The Mixtape Reimagined
Bring back the soul of music with this digital MP3 player built inside a faux cassette tape made of wood.
These days, nearly everyone uses their phone as a portable music player. It makes perfect sense to do so — phones offer high-quality playback and we already carry them around with us. But isn’t there something inside you that misses dedicated music players, like the iPod and the Walkman? These devices did exactly one thing, and they did it with soul. Modern phones may offer a wealth of information at our fingertips, but they lack the tactile satisfaction of a physical click-wheel or the comfort of a device that can't interrupt your favorite song with a work email.
YouTuber Studio0305 wanted to bring back the experience of using a dedicated music player. The goal was to create something stylish that you actually want to carry around, so the hardware was built into a faux cassette tape. Unlike real cassettes, there is no magnetic tape to be found inside this one. As convincing as it looks from the outside, it contains a digital MP3 player inside.
The hardware is centered around a DFRobot DFPlayer Mini MP3 Player. A TP4056 battery charging module and a 500 mAh LiPo battery provide the system with power. A 3.5 mm audio jack and some buttons and switches round out the bill of materials.
There is nothing unusual about the hardware — countless other projects use the same components. However, Studio0305 packaged it all up in a truly unique way. Sheets of wood laminate were laser cut, glued, and stacked to create the cassette tape-shaped case. The inner layers have cutouts to house the components and to allow for wiring between them. The outer layers were stained and sanded to give a beautiful woodgrain appearance.
Every little detail was considered in this build. Custom labels were produced and attached to the housing, and faux spindles were made with a 3D resin printer. Buttons to control playback were even inserted in the tape access area to mimic the look of magnetic tape.
This is a very detailed build that requires a lot of equipment, so it would be difficult for most of us to reproduce it at home. If you can’t make your own, the next best thing is to see the player in action in the video below.