All electronic devices are getting smaller–except cassette players. Why?

The world has been on a miniaturization kick ever since the first printed circuit hit the market in the late 50s. Our devices consistently get smaller while becoming more powerful. That’s been the case across the board–except with modern cassette players. They seem to be getting bigger.

Look, I’m not a fan of cassettes. I consider them a hateful obsolescent format that has no place in modern society. You want to fetishize them? You want to collect them as tchotchkes? Knock yourself out. And if you want actually listen to them, good luck finding a working machine.

Oh, they exist. But today’s portable cassette machines are big and bulky compared to back in the day. Same thing with modern portable CD players. Let’s examine the situation through this video by The Verge.

For a bit of retro, here’s my still-working Sony unit. Fully loaded, it weighs about 11 ounces.