There seems to be a small glut of options, but so far the ones I hear about that are decent-to-good come from We Are Rewind or Fiio. They both use the same mechanism that pretty much all portable cassette players have been using for the last couple of decades because no one else is developing anything new, but they use better materials (e.g., metal flywheel instead of plastic, electromagnetic erase head instead of permanent magnet).
That said, if you want things like Dolby noise reduction, a more sophisticated mechanism, and whatnot, you’re gonna want to bide your time and hunt for something vintage, hopefully refurbished. And be aware that the less you pay, the more likely you’ll need to do some maintenance.
[edit] yeah wow don’t go looking for something like the Sony WM DD9 above; I’m seeing them listing from $1200 to closer to $2k, with the only item I’ve seen going for under a grand being sold for parts only
There seems to be a small glut of options, but so far the ones I hear about that are decent-to-good come from We Are Rewind or Fiio. They both use the same mechanism that pretty much all portable cassette players have been using for the last couple of decades because no one else is developing anything new, but they use better materials (e.g., metal flywheel instead of plastic, electromagnetic erase head instead of permanent magnet).
That said, if you want things like Dolby noise reduction, a more sophisticated mechanism, and whatnot, you’re gonna want to bide your time and hunt for something vintage, hopefully refurbished. And be aware that the less you pay, the more likely you’ll need to do some maintenance.
[edit] yeah wow don’t go looking for something like the Sony WM DD9 above; I’m seeing them listing from $1200 to closer to $2k, with the only item I’ve seen going for under a grand being sold for parts only