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FiiO CP13 portable cassette player begins shipping (in small batches)

The FiiO CP13 is a portable cassette player with a simple design, big buttons, and a very basic feature set. First unveiled during CES, the cassette player does have a few modern touches including a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery and a USB-C port. But it’s very much an analog audio device: it doesn’t support MP3s or […]

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Tangara is an open source, iPod-inspired portable music player (crowdfunding)

If you have a smartphone then you have a portable music player in your pocket, which is probably one of the reasons why the Apple iPod and similar devices have fallen by the wayside in recent years. But sometimes you don’t want the distractions of a modern, internet-connected device with a touchscreen color display, so there […]

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It’s 2024 and FiiO is making a portable cassette player with all-analog features

A decade ago I was moderately surprised to find that companies like Sony were showing off portable music players at CES, because I figured most people had moved on to using smartphones to listen to music. But that’s before I realized there was a whole world of portable hi-fi music products. So what’s new at […]

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Audio Technica Sound Burger is a $199 portable record player with USB-C and Bluetooth

The 1980s were the era when music went portable, largely thanks to the rise of the Sony Walkman and cassette tapes. But Audio Technica’s Sound Burger put a different spin on portable music. Released in 1980, this portable turntable was a record player you could pick up and carry with you. It never took off […]

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Hisense Touch: HiFi portable music player with E Ink display and Android software

Chinese electronics maker Hisense is one of the only companies producing smartphones with E Ink displays. But the company’s latest pocket-sized device with an E Ink screen is something different. The Hisense Touch is an Android-powered portable music player with support for 32-bit/384 kHz audio, a dedicated digital to analog converter, and a 5.84 inch […]

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Sony’s 40th-anniversary walkman is a digital music player with (expensive) analog style

Before smartphones there were iPods and other portable media players. But before all of them, there was the Sony Walkman, a portable cassette player that let you take your music with you. Sony’s continued releasing Walkman-branded products in recent years, but for the most part they’re high-end digital music players… and the new 40th-anniversary Walkman […]

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Sony’s smallest HiFi Walkman is coming in November for $300

Looking for a better portable music player than your smartphone? A handful of companies offer high-end devices for audiophiles who aren’t happy with compressed MP3 music and cheap audio hardware. Sony has a long history in the space. At one point the company’s Walkman brand was pretty much synonymous with the idea of a portable […]

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Neil Young’s PonoPlayer hits Kickstarter, ships in October

The Neil Young-backed PonoPlayer portable media player is now available for pre-order through Kickstarter. While the list price for a PonoPlayer will eventually be $399, backers of the campaign can reserve one for $300… it just won’t ship until October. Neil Young and the folks at PonoMusic are targeting audiophiles who aren’t happy with the […]