Fiio CP13 cassette player review: nostalgia done right

I used to carry my Walkman (a WM-GX100) everywhere during my pre-teen years; it was just cool to be able to listen to music on the go, and I was attached to that thing – most of my vacation photos from that era had me rocking that Walkman.

When the Sony Discman became available a few years later, I switched to those models. I ended up buying a few dozen cassettes (mostly alternative rock), but the collection wasn’t as extensive as my CD catalog, and I didn’t pay attention to it for almost two decades.

These days I use Roon to stream my lossless music library throughout the house and I don’t really use analog media. But with the resurgence of retro technology, audio manufacturers are catering to this niche again, and when Fiio announced it was making a cassette player, I was interested.

The CP13 is aimed squarely at users who have an existing cassette collection and want a reliable way to play them. Fiio says it wants to faithfully recreate the look and feel of an analog device, and as such it doesn’t have Bluetooth connectivity or other extras.

Picture 1 of 3

That said, you do get a few niceties: there’s a built-in 1,800mAh battery, and it charges via USB-C. The CP13 is now available for $109 on Amazonand it comes in some interesting color options: red and silver, sky blue, white and black (what I use), and a clear model that looks amazing.

Let’s start with the positives: Fiio did an amazing job with the design of the CP13, and the aluminum chassis makes it very durable. The unit is smaller than Walkmans of yesteryear and the design is minimalist; I almost missed all the superfluous logos and branding that were a mainstay on every cassette player in the 90s.

The CP13 simply has Fiio branding on the front and back, four buttons on the left – play, rewind, forward and stop – and a volume button as well as a 3.5mm jack and USB port- C at the top. You get a knurled texture on the volume button that makes it easy to access, and the play buttons have good tactility. There is a transparent window that allows you to view the cassette, and a screen protector provided in the box can be installed over the glass.

The only issue I have with the design is that the lid is a bit difficult to open. Fiio added intent to one side, but ideally it should have added the same to the other side as well – as it stands it takes a decent amount of force to open the lid. That said, there are no issues with the build quality.

Using the CP13 couldn’t be simpler; just insert a cassette and press the play button. The cassette player works with all types of cassettes, has a higher voltage 4.2V motor and uses a fully analog audio system. The JRC5532 op amp has enough power to drive just about any headphone, and I’ve used the CP13 with the Fiio FT5 and Sennheiser IE600.

As for the sound, it tends to vary greatly depending on the recording itself. I listened to my collection of nu metal and alternative rock from the early 2000s, and while the overall quality isn’t as polished, analog media has an undeniable charm. The digital rendering of the Meteors in my collection sounds significantly better, but it’s not as much. amusing like listening to the cassette.

Of course, a lot of this has to do with nostalgia; I associate listening to cassettes with my pre-teen and teenage years, and it brings up a lot of memories. If you still have a cassette player from the 80s or 90s in good condition, you don’t need the CP13. But if the cassette head is damaged or you need something new to listen to your catalog of cassettes, the Fiio cassette player is a great choice.

As a consumer product, the CP13 doesn’t have nearly the same smoothness as cassette players of the last century; the background noise is higher, you will have to manually change the playback speed and there is no possibility of recording. But as a tool that lets you play older tapes and relive the nostalgia, it’s exceptional.