last a lifetime.

      • drprox on 30/03/2026 - 10:09

        lol you answered a question not being asked…

    • Odin on 29/03/2026 - 21:43
      +2

      because it's cool?

      they can sound amazing if you get type IV tapes, but even type II tapes are manufactured today and sound excellent

      • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 22:04
        -4

        Why not buy this and kill 2 birds with a stone: play your cassette, and make a mp3 backup. And cheaper than OP

        • Odin on 30/03/2026 - 08:46

          Doesn't read type ii (or higher) tapes, if you convert them to MP3 with this player it will sound terrible

      • Spendmore on 29/03/2026 - 22:13
        +1

        No, not cool. A gramophone is where cool is at.

        • dollarone on 30/03/2026 - 10:52

          ..Until you see a 10" reel to reel player playing music - now that's cool

    • squash on 29/03/2026 - 21:57
      +2

      why not

    • kaleidoscope on 29/03/2026 - 22:31
      +3

      Why?

      Just because you can :)

      On a serious note, it's good to see these exist for the retro feel (i'd prefer it over buying some 30 yr old junk from eBay). Despite the move against streaming music and you own nothing; it will be extremely hard to convince majority of the people to get back into these anyway.

      MP3 player with similar to old iPods would make it lot more practical than this or a portable cd player…

      • wifiwooper on 30/03/2026 - 19:36

        I totally agree. If I can cancan then you can cancan too. In all seriousness, I love the nostalgic (and tactile) feel of this and turntables.

    • kingarthur on 29/03/2026 - 22:42
      +4

      For the exact same reason we still ride horses

      • wifiwooper on 30/03/2026 - 19:30
        +1

        I agree, not to mention that your username has (probably) never checked out better. 😁

    • whyisave on 29/03/2026 - 23:50
      +5

      No more rewinding with a pencil.

    • krisspy on 30/03/2026 - 00:04
      +2

      Same reason as vinyl, tube amps or shooting in film. People want imperfections and "character" on their otherwise sterile-bit perfect music.

      • ozbking on 30/03/2026 - 08:50

        I can appreciate vinyl, I actually have a large collection myself, but it’s mainly for the artwork.

        Most of my vinyl came with a lossless digital copy as well.

        And arguably vinyl has a different equally good sound if it’s decent

        But cassettes I can’t really understand given the artwork is smaller than CD, and sound quality is worse.
        Probably just for nostalgia when they walked around with a Walkman.

        • steve bennett on 30/03/2026 - 10:48

          Small commercial run of vinyls - Thousands of $, multi-month turnaround
          Small commercial run of tapes - Hundreds of $, fast turn around
          DIY run of tapes - Less than $100, dupe them at home, can print your own labels at officeworks

          The barrier to entry is very different. A small artist who won't sell many copies may not have a few grand to get vinyls pressed and even if they do they might not be able to sell enough to justify the run

    • skillet on 30/03/2026 - 16:09

      DMCA

      and

      Same thing how used compact cameras are hot again for certain age people. People asking why are the ones who truely lived through the tech advancement. I for one will never want to go back to dialup modems.

  • bargainatoraah on 29/03/2026 - 21:41
    +1

    Is it a sony?

    • Oh Daddy on 29/03/2026 - 21:59
      +8

      If it's not Aiwa I don't want it

    • krisspy on 30/03/2026 - 00:05
      +1

      "it's a Sony"

    • OzzyOzbourne on 30/03/2026 - 00:15

      I had a great Toshiba with over the ear headphones but with a bit that stuck in the ear. Great bass

    • R4 on 30/03/2026 - 00:55

      I still have a Sony Walkman stored away somewhere and it was working last time I tried it out

  • Make it so on 29/03/2026 - 21:43

    I'm confused.
    This is called a walkman, except crappier and more expensive than what I had 30 years ago. We stopped using them, and cassettes in general, because technology improved and frankly I'm rather glad about that.

    I don't want to go back to that era.

    • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 21:54
      -1

      I'm genuinely wondering how old are people who buy OP. No way I would go back to cassette. Last "old" tech I used was minidisc, and I'm pretty sure they did some players which could handle mp3.

      • OzzyOzbourne on 30/03/2026 - 00:17
        +2

        People who choose what they want without being bothered by what other people think can be anywhere from say 8 to 108. You have to try to stop pleasing others, then you'll truly be free!

      • R4 on 30/03/2026 - 00:58
        +3

        Younger people are genuinely intp analogue technology. My wife and I are fully into digitial - music, cameras, TV and movies. Our 22yo son is listening to vinyl and shooting on 35mm film. He was talking the other day about getting a super 8 cine camera FFS!

    • Raynes on 29/03/2026 - 21:55
      +2

      Cool man, not for you then I guess?

      • Make it so on 30/03/2026 - 12:43

        No - I don't want to go back to music with hiss and noise, having to use Dolby noise reduction which killed the quality, or pay $10 for a Metal coated cassette tape so that I can get at least some of the higher frequencies. My >100 cassettes used to take up a lot of space, and I remember how happy I was moving to CD, then minidisc, then mp3, etc.

        • Raynes on 30/03/2026 - 16:29
          +1

          👍

    • HaydosK on 29/03/2026 - 22:14
      +5

      People still have cassettes and artists are making limited edition merch for albums with cassettes so having a good player that's still in production is important. It's more reliable than buying one or pay for someone to refurbish

      • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 22:16
        -6

        That's why you buy vinyls, not a cassette, it's just silly.

        • HaydosK on 29/03/2026 - 22:21
          +4

          Records are not portable

        • def on 29/03/2026 - 22:23
          +2

          I used to buy Vinyls, around 2016-2020. I stopped because the got, in my opinion, offensively expensive. Both used and new. A new single disc LP was $30 when I started. Suddenly, Taylor Swift fans start buying Vinyl en-masse and the two factories in the world got super backlogged. New single disc LPs suddenly spiked to $50,60 within a year. They’ve stayed that expensive since. Way too much money.

          Indie tape runs on the other hand are dirt cheap. Seriously, they still go for $10-15 MAX. And you can even make them by hand, and ship them for very little. I’ve picked up some cool tapes in hand made sleeves for $10 shipped off bandcamp.

          As for CDs, eh, I’d rather stick with FLACs on a hard drive at that point. It doesn’t really have the same sense of presence that analogue formats have.

    • spaceflight on 29/03/2026 - 22:58
      +4

      I'm confused.

      About what?

      This is called a walkman

      I see.
      No it isn't a Walkman

  • fantombloo on 29/03/2026 - 21:44
    +2

    Some people like the warmth of the hiss and crackle, seems others like the temperature (whatever it is, I've not yet heard) of the wow and flutter.

  • Gunnar on 29/03/2026 - 21:44
    +1

    This or Sony Walkman with Megabass and auto reverse?

    • casho on 30/03/2026 - 08:43
      +1

      I'll bite. Sony will destroy it

    • mikaelkn on 30/03/2026 - 10:48

      Phhht… Skip button, megabassx2 and Dolby NR. Don't forget the tape type selecter.

  • asc on 29/03/2026 - 21:50
    +3

    Sony walkman design and build was unbeatable back then.

    • mskeggs on 29/03/2026 - 21:56
      +2

      But the tiny AIWA (was it?) ones who the kid with an uncle brought back from “Honkers” with a 3 band equalizer was the pinnacle. But the yellow Sony splash proof ones were also elite.

      • Spendmore on 29/03/2026 - 22:15

        No Aiwa were no where near the pinnacle, Sony were the one and only for walkmans and TV's.

        • ak47wong on 29/03/2026 - 23:21
          +1

          I don't agree. Sony were the best of course, but out of all the competing brands, Aiwa was the closest. They put out quite a few impressive models.

          • Spendmore on 29/03/2026 - 23:43

            @ak47wong: Aiwa were ok, sanyo, toshiba and Akai were also fairly innovative then.

            • Gunnar on 30/03/2026 - 09:36
              +1

              @Spendmore: I’ve still got a Toshiba KT-S2 complete with the ‘cassettes’ you need to insert to listen to the radio

  • SBOB on 29/03/2026 - 21:52
    +7

    I'll wait till the cool kids come around to minidisc before I jump on the retro bandwagon.

    • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 21:57
      +2

      Exactly! If you want to go retro, at least minidisc, that was cool tech.

      • PurpleMonkeyDwasher on 29/03/2026 - 22:10
        +2

        Minidiscs were the best by far. And you could upload MP3s onto them too.

        • ak47wong on 29/03/2026 - 23:25

          Only the later Hi-MD ones. Earlier models, like my MZ-R90 didn't support MP3 files. You had to import them into SonicStage which would convert them to ATRAC format.

          • PurpleMonkeyDwasher on 30/03/2026 - 11:37
            +1

            @ak47wong: Yeah true. Only the later ones hey. Basically when MP3s made them redundant as storage got cheaper.

            Does anyone else hear freestyler by bombfunk MCs when they think of minidisks?

            • SBOB on 30/03/2026 - 18:35
              +1

              @PurpleMonkeyDwasher:

              Does anyone else hear freestyler by bombfunk MCs when they think of minidisks?

              Yeah, straight from the top of my dome…

      • steve bennett on 30/03/2026 - 10:58

        If you think about the availability and economics of playing and producing all these formats it all makes sense. I suspect you haven't considered that at all. Minidisc player production is dead. Cassette is not, as clearly evidenced by this post.

    • miicah on 30/03/2026 - 09:35

      No, you have to get into it before it's cool, otherwise it's not cool any more.

    • sigh on 30/03/2026 - 15:37

      Might want to get onto it, sony ceased production of minidiscs and its a proprietary format.

      There is a thriving community around MD but its an even more obscure format than cassettes in 2026.

  • dynaflow on 29/03/2026 - 21:54
    +2

    I gave away more than fifty cassette tapes a while back and don't regret it to be honest.
    Spotify is too convenient and has ruined it for everyone despite its shit quality…
    I make an effort to play my CD's and Vinyl collection.

  • rhino86 on 29/03/2026 - 21:59
    -1

    Braided copper cable anyone? https://addictedtoaudio.com.au/products/eletech-ultra-flagsh…

    • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 22:06
      +1

      I refuse to pay less than $12k on my cables.

      Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me

      • owduck on 29/03/2026 - 23:00

        …won't get fooled again!

        (A reference for people old enough to remember cassettes and why we all stopped using them)

        • ak47wong on 29/03/2026 - 23:28
          +1

          The Who or George W Bush?

    • HaydosK on 29/03/2026 - 22:16

      I mean who else has done 23 months of secret r&d on a cable. It must be worth it

    • Lps on 29/03/2026 - 22:25

      Imagine the maniacal cackle when they snare an order for this. Any manufacturer who can shift one of these deserves every penny.

      • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 22:40

        Only 88 made. Gives you an idea of the targeted demographic.

    • Scoobth on 29/03/2026 - 22:37

      Surely that's an April fools cable, it looks like a tripowin cable with some bling added.

      • HaydosK on 29/03/2026 - 23:35

        It's not. People definitely bought it

    • spaceflight on 29/03/2026 - 23:03

      They are cheap compared to Pear cables

    • Agileduck on 29/03/2026 - 23:16

      Did I miss it, how long is the cake?

      Also wow

  • Bargainboss99 on 29/03/2026 - 22:17

    Thanks op. Can someone now point me to the nearest
    Sanity store or Kmart cassette aisle ?

      • ShouldIBuyIt on 29/03/2026 - 22:38

        That seems like a better deal than OP lol

        • Koffee on 29/03/2026 - 22:57

          Depends if the OP's one has a Tanashin mechanism or not, because the linked one def is.

          Tanashin mechanisms are hot garbage. I see the OP reference that the company is presently developing a new mechinism, which would suggest this is another rebadged Tanashin mechanism but that the next one might not be.

  • bboz on 29/03/2026 - 22:22

    Can you walk around with this?

    • Oh Daddy on 29/03/2026 - 22:32
      -1

      Depends on if you are a boomer, millennial or Gen z. Later would, the first two are probably glad we have a better technology now.

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