Sony TCM-200DV Cassette Recorder with Dual Power Source

I bought this cassette player because I heard it was good for recording music rehearsal (I'm an opera singer) and my old cassette player (panasonic) broke after 10 years. This Sony had a constant buzzing and static sound in the background and thus it was useless for hearing anything beyond a basic sound. Might be okay for a lecture but I found the static very distracting and a hindrance to good sound quality of any kind. I sent it back immediately. Thanks for the refund. And yes, my old cassette player (now off market) was fantastic with a high grade sound quality.

This Sony product is excellent and far better than the digital recorders I have tried. It has an automatic record level which works great for recodring classroom lessons. Audio tape does not easily distort on loud sounds vs digital units I have tried which have high distortion. Background noise level is high (as auto record feature increases gain at low levels) so best to keep this 10 feet or less from source. Also be sure to use fresh batteries: change these after every two or three tapes. A really good product for portable recording.

The cassette recorder works perfectly on batteries. However, when the cassette arrived, its plastic packaging had already been opened and the 12-volt converter was missing.

I used this product for about a year before it started giving me problems. To be honest I used the cassette recorder a LOT, sometimes 8-10 hours a day. So it breaking down in a year probably meant I had over 2000 hours of use on it. After that point though the cassettes stick and don't playback the recordings anymore. I think it's time for me to upgrade to a digital recorder so I can upload my recordings onto my computer.

I was looking for a cassette recorder to help in the preparation of the written minutes of a condo board meeting. There were 9 people seated around a horseshoe table in a large room. The recorder picked up all the voices and the sound and clarity were very good. I did also purchase the Electret Condenser Microphone that works with this recorder which I feel really enhanced the job it did. I found it very easy to use.