One of the problems with music streaming services is that many of them don't seem too focused on, y'know, music – so Spotify is trying to compete with Audible as well as podcasting platforms while planning to charge quite a lot more money for decent-quality audio (having already boosted its prices while alienating musicians), Tidal's heading in a more social media direction and everybody seems to be implementing AI.
And there are plenty of other issues with streaming and digital music generally, from artists' tiny royalty payments to issues of ownership and disappearing music. So it's perhaps not a surprise that more of us are turning away from the best music streaming services and switching to old-school audio formats; not just vinyl, but CD and cassettes too.
That's something TEAC has noticed: its TEAC AD-850-SE combined CD player and cassette player/recorder didn't get tons of attention when it launched the most recent model in 2022, but over the last year or so it's been going out of stock as soon as new stock is coming in. In some cases, eBay sellers are charging way more for second-hand ones than they go for new, so for example I'm just looking at a Japanese listing offering to sell you one for nearly $950. The US RRP is $549 and it's £489 in the UK.
If you can get your hands on one, I reckon you've got exactly 50% of what you need for a deeply satisfying sonic experience. All you need is an amp and a turntable too – something like the Pro-Ject Juke Box E1, which delivers both in one package, and can also include speakers if you don't already have your own. I've just reviewed that one and it's a ton of fun.
Brand new retro
Although it's relatively new (at least, compared to most CD players or tape players) and includes modern features such as USB recording and playback, the TEAC looks like exactly the kind of kit I'd have drooled over in the ’80s or ’90s: it supports chrome and metal tapes (I could bore you to death about those and why a Sony metal tape was absolutely superior to the best chrome TDK ones), it has lots of buttons because buttons are part of the fun, and it has a pitch control so you can turn Metallica into munchkins. You can even use it as a karaoke machine.
There's only one problem, for me at least. I don't have tapes any more. I used to have tons of them put precariously on every surface and in every conceivable car cavity, but I got rid of the lot in favor of compact disc – and then I got rid of the compact discs in favour of rips, downloads and streams. I'm back buying CDs again to replenish my collection, but for the stuff I really want I'm swallowing my horror at the prices and getting them on vinyl rather than tape (as are most people, if the popularity of the best turntables is anything to go by).
But if you've still got plenty of tapes hanging around, this particular deck, or something like it, could be a good solution to the streaming dilemma: you can use its USB to digitize your cassettes so you can listen on your smart speakers or phone, and if you talk loudly over the end of the songs you can pretend it's the 1980s and you're taping new songs from the radio. Once digitized, those songs are still yours – and you don't need to pay a subscription to listen to them.
If you want something more portable, we recently covered very smart new portable options from Fiio: first the Fiio CP13 portable tape player, and then the new Fiio DM13 portable CD player.
