The Tale of the Tape

Sony sold more than 200 million Walkman cassette players between the device’s introduction in 1979 and its discontinuation in the US in 2010. A small crop of brands has arisen to take its place. Here are three favorites.

NEW AND IMPROVED

Like the first-generation Walkman, the We Are Rewind player is crisply rectangular and slightly smaller than a paperback book. Unlike the original, it has a rechargeable battery and Bluetooth 5.1 for wireless listening. There’s also an output jack for wired headphones (sold separately) and an input jack for recording mixtapes. The aluminumbodied player comes in orange, blue, gray and, most recently, black-and-yellow. All are puckishly packaged with a small pencil for reeling in unspooled tapes. From $159

A SOUND BUY

FiiO’s CP13 has the same blocky design as We Are Rewind’s player, but without the recording or Bluetooth functions. Available in red, white or blue, it’s got a slightly brighter, punchier sound and a 13-hour battery life. At less than 5 inches long, it’s somewhat more pocketable than We Are Rewind’s, which is almost an inch longer. $100

A CLEAR CHOICE

Retrospekt’s CP-81 has essentially the same dimensions as the CP13, but its transparent plastic body cuts down on weight: It clocks in at 7.7 oz, including its two AA batteries, compared with 11 oz for the FiiO and 14 oz for the We Are Rewind. Like the latter, the CP-81 can record. It also comes with a pair of orange-padded, wired Koss headphones. $99