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If you want to get looks, clip a Maxell Wireless Cassette player to your backpack and watch the astonishment roll in. My coffee guy could barely contain himself: ”Wow, classic! Boy!” I walked away with coffee, a bagel, and a smile on my face.
At the office, a small crowd gathered around to examine it. All men in their 30s, 40s, or 50s, they recognized the iconic shape and buttons. “What a blast from the past,” smiled one. Another pointed and asked incredulously, “It works with Bluetooth?” Yes, I told them, it does, though there’s more to that story.
Price and availability
The Maxell Wireless Cassette Player launched in February 2026 and costs $99.99. It is not currently available in the UK.
Specs
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Maxell Wireless Cassette Player |
Row 0 – Cell 2 |
|
Dimensions |
6.5 x 1.7 x 5.8 inches |
Row 1 – Cell 2 |
|
Weight |
210 grams |
Row 2 – Cell 2 |
|
Connectivity |
Bluetooth 5.4, wired |
Row 3 – Cell 2 |
|
Battery |
8 hours wireless |
Row 4 – Cell 2 |
|
Ports |
USB-C (charge), 3.5mm headphone jack |
Row 5 – Cell 2 |
Design and setup
Despite being designed for media made 40 years ago, the Maxell player has a pleasing modern look, with a mostly white, composite body and a band of silver/gray running around the edge that leads you to the simple gray buttons (Fast-forward, Rewind, Play, and Stop) and to the, volumne wheel, ports and tiny Bluetooth button on the side. It’s a less fussy design than you’ll find on the pricier, $160 player from GenZ (talk about an on-the-nose brand name)
There’s also a large clip on the back so you can slip the player on your belt or backpack. I tried both, though settled on the backpack — more on that in a bit.
The face of it has the classic capsule-shaped cutout so you can see your tape and maybe a little bit of the album name. There’s a small lip on the right side that you use to flip open the cover so you can slip in a tape. I tried opening the player by putting two fingers on the lip side and my thumb on the other. That was a mistake. It flips open easily with just one finger tip.
Because the entire face of the Maxell Wireless Cassette Player is the cassette door, you can’t seat it on its base when you want to load a cassette — the bottom edge will get stuck or make the whole thing tip over. It’s not a big deal, but I do wonder if there was a better way to make that cover.
As with virtually all cassette players made over the last 50 years, the cassett slips in top first and with the exposed tape facing up.
Connecting and playing
I was not a mix-tape guy, but I used to have a small collection of audio cassettes that I played in my old Hyundai’s built-in cassette player. Since that car was gone, I had to go searching for my old box of tapes. I found it under a layer of dust, but the cassettes were in relatively good condition.
I had an old Carly Simon album, the original Broadway production of Chess cast album, some personal recordings of my CBS News Radio appearances (hear me talk about how Internet Explorer 4 might finally overtake Netscape!), and The Traveling Wilburys. You might not know that band name, but back in 1988, they were one of the original super groups, comprising Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison. I loved that album.
I slipped in that last tape and then plugged in a pair of wired headphones (just to see if the thing worked). It does not ship with headphones or a charging adapter, but you do get a USB-C charging cable.
There’s also no power switch or button. Instead, if you hit any of the three main buttons and it just starts, winding, rewinding, or playing. I pressed play, which was quite satisfying, I must admit, and heard the quartet’s instantly identifiable sound coming through my headset.
Bluetooth connectivity turned out to be somewhat more challenging.
Making the connection
Directions for Bluetooth connectivity are relatively spare, and it’s in moments like this that you realize just how spoiled we are by ever-present screens.
The only indication of the player looking for and establishing a Bluetooth connection is a tiny blue light. It flashes in search mode and stays on when the connection is established.
My goal was to connect the Maxell Wireless Cassette Player to my Apple AirPods Pro 3. The Maxell manual instructs you to put your Bluetooth device in pairing mode and then press and hold the Bluetooth button on the player to put it in pairing mode. That’s it. They should find each other.
They did not.
No matter what I tried, I could not get the AirPods Pro connected. At one point, though, I thought I heard a sound from my TV in the next room. After 30 minutes of trying, I walked into the living room and turned on my LG C5 OLED TV. Then I placed the Maxell cassette player in front of it and hit play.
Yep, it had connected to my TV.
On the bright side, I could hear the music, but I also didn’t plan to take my TV with me.
Take 2
,The next day I took the Maxell player with me to work and, while sitting on the train, I was able to successfully connect to the AirPods Pro. My guess is there was just too much Bluetooth crosstalk in my house.
Maxell claims that after the first connection, the headphones should automatically connect to the Maxell Player. Sometimes that was true, but not consistently.
For my walk to work, I put the Maxell Wireless Cassette Player on my belt. Unfortunately, it could not connect to my AirPods. So I moved it up to a backpack strap that put it inches from my head.
Bingo.
It worked, and I listened to clear, rich audio with great highs, excellent mids, and good-enough lows. The connection, though, was not always solid. It literally broke if I turned my head the wrong way. Even so, I enjoyed the experience and the reactions.
Battery life
Maxell rates the player for 11 hours of playback wired and 8 hours using Bluetooth. I unboxed it and started using it, and have yet to charge the player. Again, though, the lack of a screen means I have no idea how much juice is left
Listening to cassette tapes is not just analog; it’s a serial experience. Songs are lined up sequentially on tape. You can’t jump around or see either what you’re playing or what’s coming up. Oh, and if you want to hear the rest of the album, you must remove the tape, turn it over, and slip it back into the player.
Mostly, I didn’t mind this. I also don’t care about the lack of recording capabilities. I don’t plan on creating new cassette tapes. Though it was fun rediscovering tapes I last played when I was in my 30s, hearing my youthful, recorded voice opining on the state of the browser wars, and the young voices of my now adult children. None of that would’ve been possible without the $99 Maxell Wireless Cassette Player, and it’s worth it just for that.
First reviewed April 2026
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