This cassette is an MP3 player with 3 layers of retro going on

This looks retro, but this is retro with layers to it.

The above cassette is in fact an MP3 player. You're probably wondering how it works. The answer is touch buttons on the B side. A photo is shown of it on its product page.

Cool? Yeah, I think so. True, no kid today has probably even seen a compact cassette, much less ever used one. How many kids do you know that have a cassette deck? Even so, when you dig deeper here, you notice some interesting things.

It's actually funny that there is a legitimate practical reason to own this music player. You can plug in ear buds or a headset. Why is this funny? It's becoming more common that phones simply don't have a ear bud/headphone port on them. That being true, the port itself is also retro... meaning you've got old retro combined with recent retro going on at the same time.

But wait, there is a third layer of retro with this. It is a no-screen MP3 player that uses touch buttons, and those are uncommon at best.

So you've got old retro with the design, recent retro with the headphone port, and a bit of mid-2000s retro with the touch buttons too.

Who knew something so simple could span several decades of audio tech?

Published 2022 Nov 1