(Part 2) Best portable cassette players & recorders according to redditors
We found 80 Reddit comments discussing the best portable cassette players & recorders. We ranked the 39 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
> Grew up with a sleep timer on my boombox (that still a term?) to listen to Hawks games while falling asleep as a kid
This was me and White Sox games for years. This gigantic ass boombox with the shitty sony walkman headphones listening to Hawk 100+ games a year.
They look like OEM Walkman headphones. Do you want to buy them lol?
https://www.amazon.com/Sony-WM-FX195-Walkman-Cassette-Shut-Off/dp/B00005LL3T
yoo I had this and maybe a silly songs with larry one as a kid. I played them all the time on my veggie tales boombox
If you're looking for cassettes you can still buy new, the Sony HF and the Maxell UR are your best bet. They're perfectly fine for recording onto, not the greatest tapes in the world obviously but they get the job done.
I think walmart sells Maxell UR's in store as well, if you want to buy them in person.
Always keep your eye out for old, name-brand technology. Especially if it's new and still sealed.
Bought this Sony cassette voice recorder, new and sealed, off of Facebook for $20 last week. Just sold yesterday for $110.
Unfortunately, there is a torn ribbon cable that connects the tape head to the board. I might try to replace it with wires, but it has 8 conductors!
Otherwise it's got some nice features, like speed control and reverse play. The built-in speakers are also fun.
Amazon product page here.
I think this was the one I had.
https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Cassette-Sports-WalkMan-Player/dp/B0098S0KQY
Ignoring for a moment the "who plays cassettes in 2011" elephant, the other problem is that the same item is $29.20 on Amazon and they claim the list price is only $29.95
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Walkman-Digital-Weather-Cassette/dp/B001407E86
That's what keeps me out of Best Buy
A 4-track is like if you had 4 walkmen taped to each other, each loaded with a blank tape (so you could record onto it), and with all the headphone jacks soldered together so you could plug one pair of headphones into all four tape players at once. : )
and np, good luck!
The Sony Pressman is a little smaller than the Marantz, check it out.
Get something like this and make your own from all the Vaporwave you have...
Is that signal from the External Speaker output on the side? Or the 1/4" headphone jack on the front?
https://www.amazon.ca/MARANTZ-PMD221-Portable-Cassette-Recorder/dp/B0002NPGB8
Neither will be at mic level, of course.
A machine of that vintage may require cleaning of either the jack contacts, switches, the switches inside the headphone jack, or the volume control. Those could all contribute to the intermittent operation.
Get an old-school single earphone for testing the machine's output before you start testing the adapter's operation.
Fuck Apple.
Neither is mine.
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-TCS-30D-Pressman-Cassette-Recording/dp/B00006IS5L
Get one of these!!
This one has a mic.The others seem to have built in mic's. Don't see any for more than twenty or thirty quid ? Trevi CR 410 Portable Cassette Recorder - Black https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0044AG2G8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_wmepybGRDFV3G
I never found a 3-conductor (TRS) 2.5mm jack I liked much. And not because of the stereo imaging problem (shared return) but because they all seemed to be made poorly and either produced noisy connections (when you move it it makes scratchy noises) on day one or after a bit of use.
Although since Kenwood-style connectors used mono 2.5mms for decades before (used for some radio microphones and for cassette tape recorders with an electret microphone and pause switch), as seen on the side of this recorder perhaps it is possible to make a lasting, reliable 2.5mm jack.
As far as I know there were two reasons for Apple (and others) to switch from 2.5mm to 1/8". First is that 2.5mm jacks usually used their 3 conductors for mono audio out, mono mic in (with mic bias) and shared return. That meant no stereo audio out and since the iPhone was announced as being a music player that simply wouldn't do. So it had to have a 1/8" jack.
Second reason is related, but basically that since 2.5mm jacks were mono that meant there weren't any hi-fi 2.5mm earphones. So if Apple used a 1/8" jack you could use a lot of quality headphones with their phones (but not as many as if the hadn't recessed the jack, idiots!) and if they used a 2.5mm basically there would be only whatever Apple bundled.
Apple also used a 4-conductor (TRRS) 1/8" jack (CTIA config, see here) which meant that headphones made to work on their devices (including microphone) weren't 100% compatible with other 1/8" jacks. Take your iPhone earbuds and plug them in on a plane and you may find you get no audio (or close to it) because the 3-conductor jack on that plane contacts the 1,3,4 conductors on the AHJ (CTIA) jack on that page instead of the 2,3,4 conductors as would be needed to make the earbuds work. Your fancy noise cancelling Bose (or otherwise) headphones may come with a "swapping" adapter to convert between CTIA and OMTP to make your headphones work in places they otherwise wouldn't.
But I guess I digress too much. It's all a bit of a mess.
You can go old school walkman style. http://www.amazon.com/Craig-Electronics-CS2301A-Personal-Headphones/dp/B0081I1UJS/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1453780040&sr=1-4&keywords=portable+cassette+player
Just plug a cable from the headphone jack to the aux.
Sony STRDH190 2-ch Stereo Receiver with Phono Inputs and Bluetooth (Renewed) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KYL58KK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_J.jwDbRN10C9D
Sony TC-WE435 Dual Cassette Deck (Discontinued by Manufacturer) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00001XE0A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_EakwDbQH3FHXC
Yamaha NS-6490 3-Way Bookshelf Speakers Finish (Pair) Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00018Q4GA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ebkwDbHMR9H8P
Here ya go, check these out. That AT LP120 is a good start, add a Sony Strdh190 amp, this one is refurbished, but a new one is only about 40 bucks more. Look for something along the lines of this Sony cassette deck in your local thrift shops, don't buy some crap no name brand, stuck with the big names, Sony, JVC, pioneer, Technics, Nakamichi. Get a decent set of bookshelf speakers like these Yamahas, few extra bucks you can pick up the Sony ones.
All this, some cables and a surge protector and you're all set.
Good luck.