MP3 Cassette - Mixxed Feelings

I love seeing you use Prizm to test the playback! Those ladies are awesome. Really catchy and dancey synthwave with top notch vocals.

I had a Hitachi boom box very similar to the one shown. It brings back memories because it was a high school graduation present in 1981. My dad had good taste.

Add a remote control or phone app and this is so much more appealing. I wonder if there would be some way to add a dynamo mechanism so the battery can charge whilst playing, but perhaps there's not enough room for all that additional stuff.

I only got to watch this now I like the video very much. With my limited knowledge it's a pity you can't control the sd card screen with some sort of app on your Phone.

Niche market i would assume, interesting content though and enjoyed immensely.

My sense of nostalgia is powerful enough that I went and bought a boombox that stuck out in my childhood memory (the General Electric 3-5280B), but not nearly powerful enough to compel me to actually listen to cassettes (apart from a few mixtapes I made, just to prove to myself that I Still Got It). You’re 100% on point with the modern purpose of a simple Bluetooth cassette adapter. I get to enjoy my old boombox for all the right reasons (I enjoy it and it looks way cooler on a table than a Bluetooth speaker) without having to pretend that I totally don’t mind having to keep track of physical media quite honestly and having to get up and hold down a button every time I want to skip past a song actually demonstrates the superiority of the compact cassette format over digital shut up (Someday I might do a full restomod…fill the battery bay with a Lithium pack and wire in a Bluetooth module. But that’s an itch that tends to come and go.)

Could you release an MP3 of that song you use when you remove the protective plastic?

On the Hitachi machine, could you take the front of the door off and operate it?

I do like the idea of it.. it also looks quite nice. And for me it's not a problem being up side down as I can read just as well like that. But you were very effective in debunking this device 😂 I didn't know there was such a thing as a Bluetooth cassette adapter. And yeah, it's probably smarter. Still, I also still have a nice Hitachi boombox from the early 80s with belts that need replacing. But that was quite complicated, so I left it as it was. This does bring that back to life. And I live that. It's just esthetically pleasing to look at too. Then again, that device with it's display IS quite interesting to look at... Hmm...

Well-conceived, well-executed, and well-informed conclusion as always. Take care. 🤍

The reason the first MP3 cassette of similar design had the gears making the feed spool also turn is because some tape decks have sensors on the spools to detect if they stop, i.e. end of tape or end of rewind/fast forward. In my Technics cassette deck this one with only the one spool turning would mean it would play for a couple of seconds then stop because the logic thinks there is a problem or its reached the end of playback. Of course not an issue with the knock -off Tansashin tape decks.

Just wondering, what happens when you press record on the cassette deck, since it doesn't appear to have the notch to block you from doing so? A whole lot of nothing, I'd guess.

I cracked up at “closed casket for tape.” 😂

You can remove the front of some higher end cassette mechanisms for cleaning. Would that allow you to access the touch screen?

This just smacks of a device designed by someone born this century, without access to any players to test it on.

It feels like they've spent all their effort on making the device look pretty, yet the end result is about useful as a chocolate teapot. I'd rather have a half-decent DAP and one of those Bluetooth cassette adapters than this thing. Would be cheaper too.

Thank you for uploading it to YouTube!

Such a strange device with a strange UI. Why put some controls at the exact same place as the write protect tab? I wonder if it would be possible to have a remote with a screen on it, and you would choose the songs from this external screen... oh wait... another idea... you could also make phone calls with this remote... Last thing, I also had the pleasure to listen from my old boombox's tape head, using a car stereo adaptor (the wired one). Actually the Aux input brings the same result.

Nice idea, disappointing result. Many flaws and missed opportunities as you in the video and others in the comments pointed out. You said it has a full track head? Does that mean it plays in mono? The Bluetooth cassette you show at the end is probably stereo...

I fully subscribe to the idea that Compact Cassette adapters are hugely superior to their 8-track, reel-to-reel and phonograph cousins. Also their availability compared to the cousins not is to be underestimated.

Great show, Mat - thanks.

Interesting device, shame they got so much wrong.

the design of this device is frustrating, with a better OS alot of the problems you have it could be fixed with software. It already has bluetooth so this device could likely have the feature set of that dedicated bluetooth receiver

It looks an interesting device ti l you delve deep inside and realise it's not as usufull it first looks it wouldn't work in my cassette walkman and my Sony cassette deck auto stop would trigger too and the fact therse no tlre mite or app control seems to make it more awkward to use in my opinion

The idea for such a thing dates all the way back to the Digisette Duo, released in 2001, a $249 MP3 player with a whopping 32 MB of memory, which could be used either on its own or in a cassette player. It could skip tracks by pressing the deck's rewind or fast-forward buttons, as it sensed the faster motion of the reels (at least in theory; in actual practice it often didn't).

What problem was this designed to solve that hasn't been solved before. The other solutions available are better in every way. They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. I think as others have said they should have gone all out and made it so the drive of the tape player charged the battery. Downside would of course be draining the AA batteries if in a portable player...

What an odd product, it feels like someone made a cute little MP3 player that looked like a cassette and thought "oh! I can make it really work as a cassette" and ended up with something that's worse than either option.

Quick question for folks ...the shelves visible at the start made of black plastic. What do people call these? I always think of them as "drainpipe shelves" but that's a daft name, anyone have anything better?

The flying car analogy is brilliant! I had conversations like that with my parents.😀

This is peak TechMoan material. Brightened my day

The reason the files are showing in the wrong order within an album is because this device lacks any sorting capability and is instead showing them in the order they're stored on the actual filesystem, which is usually the order they were written to it. This is fairly common on low-powered devices without much RAM. It's possible to fix this with a utility like fatsort, which can rebuild the FAT with the files sorted in the correct order.

Such a device would be nice if it would behave like a cassette in a cassette player: start playing when the capstan/pinchroller is running, fast forward and rewind when only the spools are turning. Might take some more effort to engineer and produce, but should be possible! And a nice feature would be if the spinning wheels would also charge the battery, but I have no idea if the force from a normal cassette deck would be enough to even let the battery last just a little bit longer...

A nice idea but poorly executed. It's like they didn't do much field testing. 1 cog, recessed buttons, a power LED and a remote control would have made it useable. I feel it's something that would have done well maybe 3 decades ago.

Interesting, if not-very-useful device. I wonder if that spinning hub could be turned into a low output generator to charge the internal battery. Just to add to the novelty value.

I was hoping they'd done something clever with all those smarts inside-- use a sensor to detect whether the reels were moving or not to start/stop the playback, and the speed at which they were moving to do track/forward and backwards. That would make the product much more compelling.

Very apt analogy. You made it clear how the pros/cons of this thing are comparable to the pros/cons of flying cars.👍 Oh and it sure seems useless, but that black one might be okay.

"Flying a plane isn’t something anyone can do. Who’s doing all the extra air traffic control?" These days, it would be AI, obviously. ;-)

Too bad. The track listing being random with no external controls would make this annoying to me. That and it potentially not working in a car would irritate me. Now I'm no longer in a situation where I NEED an adapter - haven't been in many years. But it would be disappointing to me even circa 2012 when I would have found an MP3 cassette useful. Since they bothered to put buttons on it at all, they really could use the MP3 CD button functions. Folder up/folder down, next, play, and previous. And just run this thing like an MP3 CD. Folder 1 Rumours, Folder 2 Fly Like an Eagle, Folder 3 Wings over America, etc. Then it's a million tapes in one. Want to change tapes, eject it, hit folder up, new tape.

Hmm. Design flaw could be that both spindles need to move on some players. There needs to be a belt or something inside the cassette to make both spindles move!

You missed an opportunity for a proper cold open there - storage locker scene, let’s go back to the beginning, then opening titles. Very fashionable right now, I’m told. :)

Hate the 30fps Mat on this video, sorry but it makes me feel sick watching it on the computer monitor. I'm sensitive to flicker and for me the illusion of motion is lost at the start of this particular video and I just see a lot of static images flicking in front of my eyes and its horrible, gave me an immediate headache. It would help if it was filmed with a slower shutter speed to add some motion blur like most of your other videos. I will watch later on the TV as that adds interpolation and its more like 60fps. I never understand why people shoot 4K at yesterdays frame rates.

Loved this video! This was a perfect example of what I am here for :)