cassette players and recorders

I stand behind my earlier review of this much used, highly practical item. It stays with me day and night--for playing and recording (with a Sony stereo add-on mic). Count it a small but admittedly irritating matter that this model does have a minor problem compared to its predecessor: the plastic feet in the base are not large and stable enough to prevent the unit from constantly toppling over. It will stand up on its own providing you're willing to "balance" it and keep the cat away from any adjacent surfaces. On the other hand, despite the number of times the unit has rolled over, the tape mechanism keeps rolling right along.

I bought this cassette recorder based on the reviews of other customers. I was looking for a cassette recorder with accurate pitch duplication.
I had also ordered two Sony WM-GX221 Walkmans which both were off more than 30 cents sharp...and off by the same amount.
The Panasonic was a little less off (less than 30 cents sharp)
so I decided to keep the Panasonic.
If anyone finds a walkman sized cassette recorder with better pitch accuracy, please let me know. it's been really difficult to find something better than the old Sony walkmans that I had before (which Sony no longer manufactures).

I bought the Panasonic RQ-A220 Cassette Player/Recorder after working part-time at a Radio Shack. Of all the things in the store, I thought this portable recorder was one of the niftiest things I saw there.

For months, I wanted to transfer my music cassettes to my Mac after endlessly trying to find CDs or even MP3s over the net of the many rare songs I love (and have owned for years) but couldn't find anywhere. When I saw this cassette player/recorder, I thought "Bingo!". I bought a Y adapter, connected the single stereo plug to the RQ-A220 and the two RCA ends to the back of my Mac (which has RCA and S-video connections) and used a freeware called Coaster (it creates AIFF files. It's for Mac OS 9 only) and after converting the AIFF tracks with iTunes, voila, instant MP3s of my favorite music. Coaster is extremely easy to use and it's free! The sound from my cassettes with the RQ-A220 is CD quality. In fact, the songs sound better than those I ripped from my CDs.

The RQ-A220 almost has everything: it's a voice recorder. You can connect a stereo microphone to it if the built-in microphone doesn't cut it. It's a radio. It plays cassettes. It can record off the radio or another source (if you have the right cables of course). It has three tiny built-in speakers, which is what initially caught my attention. And included with the recorder is a set of stereo headphones. When you listen to music with it (or when I connect the Y adapter to the headphone input), you can listen to music as is or with Extra Bass System, which gives a better sounding quality. I use the XBS option when I make my MP3s.

The sound from the three speakers is not super high quality but it's surprisingly good nonetheless, certainly for a product that fits in the palm of a hand. Oddly enough, of all the types of music, classical music and jazz sounds the best when listening to it through the three speakers, more so than pop (just good) or techno music (bad). And the speakers are perfect for listening to sports broadcast or any kind of talk radio.

There are two caveats about the RQ-A220: finding and keeping a radio channel is sometimes difficult because of the sensitivity of the tuner dial. And there's no 3v adapter to plug-in the cassette player/recorder to a wall socket when I need to work with it for long periods of time and batteries just ain't enough. I bought a 3v adapter (at Radio Shack, of course), so this problem was quickly solved but I still wish the adapter came with the recorder. As for the radio, well, a digital radio would have been better. If the RQ-A220 came with a digital tuner, I would have given it 5 stars instead of 4.

Keep this in mind: you can buy the RX-D20 boombox from Panasonic for almost the same price and you have a digital radio, a CD player with the RX-D20 and better speakers (we used the RX-D20 for our radio at the store and the sound from it was good). But you can't carry a boombox in your pocket or purse, so one has to pay a little extra for a more compact product.

All in all, I like this tiny stereo player/recorder. It's beautifully designed and the sound quality from it is excellent.

*BTW, the manufacturer specifically states on the product that it was built not in China, but Taiwan. Arf!