{"id":47127,"date":"2019-07-10T16:21:50","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T23:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/?p=47127"},"modified":"2019-07-25T13:20:17","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T20:20:17","slug":"dont-waste-your-money-on-that-bluetooth-cassette-player-kickstarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/2019\/07\/dont-waste-your-money-on-that-bluetooth-cassette-player-kickstarter\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Waste Your Money on that Bluetooth Cassette Player Kickstarter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week \u2013 coincident with the original Walkman\u2019s 40th birthday<\/a> \u2013 I saw all these articles<\/a> reporting on this supposedly \u201cworld\u2019s first\u201d Bluetooth enabled portable Walkman-style cassette player\/recorder, named IT\u2019S OK<\/a> (yes, the brand is in all caps). Reactions to this Kickstarter ranged from snarky to excited, but all the coverage struck me as a little too credulous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Always hoping that someone is going to start making decent quality cassette decks or players again, every so often I search around on Amazon or Ebay to see what\u2019s on offer. In the back of my head I thought I\u2019d seen a cheap Bluetooth tape player before, for far less than the $75 intro price promised to Kickstarter supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turns out, my memory was correct. This Digitnow branded \u201ccassette to MP3 converter\u201d has been available on Amazon<\/a> since August of 2018 for a price that fluctuates between $29 and $39. Over on Ebay they\u2019re $39.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to playing to your Bluetooth headphones, it\u2019ll digitize your cassettes directly to a microSD card, or to your computer via USB. Two additional features missing from the IT\u2019S OK. Now, I\u2019ve never used the Digitnow player, so I can\u2019t vouch for the quality of playback. But my guess is that it\u2019s about as good as the cheap knock-off Walkman you might have bought at K-Mart in 1989, so caveat emptor. I also have serious doubts that the IT\u2019S OK will be any better, even at nearly twice the price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already suspicious of the \u201cfeasibility study and first handmade prototypes\u201d on the Kickstarter timeline, today I saw a video from YouTuber VWestlife<\/a> wherein he identifies an extremely similar cassette player available on Alibaba<\/a> for as little as $7 in quantity direct from China. VWestlife also points out that the IT\u2019S OK player isn\u2019t even in stereo, specifying \u201cClassic Monaural Sound.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He does note that since all the parts for the IT\u2019S OK are readily available, the Kickstarter likely isn\u2019t a scam. You\u2019ll just get a flimsy mono cassette recorder\/player worth maybe $20 in parts \u2013 or available from other sources at about $40 \u2013 for your $75. And you\u2019ll have to wait until December to get it. Or you can wait until after the Kickstarter ends and get it for $88 (no kidding).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll admit to being enticed when I first saw headlines about the device, but it didn\u2019t take long for me to see that this Kickstarter is mostly hype, seizing on the Walkman\u2019s nostalgia moment and slow news week to get some free press release journalism coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have no snark for anyone wanting a new cassette Walkman today, and wish that reputable brands like Sony and Panasonic still made them. If you\u2019re in the market I\u2019d first try to find a decent used one, or take a shot on any of the dozens of $20 ones scattered across online retailers and Ebay. (While you’re at it, you might as well get one with a radio.) Aside from the cognitive dissonance around the apparent anachronism of the IT\u2019S OK player, I don\u2019t really get the appeal of adding Bluetooth\u2026 especially in freakin\u2019 mono.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you decide to bite and get one, please do let us know how it goes<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week \u2013 coincident with the original Walkman\u2019s 40th birthday \u2013 I saw all these articles reporting on this supposedly \u201cworld\u2019s first\u201d Bluetooth enabled portable Walkman-style cassette player\/recorder, named IT\u2019S OK (yes, the brand is in all caps). Reactions to this Kickstarter ranged from snarky to excited, but all the coverage struck me as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4090,47],"tags":[5509,384,479,6033,1443,4242],"class_list":["post-47127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-electronics","category-op-ed","category-pop-culture","tag-audiocassette","tag-bluetooth","tag-cassette","tag-its-ok","tag-kickstarter","tag-walkman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Bluetooth-Walkman-Blues.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47127"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47132,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47127\/revisions\/47132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}