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1324 Review
54 Karma

Review on USB Cassette to MP3 Converter: Portable Walkman for Converting Cassette Audio to MP3 with Earphones, Volume Control, and No PC Needed by Jason Hayes

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Terrible MP3 conversion (TO MONO), broken headphones, also a decent pocket tape recorder

After unboxing the unit I was pleasantly surprised as the assembly was better than I expected (except for the thin chrome knobs at the top that control the tape transport). I plugged in decent headphones and turned on the cassette. and was very impressed with the sound quality. good, warm counterpart. I then hooked it up to my studio monitors via the aux port - again I was impressed with the audio output (as expected - this is far from a hi-fi deck). Then I tried the headphones that came with it. They were cheap build quality with a faulty cable that kept cutting and falling out. and when i got them to work by squeezing the cable in a couple of places i found that the effort was futile because they sounded horrible and detracted significantly from the experience (glad i didn't try them FIRST) . Luckily I have my own bank. I then tried the tape to MP3 over USB conversion feature with a properly formatted USB drive as detailed in the supplied manual (which is actually well written). I've tried both manual and automatic methods and both render MP3s as advertised. BUT the most brutal quality! Think Napster in the early 2000s. 128 kbps. and tinny, thin, prickly and dull sound. In addition, there was plenty of stuttering and jumps. something between a broken CD and a scratched record. (not at all like the sound played through my good phones or through my monitors) On top of that. Translations were in MONO. not stereo. This was of course a big disappointment as it was the main reason I bought it and the reason I am giving it one star. Others report that they had no problem converting to good sounding MP3 files. Maybe I just got a lemon. If you're just looking for a good little portable player then this is probably one of the best out there at this price point. Thank you for reading. TWO WEEKS: Fast forward button stopped working, tape direction button fell off. So I sent the device back, got a replacement today (Revain rocks!) and . NEW GAMES AT THE SLOW SPEED SHOWN! I really wanted to like this device. at least as a portable tape recorder. I'll try again and if that fails too, I'll look for something completely different. The best for everyone.

Pros
  • Great for outdoor activities
Cons
  • Not sure