We Are Rewind GB-001 Cassette Boombox: Old-School Stylish

Plays and records audio cassettes. A sleek, modern plan made from prime components, with almighty bass and full-range sound. The amber, backlit VU meters are some beauteous and practical.

No radio. No portion counter. Lower-than-average artillery beingness for a portion of this size and price. Sound tin endure from a deficiency of detail.

I don’t participate successful the existent resurgence of vinyl enthusiasm, but I recognize it. Whether you judge it sounds amended than digital, there’s nary denying the visceral joyousness of grounds shopping, cautiously placing that achromatic 12-inch disc onto a turntable, and past dropping the needle. Not to notation the interaction that medium creation and liner notes tin person connected the listening experience.

No 1 claims that cassette tapes dependable amended than, well, thing different than AM radio. Most of the integrative cartridges person astir arsenic overmuch carnal charm arsenic a disposable lighter—they're kitschy collectibles much than archival artifacts. I didn’t expect that the classical boombox, with its cardinal portion deck, would marque a comeback, but present we are.

At the forefront of this nostalgic caller question is We Are Rewind (or Rewind), a French startup that archetypal came to our attraction successful 2023 with its stylish reboot of the Walkman: The $160 WE-001. The company’s 2nd cassette-based merchandise is the $579 GB-001. You’ll besides spot it referred to arsenic a “Blaster.” (The French institution decided to fto the assemblage conjecture what the G successful the GB-001 exemplary sanction means). It is confusingly besides listed arsenic its circumstantial achromatic color, which Rewind calls “Curtis.”

Is a $579 fake boombox worthy the wealth to you? Depends connected however overmuch of an aesthete you are, and however large your portion collection.

A John Hughes Remake

Like the WE-001’s modern instrumentality connected portable cassette players, the GB-001 captures the essence of iconic 1970s/1980s boomboxes, portion applying a modern aesthetic (and a fewer modern capabilities).

One look astatine the GB-001 and you tin spot the wide brushstrokes person been preserved: the oversize, circular metallic grilles protecting the drivers, the brawny, full-width folding handle, and the portion platform itself, which, according to We Are Rewind’s laminitis and CEO, Romain Boudruche, uses a high-performance motor, comparable to those utilized successful 1990s hi-fi decks. It’s beautifully built, with cleanable lines and a astir seamless construction. Simple achromatic rotary knobs adorn the apical surface.

Then there’s the size and weight. At 19 inches wide, 10 inches tall, and 15 pounds, it’s a beast. It’s truthful substantial, adjacent the unit required to property the front-mounted portion playback buttons won’t budge it if it’s connected a level surface. Yes, it’s portable, but I uncertainty you’ll privation to transportation it precise far.

But the clincher, particularly for those who privation to revel successful the glory of each things analog, is the brace of backlit VU meters. They’re truthful gloriously emblematic of the aureate epoch of analog that they were the archetypal happening my Gen X friends commented connected erstwhile I showed them the GB-001—Gen X being the wide people audience.

Same Old Flaws

Also preserved from that infinitesimal successful history? A deficiency of h2o oregon particulate protection. Gone is simply a monolithic artillery bay and its insatiable appetite for D-cells. Instead, a replaceable rechargeable artillery runs the show. We Are Rewind says you’ll get astir 10 hours per complaint if you’re mostly playing cassettes, up to 15 hours if you’re utilizing the different audio sources similar Bluetooth and line-in. Those numbers seemed reasonably close during my valuation period. Two things to support successful mind: It tin beryllium recharged lone via the included A/C partition charger, truthful don’t permission location without it, and the lone artillery level indicator is simply a tiny reddish airy adjacent to the measurement dial that comes connected erstwhile you deed 20 percent remaining.

Sadly, the 1 happening each 20th-century boombox had—an AM/FM tuner—is absent from the GB-001. I knew this earlier receiving my valuation unit, and yet the infinitesimal it was unboxed and charged up, I was deed with the disappointing realization that I couldn’t conscionable flip a power and commencement listening to music. Apparently, my ain interior 15-year-old associates boomboxes with vigor adjacent much than cassettes.

I’m told that We Are Rewind considered it but yet passed connected adding a vigor due to the fact that of the regulatory and method differences from 1 marketplace to another. Still, arsenic 1 of my friends astutely observed, if the GB-001 proves successful, there’s thing stopping the institution from creating a GB-002, implicit with a tuner, arsenic a follow-up.

Making Mixtapes

Both Bluetooth and aux-in tin beryllium utilized to grounds to portion (though not simultaneously), and there’s adjacent a abstracted microphone jack with its ain dedicated level dial. You tin premix successful the mic portion recording, oregon amplify the awesome for advertisement hoc karaoke sessions. Bizarrely, We Are Rewind opted not to see a built-in condenser mic—something that astir OG boomboxes had.

Beyond the sheer nostalgia worth of owning a boombox, these signaling options are arguably the GB-001’s biggest selling point. The mixtape (or “mixed tape” arsenic my circumstantial cohort called them) mightiness beryllium connected the verge of a comeback. And this is wherever those VU meters spell from being a chill add-on to a captious instrument. For the uninitiated: if your input level is excessively low, your recordings won’t person capable measurement for playback. Set them excessively high, and you’ll extremity up with distortion. The meters fto you spot and set these levels, making the GB-001 amended suited for recordings than the WE-001.

The 1 missing constituent is simply a portion counter. If you program connected doing aggregate takes, starting each clip from the aforesaid spot, a portion antagonistic makes it mode easier. Without one, you’re near to conjecture astatine however agelong to rewind, which wastes clip and puts much deterioration connected the portion and transport mechanism.

Did I trial the grounds function? You stake I did; the merchandise of the intermission fastener (after pressing grounds and play simultaneously) brought backmost a flood of blessed memories. I adjacent tracked down an original, sealed Maxell XLII-90 blank portion ($10 connected Marketplace) due to the fact that they were my go-to backmost successful the day. The GB-001 performed flawlessly, oregon astatine slightest arsenic flawlessly arsenic you tin expect from a boombox. I queued up immoderate favourite Dire Straits tracks from Qobuz and piped them into the GB-001 from my telephone via Bluetooth and line-in, and some sounded astir indistinguishable erstwhile I played them back. Wish I could accidental the aforesaid of 1 of my thrift-store cassette finds: a heavy utilized transcript of Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell, which sounded much similar the bat got bushed and wanted to spell backmost to hellhole for a nap.

Big Sound

True to the sanction Blaster, the GB-001 packs plentifulness of powerfulness with a full of 104 watts connected tap, and it tin get precise large if you fto it. The dependable signature is unapologetically bass-forward, thing that tin beryllium moderated utilizing the top-mounted code controls. Where things get a spot dicey is successful the level of detail. The mid and precocious frequencies bask coagulated separation, and yet the existent contented of a way tin consciousness a spot smeared. Individual elements similar guitars and vocals thin to blend successful a mode that I’ve travel to subordinate with compression. Given that the GB-001 supports lone the basal SBC codec for Bluetooth audio, I thought this mightiness beryllium the reason, and yet the aux-in and portion sources didn’t execute importantly better.

I recovered portion playback offered higher measurement levels than Bluetooth oregon line-in (even with some of these acceptable to maximum output), but that mightiness beryllium a reflection of the cogwheel I was using. To trial for distortion, I recorded Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” to tape, past played it from each 3 sources. With Bluetooth and line-in, the track’s thumping bass enactment caused nary problems astatine all, adjacent astatine 100 percent volume. But erstwhile I switched to tape, the GB-001 deed the bounds of what it could grip astir the 75 percent mark, astatine which constituent distortion became precise noticeable.

We Are Rewind says it uses a spatialization relation for “a wider, much immersive stereo experience,” and yet the GB-001 remains highly directional. Put yourself dead-center, astir 5 to six feet away, and it sounds great. Stereo separation isn’t spectacular, but it’s capable for a soundstage that astatine times tin consciousness similar it’s doubly arsenic wide arsenic the boombox. However, if you locomotion distant from that halfway line, stereo vanishes immediately, and truthful does overmuch of the mid-to-high frequence definition. The dependable becomes muddier the farther you go. This whitethorn besides explicate that consciousness of smearing I mentioned earlier.

To a definite extent, this is existent of immoderate portable-size speaker, but it’s much noticeable connected the GB-001 than connected much modern speakers, similar the JBL Authentics 300 oregon Marshall Kilburn III, which tin capable a country much evenly.

The bass and treble code controls supply a wide scope of adjustments successful some frequence bands, but they don’t impact the headphone output. Speaking of headphones, low-impedance, high-sensitivity models volition beryllium a amended prime for the GB-001. It wasn’t rather almighty capable to thrust my 80-ohm Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro Limited Edition cans arsenic large arsenic I would person liked.

For a portable talker of its power, the GB-001 is connected the pricey side, particularly erstwhile you see it has a importantly little artillery beingness than likewise almighty models. It besides lacks water/dust resistance, and you decidedly don’t privation to driblet it from immoderate height. The deficiency of an AM/FM radio, Bluetooth playback controls, and a portion antagonistic are unfortunate oversights.

And yet I truly similar We Are Rewind’s caller instrumentality connected the classical boombox. The simplicity of its design, its versatility arsenic a signaling device—those VU meters!—along with its important powerfulness and karaoke option, springiness it a worth that goes beyond axenic nostalgia. It’s an eminently applicable mode to research (or reacquaint yourself with) an analog format that’s dilatory clawing its mode backmost into the spotlight. At the precise least, it’s a guaranteed speech piece. If that is worthy the wealth for you, and you miss making mixtapes, it mightiness beryllium worthy a buy.