New cassette player matches high-res audio

Toshiba Lifestyle Electronics Trading Co.’s new CD radio cassette player. THE JAPAN NEWS

A new CD radio cassette player has been released that can give the music on a cassette tape the same sound quality as high-resolution audio.

Combining the latest high-resolution audio technology with cassette tapes, Toshiba Lifestyle Electronics Trading Co. installed a mechanism in the new player that improves the quality of music data on a cassette tape to match that of a high-resolution audio source.

The new player will cost about ¥29,000 in stores.

The cassette tape market quickly shrank in the 1980s because of the emergence of CDs. However, this analog media is still popular among middle-aged and older people, who are accustomed to its sound quality.

Cassette tapes are also being rediscovered by young people recently, with artists making their new releases available in the format.

Toshiba Lifestyle Electronics Trading said it plans to promote the new product by playing cassette tapes with music by singer Tomoyo Harada, who used to appear in commercials for Toshiba Corp.