Maxell MXCP-P100 – a modern portable cassette player with Bluetooth, USB-C and brass flywheel
Maxell hopes to capture cassette’s comeback, in its new player with modern convenience, including Bluetooth support and USB-C charging.
Over the past five years, cassettes have seen something of a revival, with sales of the physical media increasing, despite the difficulty in aquiring new high quality players. Whether just a temporary nostalgia hit or a trend we’ll see continue for years, Japanese consumer electronic company Maxell hopes its new MXCP-P100 cassette player will help capitalize on this resurgence and remedy the low quality devices crowding the market today. While now producing batteries, chargers, storage devices and projectors, Maxell was previously very popular for its recording media, such as cassettes, VHS tapes, floppy disks and optical discs.
The MXCP-P100 measures 122 x 91 x 38mm and weighs 210g. While pocketable, it is slightly larger than the popular Walkmans of the early 2000s. There’s a clip on the back to attach it to your bag, or go full retro and clip it to your belt. Along the top are your playback controls, including play, stop, fast-forward and rewind buttons. Along the right-hand side, you’ll find a volume wheel, Bluetooth pairing button, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB-C charging port and LED charging indicator.
Internally, there is a brass flywheel which reportedly reduced rotational irregularities and stablizes tape movement for high quality sound. The cassette player has Bluetooth 5.4 for pairing to wireless headphones, or there is a 3.5mm headphone jack for connection to older headphones and speakers, which will also preserve battery life.
The MXCP-P100 lasts for 9 hours of playback when using wired headphones or 7 hours with Bluetooth headphones. Gone are the annoying batteries of past Walkmans. Maxell’s new player is rechargeable via USB-C and can be used while charging. A 75cm USB-A to USB-C charger is included in the box.
The Maxell MXCP-P100 is available in Black or White. It is currently only for sale in Japan, where Maxell is based and physical media has remained popular. Both colors are sold out on the Maxell site currently. I’d be interested to hear how many players Maxell sold in its first run, when they’ll be available to purchase again and whether the excitement will translate to international audiences. It is ¥13,000 which is roughly $90 USD.
