While testing out the We Are Rewind GB-001, the cassette-tape boombox with modern connectivity, something clicks in my brain. As I’m cueing up tracks and recording them to a ferric oxide cassette tape, it triggers memories I’d almost completely forgotten: of lazy Sunday mornings piecing together tapes to listen to during the week on my Sony Walkman.
There’s something deeply joyful about these memories. In an era before playlists were even a thing, recording mixtapes was the way we’d attempt to reduce our entire personality down to a single 60-minute mashup. And there’s a point during my testing of We Are Rewind’s boombox that I’m suddenly back there again, sat in front of hi-fi equipment meticulously taping tracks into place one by one and hoping I hadn’t left the record input volume down again.
This is a big part of the device’s magic. While it’s not the cheapest option of the best Bluetooth speakers out there – with a list price of $579 / £389 (around AU$875) – it’s these nostalgic moments that elevate it above and beyond your standard portable speaker. Will it keep me coming back once that retro charm has worn off? It’s hard to pre-empt the answer to that question. But I’d argue it has enough going for it that it’s more than just a novelty.
We Are Rewind GB-001 – ace of bass
The first thing you’ll notice about the We Are Rewind GB-001 is its bass. This thing is not shy about serving up generous helpings of bass, so you better have a big appetite. Listening to Otomo (feat. O’Flynn) by Bonobo, I was genuinely blown away – that huge drop sounds amazing, with the thwomping bass having so much presence. Even for a speaker of this size, it has a whole lotta sub to give and can make almost any track sound wonderfully warm.
I’ve heard so many speakers that have betrayed their brittler edges when I’ve played Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac – but rather than the harsh, glassy edges you’ll hear when a speaker overdrives the treble, here they’re nicely balanced and smooth. Some of the transients like snare and cymbal hits occasionally feel a little more forward than I’d like, but for the most part it doesn’t overplay its hand in the high frequencies.
Where it does come slightly unstuck is in the middle. Don’t get me wrong: the lower-mid tones of the guitar in Otherside by Maribou State sound gorgeous, feeling so beautifully polished, while the kick punched through the mix like it was shot from a rivet gun. Unfortunately though, this came at the slight cost of overshadowing upper-mid frequencies like those in Holly Walker’s sublime vocals, making them seem much more subdued than I’m used to.
It should be possible to finesse the mix a little with those bass and treble knobs, so I tested this theory out with Sit Down. Stand Up by Radiohead. Previously the kick and bass guitar were overwhelming elements like the thundering piano riff and the racing drum machine. With the bass turned down to 10 o’clock, it definitely improved but even with both treble and bass turned down completely, some of the higher-mid frequencies were still AWOL, suggesting it’s less an issue of balance and more a case that there are some frequencies the Boombox’s drivers are less confident with.
What about stereo separation? Well, playing The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, I could definitely detect the different channels at work, with the overdubbed electric guitar noticeably panned to the right, while the drum track – look, I like that version, don’t @ me – eventually shuffles into place on the left. Perhaps inevitably that sound doesn’t extend much further than the sides of the speaker but, short of side-firing drivers, few speakers can deliver that wide a soundstage. And it definitely is capable of a decent separation of each channel.
I don’t want these slight sound gripes to overshadow a simple fact though: the We Are Rewind Boombox is a fun listen. Sure, it’s almost monomaniacally fixated with bass but I suspect if you’re buying a cassette-playing boombox in 2025, you’re not doing so with the aim of accessing meticulously balanced audio. Instead you’re expecting something with personality, that’s capable of real impact and that’s absolutely the niche We Are Rewind’s boombox occupies. Effectively it’s a dope-sounding party speaker with retro functionality and it doesn’t really need to be anything else.
We Are Rewind GB-001 – full of features
Naturally, the big appeal of the We Are Rewind GB-001 is going to be that tape deck. That means you can pick up your parents’ old Rod Stewart tape, stick it in this deck and it’s like the last four decades of non-physical media never happened.
Now, I don’t have a huge number of cassettes laying around. Hoarder though I am, I try to not keep any technology that has been obsolete for any longer than two decades and my collection of sonically degraded 1990s mixtapes did not survive a previous cull. So I borrowed some tapes off a colleague, including Megabass 2: Rave to the Rhythm – which felt like the ideal kind of recording to test out the Boombox’s prowess.
Honestly, I found the results genuinely pretty impressive. There’s just the right amount of old school tape hiss to give the sound that analog authenticity without appreciably distorting the quality of the recording. And despite the fact the tape is easily 35 years old, there was almost no perceptible wow or flutter – the fluctuating pitch you often associate with cassette playback. But it is worth noting that your mileage may vary here, as some of that distortion can be caused by the condition of the tape you’re playing.
But appealing though it might be to be able to play old-school tapes again, I suspect that for many, the biggest draw here might be getting to record your own tapes and mixes. Recording on the We Are Rewind Boombox is seriously fun, unlocking something of that old magic of trying to stitch your fave tunes together in the perfect flow. On top of this, the recordings themselves are decent enough quality, sounding deliciously bassy while still having just enough compression and hiss to maintain some of that old school charm.
You’re not restricted exclusively to physical media though. You can easily hook up modern streaming devices up to it as well – for example, using the built-in Aux port, I was able to stream lossless quality audio from Apple Music on my laptop. On top of this you can connect wireless over Bluetooth 5.4 – connecting was a cinch, while you’ve also got access to the increased range and lower latencies unlocked by previous versions.
Battery life is pretty decent, although this is partly down to the fact a device the size of the Boombox has a lot of room for a seriously capacious battery. Doing my usual battery tests was a little awkward, as there’s no way to get an exact battery level reading here but I listened to the Boombox for 15 hours cumulatively during my testing and the low-battery light still hasn’t come on, demonstrating it’ll definitely do you for a full pool party or impromptu rave.
We Are Rewind GB-001 – delightful design
I’ll be honest here. When it comes to design, I have almost no notes for We Are Rewind. It’s nailed the look of the GB-001. But as ‘yeah, it looks great’ makes for a pretty tedious review, I’ll try to elucidate and throw some constructive criticism into the mix.
As with most of We Are Rewind’s products, it’s cartwheeled along the tightrope between faithful retro styling and modern sensibilities as though it were a sidewalk two feet wide. It looks more convincingly like the spirit of a boombox than a lot of the products I owned back when I was a kid. It’s essentially the platonic ideal of a boombox – instantly recognizable as such but without an inch of waste or unnecessary ornamentation to it.
Unlike the bright hues of some of We Are Rewind’s portable tapedecks – for example the bold pink and turquoise colorway of the Edith – the Boombox is more unassuming. The vast majority of its body is either black or gray, with just a splash of yellow to its record button and logo to remind you it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Build quality is first-rate. The matt plastic it’s fashioned from is smooth to the touch yet dependably solid, while the anodized metal plate that runs along its top surface feels just luxe enough for a speaker of this price.
Just as well-made is the series of switches and dials embedded into it. Whether you’re flicking between different sources or dialling the bass and treble up and down, each of these controls feels chunky and substantial, giving you a decent amount of tactile feedback. Similarly, the buttons on the tape deck present just the right amount of resistance – there’s none of that plasticky clickiness I used to associate with tape decks.
It would be easy to dismiss the VU meters in the front of the device as a mere gimmick, but actually I think they’re a stroke of genius. Watching the needles jump in time with the music I’m playing gives me flashbacks to the olds days of recording mixtapes on my dad’s old hi-fi gear. Even as a pure nostalgia thing, it really fits with the Boombox’s whole vibe – and that’s ignoring how useful it is for monitoring the volume of both recording and mic inputs.
So I promised I had some criticisms alongside all of the gushing. Well, my chief design complaint revolves around battery. While there’s an indicator light, it only lights up when it’s either running low or on charge – as a result it’s essentially impossible to tell how much battery it has apart from when it’s almost too late. Given you’re often likely going to be taking this speaker out and about with you, knowing how much juice it has left is really key information and it feels like We Are Rewind could easily rectify this issue.
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josh.russell@futurenet.com (Josh Russell)
