Tag Archives: FiiO

FIIO K15 DAC’s nostalgic cassette tape charm complements the modern aesthetics

Posted on by

FIIO has a peculiar knack for reinventing audio accessories with a modern twist. The CP13 cassette player released at the beginning of 2024 is one of them. That’s probably inspired FIIO to design a DAC and headphone amplifier that’s modern on the inside but carries a distinct retro appeal on the outside. Yes, a classic tape recorder on the outside spices up the otherwise contemporary Digital-to-Analog Converter players.

The portable DAC amps up your audiophile-grade music listening experience if analog is your thing – both audio-wise and visually. The FIIO K15 DAC has an inch-wide LCD that emulates the look of a cassette player, replicating the spinning six-toothed spools and music information.

Designer: FIIO

Unlike your high-end phone, the audio accessory has two Cirrus Logic chips and dual op-amps with support for 32-bit/768-kHz and DSD256 decoding. This results in crystal clear sound reproduction even with high-impedance headphones. The companion app lets you toggle the high-precision 10-band parametric equalizer (found mostly on affordable digital audio devices) to fine-tune the listening experience. Since we are talking about audiophile-grade audio accessories, connectivity with your smartphones, PC, handheld gaming device or gaming console is possible with a USB-C jack. Those who use high-end wired headphones get the option to plug in the amplifier via a 3.5mm jack or the balanced 4.4mm jack.

The pocketable audio accessory stands out from its competitors with the unique display interface, while other features are more or less similar to current generation DACs. These include options like real-time voltage and current monitoring to make any dynamic power adjustments. An inline mic also gives you the liberty to take calls or attend Zoom meetings when connected to a phone or laptop. For a price tag of $109, the K15 portable DAC by FIIO is the perfect accessory to own if you’ve got bored with the usual stuff.

The post FIIO K15 DAC’s nostalgic cassette tape charm complements the modern aesthetics first appeared on Yanko Design.

Fiio CP13 revives Sony Walkman mixtape era in a USB-C chargable version

Posted on by

Fiio, best known for its audiophile-grade DACs and desktop streamers has surprised everyone at CES 2024 with a retro gadget that breaks the ice in terms of its nostalgia. This is the CP13 cassette player inspired by the popular Sony Walkman back in the 80s era.

The gadget is just not a shell inspired by the Walkman of that time, rather it is a modern cassette music player to its true core. You can gauge the realism from the fact that there isn’t Bluetooth on this music player to keep this very authentic. However, the Chinese manufacturer has added USB-C charging feature to save you from buying AA batteries every week.

Designer: Fiio

Doesn’t this mean, that cassette player technology has gone a full circle and now coming back in trend? In fact, the year 2022 saw an annual sale of 195,000 cassette player units. The appearance in ‘The Last of US’ and pop albums by Billie Elish, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift further seems to strengthen this fact!

Paying homage to the original Walkman in dual tone silver blue finish, the gadget has a retro design with large playback buttons, 3.5 mm headphone port and an oversized knob. By the looks of things, there’s no option to auto-reverse, so you’ll have to manually change sides. However, you can fast forward, reverse and pause just like the original one.

Another added feature along with the more modern charging port is the status LED. The player is good for 15 hours of playback on a single charge but sadly there’s no function to convert tapes to MP3 files. Of course, there’s the signature color variant but audioheads can also go for the matte black with white and the blue with metal silver option.

The audio accessory is priced at $164 and I’m not too sure if I’ll be going down that road anytime soon. Still, the Fiio CP13 does evoke a lot of fond memories of the golden era when owning music albums and following artists was a lot more precious compared to modern times.

The post Fiio CP13 revives Sony Walkman mixtape era in a USB-C chargable version first appeared on Yanko Design.