FiiO is already trying to tempt potential customers with either a portable or a stationary cassette deck. Which one will eventually make it into production? You can have a say in that too!
FiiO has posted two interesting design concepts for a future cassette deck / portable field recorder on Facebook (see screenshot above). The idea is that visitors can choose between the two proposed models. Both differ considerably in terms of appearance and intended use.
The first concept is a practical and rugged-looking field recorder, or portable recording deck if you prefer. It could also be ideal for quickly connecting to a computer to digitise old cassette tapes via an audio interface, although it is not yet known whether such functionality would be built in as standard.
The second option is intended for stationary use. At first glance, it looks somewhat more ‘fragile’ and doesn’t conform to standard hi-fi rack dimensions either. On the other hand, it would allow you to connect your ultra-modern equipment via a simple line output and take your audio setup straight back to the eighties—or even earlier.
As far as we know, neither concept currently includes noise reduction, such as the familiar Dolby B and C systems. That’s unfortunate, as many older cassette tapes were recorded using these technologies. In principle, Dolby-encoded recordings can still be processed using suitable software after digitisation, but that obviously adds an extra step.
Licensing and trademark issues are probably still among the reasons why most modern cassette decks and portable cassette players don’t include these technologies. Unfortunately, large companies such as Dolby aren’t always the easiest to deal with when it comes to matters like these.