We Are Rewind WE-001 Cassette Player Review (1) – Holding Back The Years

The $159 We Are Rewind WE-001 cassette player sounds as close as it gets to a vintage Walkman whilst entering the 21st century with Bluetooth capability that works surprisingly well.

We Are Rewind kindly provided their WE-001 cassette player for my review and I thank them for what. You can purchase it directly from www.wearewind.com for $159 USD/€149 EUR. After my review, I sent it on to Loomis and Darin for reviews 2 & 3.

Introduction

The year was 2004 when Sony stopped selling their Walkmen cassette players in the USA, which they had introduced in 1979. They were replaced by small, portable CD players called Discmen. The CD had overtaken tapes sales in 1991 already, which sealed the demise of a successful era that had started in 1963.

Today, Walkmen production lines have disappeared and so has the knowledge of producing small players with advanced features such as different noise reduction technologies, tape type selector, bias, audio reverse, sensor buttons, mega bass, A-B repeat, AVLS. Some of the vintage players were hardly bigger than the cassette itself, despited being loaded with technology.

But what has also disappeared are CDs, pushed aside by analog vinyl records, another species that had essentially died out.

We older guys may have still boxes of cassettes in our basements, be it pre-recorded albums or home-made mixtapes of our faves of the day. We even may find the odd cassette player in a drawer, which is likely non-operational owing to its disintegrated belt and/or aged electrolytic capacitors. Nothing lasts forever.

Today, the cassette experiences a comeback mainly through indie bands. Releasing music on tape is simply less costly than producing CDs.

A team of experienced French engineers came to help preserve the analog tape sound for us with their We Are Rewind WE-001 personal cassette player, which was the first of its kind on the market. They were challenged by the lack of parts availability and the lost know how. Their player had to be designed from scratch.

We Are Rewind built their WE-001 player around the only available drive mechanism (with some modifications added), which in part determined its large size. The buttons are spaced according to the dimensions of this mechanism. An added Bluetooth module makes the chassis even larger. The company made a virtue of necessity by opting for a pragmatic shape with clear lines apparently influenced by the designs of Dieter Rams (who was responsible for much of the famous Braun Hifi of the 1960s and 1970s). For this, they won a 2024 Good Design Gold Award in Australia.

In contrast to any other vintage or current player, the WE-001 features Bluetooth 5.1 transmissivity. And it preserved the Walkman’s recording functionality for producing (mix)tapes.

Like its current competition such as the FiiO CP13 (which has the same drive mechanism sans recording and Bluetooth), the WE-001 also lacks the late Walkmen’s fancy features mentioned above. That technical knowledge as well as the old production lines and parts supplies are…as mentioned, history.

I purchased my first Sony Walkman, model WM-23, in 1983. I still own two Panasonic and one Sony player from the late 1990s, all relatively plain without fancy features except a Type I & II selector. They are still in perfect working order and play my >100 mixtapes, recorded radio shows, and classical music, rock, and pop albums.

A solid base for analyzing the WE-001.

Specifications We Are Rewind WE-001

Physical Aspects and Functionality

In the box you find the player, a USB-C cable, and a very well-illustrated documentation including reference to a free 3-year support.

The WE-001 is essentially a rectangular box made mainly out of brushed metal, finely machined, with a great haptic. It was designed in France, is produced in China, and features the standard buttons of any personal cassette player, including a recording button. The recording function comes with an automatic level control. Playback stops automatically, forward and rewind buttons do not have auto shutoff functionality.

All four types of cassettes are accepted, that is ferric” or “normal (Type I), “chrome” (Type 2), “ferrichrome” or “ferrochrome” (Type 3), and “metal” (Type 4).

There’s a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a volume scroll wheel, and an LED indicating the current function.

A headphone is not included but a wireless one can be purchased from the company, as well as other accessories such as a belt clip, blank cassettes, and cassette racks.

Bluetooth 5.1

After having pointed out what advances of the 1990s have been lost, the questions are (1) what was preserved and (2) what new technologies have been implemented that no other cassette player ever had? The answer is (as you know already): the WE-001 can record and it offers Bluetooth transmissivity.

As to the recording quality: I have not tested it, but a frequency range of 30-10000 Hz (with a type I tape) is meh…you won’t get a satisfactory listening quality out of it. The same accounts for any vintage player. You really need a tape deck (and a record player as source) to produce decent-quality (mix)tapes.

Bluetooth pairing works fluently on the push of a button and converts the signal from analog to digital.

Pairings

Just like the original players from the 1980s, the WE-001 sounds best with a Koss Porta-Pro type on-ear, easy-to-drive headphone with foam pads. We Are Rewind are offering such a design (albeit wireless). I also had good results with the Sennheiser PX100 and PX100-II, and the Koss KTXPRO1.

The company does not recommend in-ears (they also sound horrible on a Sony). A fully blown can such as the Sennheiser HD 600 is pushing the amplifier into its knees. The Meze 105AER, although it principally works with the WE-001, does not get the detail it is capable of reproducing.

Sound

The WE-001 comes close to my Sony WM-FX173 Walkman (but with Sony’s megabass switched on), sonically, with all its characteristics. It has an elevated, broad mid bass and a reasonably wide but not overly deep soundstage and plays rather organic. In terms of amplification power, both are approximately on par with the WE-001 less distorting and less harsh at very high volumes than the Sony.

In comparison, the FiiO CP13 plays more analytical with more punch, more depth and sharpness than both. While this more technically better reproduction may appeal to the digital-type listener, it is less organic and less analog, hence less “Walkman”. The Walkman generation may prefer the WE-001, the hipster will be possibly more inclined towards the FiiO. Stop, maybe not, as the hipster will also appreciate the WE-001’s Bluetooth functionality, which the purist may reject.

La vie n’est pas si simple!

I used the Bluetooth functionality (and also wired) with the final UX3000 headphone, and with surprisingly good results. Wirelessly, the signal is quieter and now obviously digital. Resolution and clarity increase, the notes are a bit leaner but all at the expense of the analog character. Overall still pretty much enjoyable…I really learnt to love this feature. I got about 8 m of unobstructed distance.

Even better, against all odds, was the sound with the TOZO Open EarRing, a new concept that yields more bass than an earbud but does not intrude the ear canal. Highly recommended.

WE-001 and Bluetooth — great for the gym.

Concluding Remarks

Playing my old music with the WE-001 brings back memories and makes me rewind time (forgive the pun). At the same time, I can experience my 1980s tapes with my 2025 TWS earphones, an interesting mix of old and new. It is so much fun.

Until next time…keep on listening!

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