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Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2025
I grew up constantly listening to and making music, but lost interest when recordings became digital. While digital recordings are missing the clicks and pops of LPs, they lack the fullness and feeling of older recording media. Because I have several dozen cassettes for which I never acquired digital copies, I thought it would be fun to listen to them again. This inexpensive, solidly-constructed mini boom box seemed the ideal solution. In the house, it can be powered by any handy wall outlet, and for outside use, all you need is a set of D batteries. Note that this is not a rechargeable device.Supported music sources include cassettes, AM and FM radio, streaming to it from any Bluetooth device, and playing music from USB sources, such as flash drives. Note that it cannot convert cassette albums into MP3 files as stated in the listing. I can't say I'm not disappointed because it would have been nice to easily make digital copies of some of my older tunes. On the other hand, it can record to cassette from any of the supported sources, including the built-in microphone.The quality is pretty good, especially when compared to the current crop of small portable radios. However, don't expect it to replace a typical stereo system because it lacks tone controls, equalizer, or bass boost. But those are features generall found only on expensive systems, not something like this. Overall, I'm satisfied.
eternalgreenknight
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2025
I was excited to finally be able to record some of my old tapes as MP3s. It's funny that 30 years ago my old Mac LCIII had AV ports that could have helped me do something like this promised to, but MP3 wasn't really a common thing yet and I didn't have conversion software... but I have long held out hope that I'd be able to digitize some of my favorite songs and recordings from my old tapes- including some of family I'll never hear again. This seemed like an awesome price for a tape deck that could do such a thing. Too bad that was a lie. There are no instructions included on how to do that. I have experimented with it in various modes and there is nothing that leads me to believe it is capable of this function.As to the rest- this is the second tape deck I've gotten in the last couple years where there is no Auto-Stop function. This is terrible in this day and age when tapes are usually vintage old things and should not be subjected to excess strain. I can forgive the Fast Forward being on the left and the Reverse being on the right, but to not have auto-stop is bad.The radio works, though you must have the handle up to access the antenna. This makes getting to the volume or swapping to another mode more difficult. Good luck trying to put the handle down and raise the antenna.Bluetooth mode is nice, and the speaker is decent, but if you want a Bluetooth speaker, there are other options out there... I'll note that it says to remove batteries if you're plugging it in. I have not tried using batteries.Given that it falsely advertises it can record tapes onto a USB drive, I cannot recommend this. That said, it is a fair value for a radio/tape deck that can play from USB or Bluetooth.
Tarrah
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2025
this cassette player is so cool! I’ve been looking for a way to play some old tapes I collected and I love how portable this is. I can’t wait until I can bust this out this summer with friends. I really like how it comes with the ability to record tapes as well as the radio function. The packaging was super sleek and it was smaller than I expected, which is great for me because it doesn’t take that much room.
Rip Torn
Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2025
A bluetooth tape-playing radio? Heck yes. The retro feel is strong with this one. Even runs on 4 of the Size-C batteries like the radios I used to know. I do wish the speaker had more umph to it, but this ain't the party radio. This is the working on the car radio. The fishing radio. The picnic radio. The curves on this thing are wonderful. Feels solid and well designed.[As a Vine member, Amazon lets me pick from a pool of free products in exchange for my honest review. I call them like I see them--good, bad, or ugly.]
L. Smith
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2025
It was kind of fun finding this. I ordered it mostly to have a small radio in the workshop.The radio can be plugged in using the power cord or by using 4 “C” size batteries and, yes, despite what other reviews have said, the battery size is “C”. I actually put them in to test for this review.It’s pretty basic. The radio and cassette features work ok. The sound is a bit crude by today’s standard but it’s to be expected, I suppose, for an old-style player.Even reading the manual, I couldn’t figure out the USB/Bluetooth feature. I plugged in an old iPod and it wouldn’t play anything. It just made a funny electronic noise. Maybe it’s not compatible? I don’t have music on a thumb drive or any Bluetooth headphones so I gave up. It’s not really what i got this for so it’s no a big deal.There’s a handle on the top you can fold up or down. In either position, it restricts the freedom of the antenna from moving freely in every direction. I found the reception got a bit fuzzy depending on my movements around the radio.The buttons for the cassette player are not clearly marked except for little icons on top pressed into the plastic button. You’ll have to refer to the manual or just play around with them to figure out what’s going on. The “play” one actually has the arrow pointed to the left. I found that kind of weird. I don’t know if that’s the direction the tape turns or not.We did have some fun dusting off the old cassettes and listening to them. A few of them brought back some good memories and it all made me appreciate how far they’ve come with sound quality.I think this is a bit expensive for what it is but, if you want to have some fun listening to your old cassettes or need a radio when the power or wi-fi goes out, it might be good to have around.
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