Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/07/08/bluetooth-cassette-player.html
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I do hope the tin like sound quality was reproduced, for the full effect.
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I am holding out for the 8-track version
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Finally a low fidelity cassette player that has high fidelity bluetooth. I want the nuances of the low fidelity perfectly preserved… 
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BT transmitters are so small that there is almost no point to this, though it is nice that it now exists as a single, all-in-one, just-works (presumably) gadget
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Ah, perfect. Now I just need to find a vintage 8-Track player to mod. Not sure if it will qualify for Hipster Points, though.
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I’ve got one of these looking for a good home, in case that would help - just add a BT receiver and maybe an app that controls the pedal input:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1244330-REG/hammond_006_599_933000_rw_leslie_3300_rotary_speaker.html?ap=y&gclid=CjwKCAjw04vpBRB3EiwA0IieapArKDoSLhzf1bLBU87KN9I__obcoQVsO33aYB9B9g9aw5-nnpwRbBoCi5EQAvD_BwE&lsft=BI%3A514&smp=y
(and I can make you a much better deal, but shipping (beyond NorCal) not included)
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A few years back, after I finally decided to get a smartphone, the next thing I wanted to get was a handsfree kit for my car. Finding one that plugged into the 12V socket instead of having internal batteries was not easy, though I eventually did find what I was looking for.
Unfortunately, there’s a glitch somewhere that causes music played via Bluetooth, at random intervals, to skip forward a few beats. I can’t tell if it’s the phone or the handsfree kit. Hey, all we need to do is add some crackles and pops to duplicate the LP experience!
Hmmm, my dad just bought some headphones that can operate either wired or via Bluetooth. I’ll have to try them out sometime for an extended listen and see if I get the glitch.
Clearly aimed at a market who didn’t grow up with cassette tapes. Crappy sound, the tape stretched & warped if you played it a lot, and having the tape destroyed by a faulty player was not uncommon.
Makes sense. Most of the enthusiasm for vinyl is likewise from folks too young to have used it when it was the mainstream music format. I’m old, and while I have nostalgia for some things of my youth, I don’t have any for obsolete music formats.
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“Classic monaural sound” according to the Kickstarter.
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Tapes really didn’t sound that bad. At least as good as FM radio.
The big quality problem with tapes was analog noise and generation loss.
You’re 5th hand mixtape sounds like ass. But Queen’s Greatest Hits from the music shop sounds awesome
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Even better was to record your own mixtapes or album sides from LP sources on a good turntable with a good cassette deck, and paying attention to recording levels. Plenty of work, but the results were much better than “stick two tapes into the dual-transport boombox and hit the high-speed dubbing button.”
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This would be great with one of these.
https://www.cablesdirect.co.uk/images/3-5mm-jack-to-stereo-cassette-adapter-p2074-5824_medium.jpg
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Even better with one of these:
It’s an MP3 player, with a magnetic playback head so it operates like a standard cassette. Plus it has headphone out, so you could plug it into @RexDart’s cassette adaptor to add yet another pointless layer of conversion to the experience.
An while looking at these gadgets on the big river store, I did find this cassette player with Bluetooth (but probably not BT5.0). It even records from cassette to MP3, and it’s still cheaper than that kickstarter that might not even complete.
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I’ve often wondered if it would be possible to have an adaptor like that for CD players…
What? Wasn’t stereo one of the key features of the Walkman that made it stand out and made it desirable as a portable music player? Given that this thing records with it’s built-in mic and only plays in mono, they haven’t made a retro Walkman with Bluetooth, they’ve made a retro Dictaphone with Bluetooth 
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Not to mention my Walkman Sport had dual headphone jacks. So this thing is going to need to pair to two Bluetooth headphones at once…
And the right tape setup on the right equipment had more than enough fidelity for the average stereo system. Hi-metal tapes dubbed at normal speed on a system with selectable levels and noise filtering…well my parents didn’t do a lot with electronics, but they did buy an awesome stereo in the late 80s. Of course they still have it. It gets used for Christmas music.
A few counterarguments:
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The Bluetooth adapter solution requires two separate batteries that you need to tend.
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With an integrated device, you don’t have to turn two separate devices on and off. You can manage the Bluetooth adapter state and such from within the device, rather than via a separate interface.
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The ADC in the integrated device can and should be higher-quality than the typically cheap, low-powered ADC in TRS-to-Bluetooth adapters. May lead to better sound quality: better frequency response, no volume clipping, etc.
But those properties don’t require $65 of hardware, and (for most people) don’t add up to $65 worth of advantage. So, yeah, probably do the TRS adapter thing.
