Tobo Cassette to MP3 Converter Ezcap 230 Stereo USB Cassette Digital Tape MP3 with Headphones (TD-230)

Satisfied

Mono player not stereoIf you want your songs to be transfered then take a stereo player,not this mono player.This mono player is a dilogue or voice player

I purchased this to convert some of the treasure cassettes into digital form. It achieves that, connects to USB port easily. But there are some problems with audio quality:1) The noise floor from the device is too high. So the digital recordings turn out to be noisy.2) The signal from the output has a DC bias. When the recordings are at medium level, it can cause problems with the dynamic range. There is no DC bias adjustment3) Build quality of the device is flimsy. Very cheap plastic.4) The included headset is a piece of junk.But given that there are hardly any choices now-a-days to buy a cassette player for converting to digital format, this is better than nothing!

Very bad system. Defective mechanizm.

it’s working so good

I am going to try to write a review that covers both the good and the bad about this product. First of all, if you look on Amazon, most of these must be made by the same manufacturer. None of them are really what I would call high quality, but it's more about the implementation.I originally bought this one:https://www.amazon.com/Reshow-Cassette-Player-Compatible-Computers/dp/B018WBUJBS/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=tape+to+mp3&link_code=qs&qid=1617467834&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-3It failed less than a month out of warranty, but you can tell it's the same thing as this item only with a more expensive price. It also did not have the instructions that this device had explaining how to use it with a computer rather than a USB stick.I'm treating this one with kid gloves. The last one I dropped on the floor which may have hastened it's sudden death.Why is a better choice?First, it has a proper USB cable. It uses micro USB (becoming much less common these days) but has a micro USB to USB A cable. So, just plug it into any open USB port and windows recognizes it.Second, it has clear instructions on how to use one of the best free, open source, audio editors on the market, Audacity. (It even includes a copy on the little mini-cd) It took me a moment to realize that you could only hear the audio if you were recording, but just hit record in Audacity, hit play on the unit and let Audacity do its magic. You can even use the noise reduction effect in Audacity to remove the low levels of tape hiss and make for an almost CD like audio recording.Third, the price. I could buy two of these for the price of the other. I paid $17.99. Honestly, how can you beat that?So, with a combination of great price and easy use, this is a must buy if you are looking for a cassette to MP3 converter. I'm already several tapes into my collection and haven't had a hitch.

Mine works very well! And I assume the quality of each sale is unique as I can't imagine the quality control is too great on these things. These tiny tape decks are very cheaply made, but they do work, at least mine does, for now. Play, FF, Rew, Auto-Reverse, Direction Flip, USB in/out, Headphone Jack, Battery Operation, USB Power, and AC Power option - all for ~$20USD is pretty impressive, especially when it all works as expected! (knock wood!)The audio quality is just passable, but then the audio quality of your old cassettes probably isn't much better! I'm using mine to transfer old live performances of my former glory days as a local rock, fusion, prog rock hero, and the quality is good overall. I'm currently stuck in bed healing from a recent foot surgery, so this device is uniquely helpful to me. But far better sonic quality would be achieved by using a decent stereo cassette component deck, but this will do fine until that time. I treat mine with great care, imagining even a strong breeze could cause this device to go belly-up in a flash!But it works! It does all that it claims it will do, and for now does it quite well! Be aware it's susceptible to RF interference so keep it away from such RF sources, like phones, remotes, etc., which can add unexpected buzzing to your recordings. Keep in mind, the volume setting of this unit will affect your recording level. I suggest setting it at about the 3/4th up, so as to not overdrive your input (distortion), BUT if you need extra volume you might experiment with various settings, but watch your noise floor which can be intense.My unit's manual cuts right to the chase and suggests you download and use the excellent (and legendary) Audacity to transfer your audio. This old fave is wonderful and has many option (and effects - try the Graphic EQ and Compressor) to explore. Set Audacity up as the manual suggests, with the addition of allowing "Playthrough While Recording" so you can hear what you're recording, and leave Audacity in Pause/Record mode when not recording so you can hear your audio while adjusting your input level, etc. Also, I suggest recording your audio into Audacity so the Input Meter displays peaks just over -6, but never over 0, for best results. Output Meter level only matters when burning to a file format, like MP3, so adjust to suit your listening preference until that time (again same meter settings for Output Meters when that time comes.I've recorded several albums worth of music, including a few hour-long selections with no problems of any kind. As there are TWO drive centers (capstans and pinch rollers) I found my player displayed a noticeably better frequency response in the backwards direction (where FF = rewind, and vice-versa) due to play head alignment. So I suggest you explore which tape direction is optimized on your player, and then use that direction for your most important transfer projects.Overall, a wonderful, inexpensive little gadget that might help you save your old cassette recordings/memories to a more modern (and safe) digital format. Easy to use and very handy - just be very gentle with it, IMO! Good luck!

This cassette player / transfer unit worked great. I already had the software installed, so all I had to do was plug it in and use it. I was delighted that the sound quality was so good, considering the tapes I was playing sat in a box for over 30 years. I wasn't even sure they would still play. I captured a lot of songs I wrote and recorded back when I started my first recording setup. These were the only copies in existence until now. Thank you for making my task so easy and so affordable!

I read the bad reviews. I know it was risky. To my surprise, it worked out of the box without problem. It does not seem to work with any other recording app except Audacity. But, it finished one side of the tape, and it stopped. Used batteries instead of USB, Rev, Fwd, Play. nothing work as the motor was dead.I can say that it worked well for 45 min.

I bought this for digitizing my old audio book tapes. I didn't want to mess with installing a driver and loading a strange piece of software on my computer, so I first tried capturing with the Audacity recording software with the headphone jack plugged into the line-in of my computer. The volume knob is a little touchy, but workable. Once I got the level set properly I noted there was a rather noticeable hum/hiss noise being picked up in the recording. I know it is coming from this tape deck, not the tape or the cord, because when I swing the same cord over to my old Pioneer stereo's and play the same tape, the noise isn't there.Since there was a noticeable amount of noise, I decided to try the USB interface for capturing, but still didn't want to mess with the driver and software, so I plugged it up to my computer running the Linux operating system (Ubuntu 20) hoping it would recognize it and it did. Upon opening Audacity I found a new audio input named [edit later to put correct name, something like Recording Input 1] and found the noise was reduced by about two thirds when using the devices USB interface.I was hoping to use this tape deck with its headphone jack fed into my handheld digital recorder for doing tape transfers while on the go, but due to the amount of noise generated by the device I won't be able to use it for that purpose. Given that it didn't cost much money and the noise level isn't so bad over USB, I'm not going to mess with a return. I'll just keep it at my desk and use it to transfer tapes while at home.