Re: Two questions regarding recording
I'm referring to the build quality of the tape player, and the parts used to make it. As i was saying in one of my previous posts, a lot of the tape players and turntables which are fairly cheap these days are geared towards a market that wants to transfer a lot of recordings to their computers. That's why they include a USB connector. The unfortunate side effect of this, however, is that most people who are doing this don't really know or care about how to make decent recordings. To make them cheap enough for the average consumer, they also have to cut a lot of corners in terms of what parts are being used. Since I know more about turntables, I'll give an example of what I'm talking about. Often, these cheap ones have ceramic cartridges, and a crappy stylus that at best will give your records a harsh, unpleasant sound, or at worst, can actually damage them. The build quality also leaves a lot to be desired. They're usually made of a lot of cheap plastic, and don't even get me started about the tiny little speakers that are often built into them. Also, this is just a personal pet peeve of mine, but I really don't understand why a turntable should have tluetooth, that's idiotic to me. You're listening to vinyl for the retro experience, get the hell out of here with that.
Don't get me wrong, not every turntable was good back in the day, either, of course, but I've had experience with two of these modern ones, and I wish I hadn't subjected my records to that. I was so happy when I got my hands on an older stereo system from the 80's earlier this summer. It sounds excellent, and still works very well after all these years. Speaking of which, you're actually not taking that much of a risk in obtaining an older device, if that's what you want. Many things were built to last back in those days. You would, of course, have to consider whether the tape player was recently serviced, since the belts are often the first things to degrade in them, but you can easily ask the seller that. Other than that, you can most likely get yourself a unit that's in perfectly good working order, it most likely isn't as difficult as you might think.
So, since you're not, I presume, dealing with rare or older tapes that need cleaning up and digitizing, you could probably get away with buying one of these things. It's not a choice I'd personally make, but I imagine that, if you're just using it to record sounds, it would work well enough. I can only assume you'd be hooking an external mic to it anyway, to get the best possible sound, so the possibility of the internal one being crappy might not matter, either.
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