Forget your old Walkman: We Are Rewind’s cassette player makes mixtapes modern with Bluetooth and a rechargeable battery

The We Are Rewind Cassette Player is a masterclass in premium build and simplicity. It’s easy to recommend to anyone embracing the retro media revival who needs a way to listen to the tapes they have lying around from many moons ago.

As you might expect, the We Are Rewind Cassette Player is a blast from the past with a few modern conveniences: you can recharge it, and it has Bluetooth, so you can listen directly through your wireless headphones (as long as they're not Apple — more on that later). You can playback or record to create mixtapes, and the premium aluminum build makes it feel sturdy… but it also makes it a little heavy.

Of course, though, due to the premium build, you're also paying a premium, and it's unfortunately incompatible with Apple earbuds. To find out more, keep reading this full We Are Rewind Cassette Player review.

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We Are Rewind Cassette Player review: Specs

We Are Rewind Cassette Player review: Price & availability

The We Are Rewind Cassette Player is available for $159 / £129 at Amazon. You can pick it up in five different colors, which have all been lovingly named. ‘Kurt’ is a blue color, ‘Edith’ is pink and turquoise, ‘Serge’ is orange, ‘Amy’ is black and orange, and ‘Keith’ is gray.

This is a bit pricey for a portable cassette player, but you’re mostly paying for the premium-feel metal build here. If you want to save your dollars, the Gadhouse MIKO is a lot cheaper at $99 — and more accurately resembles a Walkman, if that's the vibe you're after.

That said, it’s a lot cheaper to buy the portable cassette player from We Are Rewind as their larger boombox-style player, the We Are Rewind GB-001, costs $579 — yikes!

We Are Rewind Cassette Player review: Design

The We Are Rewind Cassette Player is very understated and sleek. The design is a clean-cut rectangle that measures 5.5 x 3.5 x 1.3 inches and is made out of aluminum, so it feels very high quality. But using this material over plastic makes it a little on the heavy side, weighing in at 14.3 ounces.

If you want a more portable option, the Gadhouse MIKO weighs just 6.8 ounces but is made of plastic, so it has a cheaper feel. I think springing for the more expensive We Are Rewind is a better option if you want something with a premium feel that will last longer.

The cassette player comes in five different colors and I tested the ‘Kurt’ model, which is a blue color but appears more teal in person. There’s a small circular window at the front of the player that allows you to peek into where the tape is playing. I like this since I can watch the tape rewinding in real time. This window opens up with a notch on the side for you to switch out the tape and requires a little bit of pulling, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it.

The inputs are all located on the right side of the player, and the controls are all located at the top. Next to the controls are two lights that indicate Bluetooth connection and battery life.

It also comes with a small pencil, so that if your tape has a little slack in it, you can tighten it up on your own. I remember doing this with tapes when I was younger, so this is a really nice nostalgic touch from We Are Rewind.

Controls

Back to the controls. Like most cassette players, this one from We Are Rewind is very simple to use. All of the buttons are lined up along the top of the player, and they stick up so they’re tactile to use. The stop, rewind, forward and play buttons are in black, and the record button is in yellow.

Next to these is the small button for the Bluetooth connection. This should be long-pressed until the blue indicator light is flashing to enable the wireless feature on the player. On the right side is the dial to control the volume.

I found all of these controls very easy to use and very responsive. I just wish there were a power button to manually turn the player on and off. The MIKO has an on/off switch, and I found this useful.

We Are Rewind Cassette Player review: Features

The We Are Rewind Cassette Player can play back tapes, but also lets you record onto a tape. This means you’re able to create mixtapes or take recordings of conversations. I tried this out and my speech was very clear upon playback. I was impressed with how easy the process was. The microphone is located on the back of the player, so you need to ensure this is facing the sound you're recording.

Connectivity

Unlike old school cassette players like the Walkman, the We Are Rewind Cassette Player can be used wirelessly, thanks to Bluetooth 5.1.

The player can pair with and remember up to eight wireless devices, so it automatically connects to whichever audio device you have switched on and in range. However, We Are Rewind says that the player is not compatible with in-ear headphones, and I was unable to pair it with my Apple AirPods 3, which I used with the Gadhouse MIKO cassette player.

I reached out to We Are Rewind to find out why this is, and the team said that "the issue stems from Apple, who have modified standard Bluetooth protocols with proprietary features." These changes from Apple have subsequently created some compatibility issues for We Are Rewind in this cassette player. But if you have earbuds from a different brand, everything should work A-OK.

The most authentic way to listen to the We Are Rewind Cassette Player is with wired headphones. I used the Gadhouse Wesley headphones by plugging them into the player’s 3.5mm jack.

We Are Rewind Cassette Player review: Performance

I won’t be able to evaluate the We Are Rewind Cassette Player on sound quality, as it relies on your wireless or wired headphones to play sound. But if you were to purchase a cheaper cassette player, you may be met with more crackle from the tape.

I'll be evaluating the overall performance of the player. For context, I listened with Bluetooth using my Sony WH1000-XM5 ($399) and wired using the Gadhouse Wesley headphones.

I listened to a few different albums that my parents had in their treasure trove of tapes, including Bon Jovi’s self-titled album, So Far So Good by Bryan Adams and Hysteria by Def Leppard. These tracks provided me with a few different genres and I was impressed with the ease of play from the cassette player. It did a great job of mellowing out the crackle of the tape to give a cleaner sound compared to the Gadhouse MIKO, and was a lot faster at rewinding the tapes between listens.

I would recommend using this cassette player with wired headphones, as the connection effectively ‘edits out’ any squeaking from the fast-forwarding or rewind of the tape, and this makes it feel more modern. But if you’re only getting this to relive the retro experience, wired headphones will give you that.

We Are Rewind Cassette Player review: Battery life

The We Are Rewind Cassette Player uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a 2,000mAh capacity. It gives approximately 10 to 12 hours of listening time. How much listening time you get will naturally depend on whether you use a wired or wireless connection.

This was more than enough time for me to listen to multiple albums with the player, and the battery light started blinking red when I needed to recharge after listening to six albums with the player, which just about checks out. Charging takes around four hours, and while charging, the indicator flashes red. When fully charged, this light turns off.

Since it uses a rechargeable battery, it brings a retro item to modern day, rather than relying on AA batteries like the Gadhouse MIKO.

We Are Rewind Cassette Player review: Verdict

The We Are Rewind Cassette Player is a great option for anyone who needs a reliable and well-built way to play their old tapes. The controls are simple to use, and you can record onto tapes too if you want to create an old-school mixtape.

I like that this player is rechargeable, negating the need for disposable batteries, and the wireless Bluetooth connectivity means I don’t have to be bogged down by a wire while listening to the tapes.

It’s worth keeping in mind that this player sits on the expensive side, as it is made from aluminum, which is a good thing, as it feels more premium than other plasticky models. But this also makes it heavy. And the lack of compatibility with Apple earbuds meant that I wasn't able to use my usual drivers with the product, but if you have earbuds from another brand, they'll work just fine.