It’s been over 20 years since Sony released a cassette player, and cassette sales are so minuscule they barely show up on market reports. So, naturally, I decided now would be a good time to buy a Walkman. I can explain.
Yes, there aren’t many logical reasons for buying a cassette player in 2025. All the advantages cassettes boasted in their heyday are irrelevant now, and vinyl has made a comeback to be the darling child of physical media once again. Still, cassettes mean something to me, and you might feel the same way.
Why Cassettes?
Cassettes were the first music format I remember being introduced to. My dad had a leather carrying case full of tapes from artists such as KISS, AC/DC, Foreigner, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, and Bruce Springsteen, and I loved to look at the cover art and J-card inserts. Occasionally, I’d pop a tape into my Talkboy Deluxe and give it a listen.
However, by the time I was old enough to buy music myself, CDs were far and away the dominant format. I had a small but respectable collection of CDs, but when streaming came along, I was very excited about it. That’s how I’ve been listening to music ever since.
Only in the last few years have I thought about physical media again. Like a lot of music lovers, my first instinct was to get into vinyl. I didn’t have any past experience with it, but I’ve always felt there’s something inherently “cool” about playing a vinyl record on a turntable. Shortly into my “vinyl phase,” I realized it wasn’t doing anything for me.
I didn’t have sentimental feelings attached to vinyl. Without the nostalgia, it’s simply an outdated music format with inferior sound quality and a more cumbersome listening experience. So, I lost interest in physical media until I saw a photo of an old Sony Walkman, and something lit up inside me.
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Don’t get caught in meaningless trends.
New Cassette Players Suck
Here’s the funny thing: I never actually owned a Walkman cassette player. All the cassettes I played as a child were with my Talkboy Deluxe or the under-cabinet radio/cassette player in my family’s kitchen. But I grew up in the ’90s, and the aesthetic of Walkmans from that era still speaks to me.
However, when I first started thinking about cassettes again, my first thought was not to buy a 30+-year-old Walkman. It turns out that modern cassette players kinda suck. When Sony stopped making cassette players in the early 2000s, most of the equipment it was using to produce phenomenal Walkmans went away, too.
That’s why you’ll notice that modern cassette players are much bulkier than their older siblings. Sony and a few other manufacturers were able to produce Walkmans that were barely bigger than a cassette tape itself. Nowadays, there’s essentially one mechanism being produced that everyone who wants to make a cassette player has to use.
So, if you want a great cassette player in 2025, your best bet is to buy one from the 70s/80s/90s. And let me tell you, there is a lot to choose from on eBay. I was stuck in decision paralysis for a while until I came across a beautifully yellow Sony Walkman WM-AF58. It was tested, in working condition, and at a reasonable price. When I discovered it was manufactured in 1988, the year I was born, I had to buy it.
Reconnecting With an Old Friend
Immediately after buying the WM-AF58–my first ever Walkman–I went to Discogs and grabbed a couple of cassettes. Sadly, my dad had sold his cassette collection in a garage sale many years ago. Who knew I would want them someday? I sure didn’t.
At the time of writing, I’ve got nine cassettes in my budding collection. When I showed a photo of the tapes to my mom, she said it looked like my dad’s collection–she’s right! Nostalgia for music obviously isn’t only about the format. The music itself and how it sounds is just as important.
I’ll be the first to tell you that cassettes don’t sound the greatest, but they do sound familiar. On one particular Saturday morning, I clipped my Walkman onto my sweatpants and listened to a Foreigner cassette while making waffles. The first song on the album is titled “Feels Like the First Time,” and I have to admit I got a little emotional when listening to it.
I’ve heard the song hundreds of times in my life, but hearing it on cassette for the first time in a very, very long time really did feel like the first time. I was transported back to sitting on the floor in my parent’s bedroom, looking through my dad’s cassette tapes. I thought about all the times I heard the song on the radio while my parents were working on home improvement projects. I couldn’t help but smile.
The journey back to my cassette tape days is just beginning, but I’m having a lot of fun with it. Scouring Discogs and thrift stores for my favorite albums is a satisfying scavenger hunt–not to mention significantly more affordable than vinyl. My Walkman is working surprisingly well for its age, and after a few 3D-printed repairs, I’m already feeling sentimental about it. Get out there and find the thing that brings you joy, too.
