TechFeatured in Vol. 08

CP13 Cassette Player - FiiO

Name: CP13 Cassette Player - FiiO
SKU: fiio-cp13-cassette-player
Price: 107.40 GBP

A modern, minimalist portable cassette player with a rechargeable battery and high-quality analogue circuitry.

Price

£107.40

Editorial rating

4.5 / 5

Last price check

30/01/2026 08:39

Part of the weekly drop

Best Of Audio And Travel Tech: Harman Kardon, Anker EDC, And Retro Media | Vol. 8

This product was featured in Vol. 08, alongside other human-picked finds with the same slightly obsessive editorial energy.

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Editorial take

Why we picked it

The FiiO CP13 is our Wildcard because, let's be honest, there is absolutely no logical reason to buy this in the year 2026. It's a beautifully machined, high-end brick designed to play a medium that was objectively terrible even when it was popular.

And yet, here we are. It's a love letter to the "clunk-click" of physical media, aimed at people who find Spotify too convenient and miss the joy of a tape being "chewed" by a faulty mechanism.

It's the Wildcard because it's a pure vanity project-a gorgeous, tactile object that serves a totally obsolete purpose. It's the vinyl revival's weird, hissy little brother, and I can't help but want to hold it.

Detailed verdict

The full review

The Irresistible

The build quality is lightyears ahead of anything from the 80s; it's all aluminium and precision-weighted buttons that feel like they belong on a Swiss watch.
The dual-colour design is a stunning bit of retro-futurism that looks fantastic on a desk, even if it's just acting as a very expensive paperweight.

The Clever Part

It uses a high-voltage motor power supply to ensure the tape speed is actually consistent, which means your music won't sound like it's melting (mostly).
Including a USB-C rechargeable battery is a stroke of genius, sparing us from the "four AA batteries a week" nightmare of our youth.

The Fine Print

It lacks Bluetooth, which is "purist" but also means you're back to getting tangled in headphone wires like it's 1992.
There is no "auto-reverse" function, so you have to manually flip the tape over like a caveman every 30 minutes.

The Reality Check

You are at the mercy of the tapes themselves; unless you've got a collection of "Type II" Chrome tapes stored in a vacuum, you're basically paying for the privilege of hearing a lot of background hiss

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