There has always been something to say for the cassette tape. Even if you didn’t grow up in the age when a No. 2 pencil was essential to ensure you could wind up your unspooled tapes, the odds are you heard about the charm of making a mixtape with the technology. Real effort goes into creating a cassette mix; it isn’t just drag and drop, but instead a methodical, physical process that allows intention to somehow shine through in the end. So now, as vinyl the cassette’s predecessor is enjoying an unprecedented revival, driving manufacturing prices sky high and clogging processing plants, bands are turning to the much-cheaper cassette tape to deliver their music with a vintage feel. Odds are that if you lived during the cassette tape era you already ditched your player at a yard sale or tossed it into the trash. Luckily for you, cassette players are still available and in some pretty neat configurations that allow you to both listen to and create your own tapes. Here are a few of our favorite options.
