Walkman 2.0 Is any manufacturer developing & wich features must your Walkman 2.0 have? Fun!

Recording The Masters launched version 2 - the Mystik on Kickstarter!



stereo playback and recording with autostop - detachable belt clip - in built microphone for quickstart recording - Bluetooth 5.0 on/off switch - 3.5mm recording jack - 3.5mm headphone jack - rechargeable battery - playback frequency response 100Hz-10kHz +-3db

 

@SantiOriginal the specs you gave out are incorrect.
On the kickstarter page these are the specs they have stated:

• Bluetooth 5.0 stereo transmitter with on/off switch
• Stereo Player/Recorder with auto-stop
• 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
• 3.5mm line REC jack
• In-built microphone for 'Quick-Start' recording
• Rechargeable battery
• USB 5.0V DC charging cable
• Playback Frequency Response 40Hz-11Khz W&F <=0.4%
• Detachable belt clip
• Compatible with all cassette types!

I very much like that they have declared from the get go their Wow and flutter.

 

@Command8 I already noticed that the specs are different on what you are referring to. There are two sources. This was mine:


But i've noticed at https://mystik-by-rtm.com/ that they have corrected / changed the specs.

 

Recent postings on the Instagram page from We Are Rewind:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=507986123419687

As for the Mytstik portable cassette player on Kickstarter:
€23,784
pledged of €50,000 goal
260
backers
63 hours to go...

​

 

Funding on Kickstarter by RTM for the Mystik was unsuccessful.

Meanwhile We Are Rewind is now on Producthunt.

 

HiFi reporter Sinan Kökbugur wrote an interesting article about the upcoming release of the WeAreRewind portable cassette player, published yesterday june 26th on the reputable Dutch HiFi magazine HiFi.nl.
It contains background information who WeAreRewind is partnering with: AV|Industry.

That gives me good hope!

AV|Industry is a French company specialized in high end HiFi AV equipment and AV materials with it's brands NorStone and AtecaVision, producing beautiful stands and furniture for audio equipment, HiFi manufacturer of amps, cd-players and speakers Tangent-Danmark, HiFi speaker specialist Eltax and Highland Audio, turntable, headphones, amps and speaker manufacturer Elipson and Lumene, manufacturer of cinema screens and cinema chairs.

Now, that said i think it's a very good indication in terms of material build quality. When it comes to the development/improvement of the cassette-player mechanism itself i would very much like how that proces comes about. After all playing cassette tapes and listening to the music on the upcoming device should be as crisp as possible and crystal clear, soundwise.
All other features must be subservient to that in my opinion. I really hope the CEO and founder of WeAreRewind would give us an insight in that particular proces (squeezing out the best of the Tanashin cassette tape mechanism?).
Recording the Masters was partnering with (former?) engineers from French audio manufacturer Thomson to develop the unsuccessful kickstarter funding Mystik portabele cassetteplayer.
So i am curious! (And exited as well as i pre-ordered a WAR-cassetteplayer).

So far, only high end French audio companies are involved (as i know of). I hope this translates to the highest possible playback quality of the upcoming We Are Rewind cassette player.

 

I kind of like it’s simplicity. But the deal breaker for me will be a decent mechanism and some solid reviews.

 

Official confirmation on their Instagram-account.

we_are_rewind
We did it !!! Thank you all for your support Can’t wait to finally launch this project •

 

Hopefully one of the members here will take a plunge and report to the rest of us...

 

I thought we had discussed this before (everyone else has) but can't find the reviews. It seems likely that it will be a $15 cassette player with some added features.





The question is whether a minor change to the cassette mechanism (which is all they will be able to afford) can give a big increase in quality.
I wouldn't set your hopes either too high or low.

 

Good question! I understand that all current cassette players in production are using the same mechanism (The Tascam 202mkVII has a 15 dollar cassette mechanism?), and that the implementation around the mecha by applying features defines the sound-quality, sturdiness, experience. And of course, it's also a math to be it economic viable in the cultural depêche mode of the moment. Choices must be make i guess at the right time and the right place.

 

I'm sorry, but... French electronics? "High-end"...?! Anybody whom even knew anyone that owned a Renault product in some form or another knows how dodgy French electrical & electronics can be... so "out the window"--if you can get it down...!--the enduring quality of this thing will be, I fear.

 

Haha, funny, i get it. and i knew such a comment was coming. Perhaps you should adjust that image, you would be surprised To dismiss in advance a product because of it's origin is rather narrow minded and a knockdown argument, don't you think? It reminds me of this.

I think it's really great what WeAreRewind is doing!

 

As you all know Recording the Masters "scrubbed" their Mystik portable cassette player, their second version of the already existing version 1. But... I just "discovered" that Recording the Masters now has their version 1 selling online on their own website. A prelude to the Mystik yet to come?

 

i‘m 100% convinced that there‘ll be no - so called - Walkman 2.0. not from re-rewind, not from M Mystik. if (and that is the big question) anything is coming out there, it'll be some plastic-crap.

even if there‘s an engaged pool of collectors like us and electronic engineers sitting together, discussing electronic features, needs and wants, materials, accessories etc. etc. and work out the „final Walkman“, nobody would seriously invest into it's production.

a stereo portable cassette player is not and will never be recognized as a "high-end" unit. even if we all here know (or want to know) that it's at least as good or better than any digital file, you won't find anybody to (re) make a really good movement, housing, design for it anymore.
an audio cassette will never reach the status of reel-to-reel or even vinyl as media (...otherwise a company like Stellavox or NAGRA would have invested in making a cassette- player in the past).

sorry to say so, but this is the truth. chances for a commercial success with a "new-born" walkman-type cassette player is against zero, so whatever comes out there will be rubbish, waste of resources and not worth investing it - unless you built your own, or pay fortunes for having one built. if you manage that, you'll have to convince some high-end patrons to pay for it - and you might have done for the rest of your life...

 

I'm not 100% sure. Matsushita thought the SL1200 and the whole Technics brand was finished.
Having scrapped all the tooling they had to start from scratch when they saw the price of second hand decks going up while things like SACD came down and down.

I recently watched LGRs review of a miniature Dragons Lair console and was surprised by the effort and level of detail that had gone into it.


You have to ask what is the point other than as a collectable. Similarly the miniature M90 Replica

In French company Hatchette made replicas of the old Hornby clockwork trains. That must have taken quite a bit of tooling and investment.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Train-HO...451091?hash=item341f5c7013:g:xk8AAOSw6WleF2XU

My late Father was involved in the launch of a more upmarket range of O Gauge trains
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/O-Gauge-...400503?hash=item2af940cef7:g:9ScAAOSwFj5f0~Y8

For the ultimate replica have a look at this. A full size 1920s car
https://www.bentleymotors.com/en/models/mulliner/classic/bentley-blower-continuation-series.html

I do wonder if proposing to add things like rechargeable Batteries or Bluetooth is a mistake. It would be like adding Bluetooth and Aircon to the Bentley.
Maybe a straight copy of the TPS-L2 would be more viable. After all many companies managed it in months when they saw what Sony was doing in 1979.

Probably the biggest mistake is trying to do things on the cheap. With less demand you would expect a TPS-L2 clone to be a similar price (adjusted for inflation) as the original TPS-L2 price adjusted for inflation.

 

I would personally love to see one new that is similar to the TPS-L2. I recently did a calculation out of curiosity and found out that, adjusted to inflation, the value of the TPS-L2 when new is $544 in today's money, so pretty damn expensive even back in the day.
People would buy them back then because there was no other option, at least not in the beginning. It's hard to convince somebody to invest $544 in a cassette player nowadays, a player that is not even that portable compared to today's digital players (which I also love).
I think most people who want this kind of stuff (on a more significant scale) want it for purely nostalgic reasons and are not prepared to pay very much for that nostalgia. Also not interested in audio quality that much.
That is in contrast to probably most of us here on the forum, which are also interested in audio quality, build quality, a good mechanism, low wow and flutter, Dolby NR, etc.
I am personally fascinated by how good a high-end cassette can sound, by how good NR systems work when properly calibrated.
But the average guy just wants to listen to a cassette tape because it's a reminder of something back in the day, be it parties, mix tapes, listening to cassettes in the car when travelling, etc. and the story ends there for most people.

That is why I think Recording the masters are selling their new walkman at 50 euros, including a blank cassette and a pair of cheap heaphones. Note that it doesn't even have an EQ switch, but it does have a crappy speaker and probably and build in mic. Something also tells me it has DC bias for the recording...
https://www.recordingthemasters.com/store/audio-gear/b-1000-cassette-journey-pack/
People are just not willing to pay more than that on a considerable scale. They understood the market and made a commercially viable product.

It is a sad reality in my opinion, but it is what it is.

On the other hand, my ideal walkman to be build would have the following characteristics:

- AA batteries, as they are and will remain common in the foreseeable future, compared to LiIon batteries that will become obsolote and also can buldge and leak
- metal body and a leather case
- logic control, automatic tape detection
- 20Hz-20Khz frequency response
- a good heaphone amplifier that can drive high impedance headphones
- Dolby B,C NR for both play and rec
- adjustable bias, or at least a couple of presets that could be selected on the screen mentioned below
- recording capability on TYPE I, TYPE II and TYPE IV tapes. I would not mind a TYPE III option also that could be selected manually.
- a transparent LCD on the cover with VU meters and a spectrum analyzer, like someone mentioned earlier in the thread and caught my attention
- direct drive mechanism without any belts
- Bluetooth may be welcomed (it must also have AptX HD capability) if I would want to listen to a pair of wireless headphones, but I would not consider the feature a necessity

 

In two different ways. I worked with a technology enthusiast who was born in 1947. He said that back in the 1960s, once you had bought a decent TV and a decent music system there wasn't really much else left to buy. When the TPS-L2 came out in 1979 the number of people thinking of buying a computer must have been miniscule, while mobile phones were still in the research labs.

Nowadays, people think having a mobile phone is essential and are prepared to spend hundreds of $ on them.
I read an article about the creation of one of the first networks in Scandinavia. While trying to calculate if it would be viable they decided that if 10% of the people who could afford a second home decided to get a mobile phone then it would be and went ahead with building the network.

 

Correct!! I did pay way over a thou for the latest iPhone for my Boss because it had sooo much techno-crap said about it that she just Must have had it! Is it any better than iPhone-6 which I inherited from her? Maybe, but she does not care about learning on how to use those options... so basically - No!
We are back to the Fashion-World: who has the biggest woofers, horse-powers, latest model.

I tried hard but I failed to comprehend what exactly "Recording the Masters" were trying to achieve... there is some market for cassette replay BUT it does not align with what they produced

@Valentin - I am absolutely and totally with you!!! I would like to see a Walkman doing the job of a hi-end Nak deck... and it is even imaginable that new technologies of 2020 can produce such a feat... But I have some serious doubts that in the year of Our Lord of 2020 any-one will be able to reproduce even the Nak mechanics from 1985... Reality bites...

 

I didn't think about it in that way, but it makes sense: if there was not that much to buy, one would eventually be more willing to spend more money on decent TV or a decent music system.

Recording the Masters, in my opinion tried to build a product that is as cheap as possible, though not the lowest quality. So that people who are not audiophiles also want to buy it. And I think they have succeded. For 50 euros, is looks better than I expected.