Reshow Portable Cassette Tape Player, Best Overall Standalone USB to MP3 Converter, Audio Cassette to Digital Converter Automatically Divides(Silver)

For years, I have been an avid audiobook listener, a journey that began in the era of 'Books on Tape'—a term synonymous with the pioneering company of the time. I must have accumulated 100+ titles on cassette tape, which I played on my Sony Walkman and the cassette deck hooked up to my stereo. As technology evolved, so did my listening habits, transitioning from the iconic Sony Walkman to Apple's revolutionary iPod, and ultimately, to the convenience of my iPhone. What I appreciate about audiobooks in a digital format is the ability to re-listen to them after a while, and their handy presence right on my phone.While I was excavating my crawl space recently, I unearthed my venerable collection of 'audiobook cassettes. Through my old Denon tape deck, I was thrilled to once again discover the high quality of these productions, from the narration to the sound engineering. And with so many great titles, from Sherlock Holmes with John Gielgud to Ken Follett, to Clive Cussler, I wanted to rediscover them again, but conveniently in a digital format.I initially recorded these analog gems directly into my computer, which required the purchase of specialized software and an adapter. This worked well, but it was time-consuming. I had to monitor the audio levels of the files once they were recording, and then use a second software program, Audacity, to edit it all together and export the native files as MP3s. (Some of these titles were six or eight cassettes in length!) I found that this process was tying up my computer for long periods. So, after digitizing a couple of Clive Cussler epics in this way, I convinced myself there had to be a better, more convenient way to transfer my audiobooks from an analog cassette into a digital mp3 format.I googled "Tape to Digital Converter" which led me to Amazon and this product. When it arrived, I immediately went through the 8-page folded panel instructions that were included. It's worth noting that the instructions are articulated in clear, comprehensible English, a refreshing departure from the usual perplexing 'Engrish' translations. I realized that not only could I record cassettes, but I could also PLAY them from a powered speaker, or headphones (there is a pair of ear-bud style phones supplied) as the unit can function as a tape player/recorder with both Aux line-in and output ports.The recording process is multi-faceted and easy with a standard USB drive, which you insert on the side of the unit. You can choose to record in two modes, "manual" and "auto." The manual mode will record the cassette side "as is" and you will have to turn it off manually once it has stopped. You can select auto-reverse and it will also record the other side, but you will have to stop it manually or it will continue to record each side in a continuous loop. If you choose auto mode, the software will detect the space between tracks and save each into separate files. If a song has a pause longer than two seconds, it will detect this as a new track and record the one song into two files. But, this is easily fixed as you can recombine the files in Audacity.In terms of price and functionality, this product represents unparalleled value. I am more than halfway through digitizing my entire collection of books on tape...it's like getting a whole new audiobook club membership for one low price! The overall process saves me a lot of time.As an FYI, if you have audiobooks on CDs, it will transfer those as well through the "Aux-in" jack. My laptop is relatively new, and they have eliminated external drives from these, so now I "rip" them via this unit.One final note, if you have just one boxed set of audiobooks on tape, you can sell it on eBay after you have digitized it, and the unit has paid for itself!I wholeheartedly endorse this product as the most efficient, economical, and user-friendly method for digitizing your cherished analog cassettes and other 'vintage' recordings, music included!

I purchased this Reshow R-CP31B explicitly to test its potential for converting old symposium lecture cassettes (Type I) from the 1980s for digital archival, for which it does a surprisingly adequate job - I have successfully converted some 10 cassettes in my short time with the unit so far and they are of reasonable quality. However, I have a much larger set to work with, and I will search for a better option for the following reasons:(1) The recording bitrate is limited to 160kbps MP3 using the to-USB functionality, which is an adequate minimum quality for some lectures, but as it is limited to a compressed format like MP3 I would have at least liked to see a 320kbps.(2) The recording controls are awkward and flimsy. The plastic transport buttons and casing, the questionably secure door, the recording LED and controls being on the other face of the player, all contribute to a lack of confidence in using the device.Despite (2), I have had no actual mechanic problems (so far), nor any false starts/ends to the recordings - the unit continues to work and it is persistent. But despite this it inspires very little confidence this will remain the case.About the audio quality. The AUX and the USB recording are very different. Perhaps it is the garbage earbuds they include, which I base this review on, but the AUX output seems particularly harsh and useless, and I would not rely on this to actually listen to music as a Walkman. That said, the USB recording has been completely acceptable. The noise levels have not been a concern. If I were digitizing music from cassettes, I would use a real setup, not this. I have not used the auto-recording split features, but the auto-reverse during recording mode has been useful and effective.In conclusion, for my purposes of converting 40 year old lectures on tape, it is almost there. If I only had 10 or 20 tapes to digitize, this would be a decent and cheap option that would, honestly, be acceptable, and so it keeps four stars. For the low confidence in the casing quality, control awkwardness, and limits to the recording format, I remove a star.

I bought this device to transfer my old tape cassettes to Apple Music using Apple's Garageband app.The process took a while to nail down the necessary steps, Once finalized I now can use the Reshow player plugged into my MacBook, record the tape, convert to the AAC format and add to my Apple Music collection of albums, now at 392. The tapes convert in real time so you can't walk away and let it run. Also, if you wish to add each track to Music and name it, you must treat each track as a new recording, it works great but is time consuming. I am adding the tapes as Side 1 and Side 2. The Reshow device works as advertised and is easy to use, just follow the directions. It is a delicate device and won't take a lot of abuse, the latch for the inserting of the tape is kind of dodgey. Well worth the money for using to convert tapes, I tried Audacity, but it's kind of complicated, Garageband is better.