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I'd previously owned them and loved it having a counter that the Sony didn't have and liked the sound control better than the Sony.
The buttons also have a nice grid-like surface on them. And of course you can't go wrong with Panasonic. Or I've had to carry around larger boom boxes. It is certainly a lot cheaper than buying a built-in cassette recorder for the car - - and they always seem to break anyway. I love this cassette recorder.
I really like the battery indicator and find that I can get quite a bit of use out of my reusable batteries on this recorder.One of the customers I service is an older man in his sixties and he revealed to me that many professional men of that generation use these types of recorders rather than the newer digital recorders. I bought this recorder to study relative pitch tapes I bought many years ago and I needed a counter to mark the drills. I'm glad they use them and was quite surprised to find new models of an old classic standby - -the portable cassette recorder. A boom box I bought from them in 1985 still plays and sounds great. These small details are what give this recorder class. I use this recorder on a daily basis to listen to educational tapes.
It has liberated me from my earphones. I was very pleasantly surprised at the sound quality of this recorder. I put it in the cup holder in my car and listen while driving to and from destinations. I have been listening to tapes for years on a Sony Walkman. I only wish it came with a sturdy case to protect it as it is somewhat fragile. It is smartly designed and even has finger indentations on one side.
Now I can listen to my tapes headset free. It's true you can't turn the volume high and have decent sound on it, which is why I gave it 4 stars, but at normal volume -- for speaking tapes -- the sound quality is excellent.
However, the Sony recorder causes a horrible high-pitched whining sound to occur throughout the entire recording. Of course, you will find the usual essential buttons: record, play, fast forward, fast reverse. (It is possible that my particular Panasonic recorder was a dud -- or lemon -- and is not representative of other new Panosonic recorders).At any rate, this recorder is superior to the Sony V-O-R, CLEAR VOICE, TCM-200DV cassette recorder. Other features are a pausing button, a button that activates voice activated recording, a button that slows down recording/playback, and a switch that increases recording sensitivity.
However, this can be remedied by pushing the button that increases the sensitivity of recording. The sound quality of the cassette recorders from both Sony and Panasonic might be useful for self-teaching, where you need to learn things for your daytime job. But these particular recorders are TERRIBLE for recording things of a personal nature, e.g., kids' birthday parties or nature sounds. I would suggest, instead, buying the Olympus DS-40 digital recorder. The Panasonic RQ-L31 is inexpensive and compact, and has a generous array of special features. These features include a handy "odometer" that provides a number that tracks the length of the tape, as you record or play. This button has a marked effect on increasing the treble (to a desired level). If you really do not want crackling sounds on all your recordings, you should seriously seek a digital voice recorder.
A problem with this Panasonic recorder is that it causes crackling sounds to occur in the background of all of your recordings. This high-pitched whining sound, found on the Sony machine, has been noted by other reviewers on the Amazon site. Once you use the Olympus digital recorder, you will NEVER want to touch another portable cassette recorder again. If you fail to activate this button, the recording will be muddy and lacking in treble qualities. In fact, I used epoxy cement to cause permanent activation of this button. Therefore, I would recommend the Panasonic recorder, but only if the high-sensitivity button is kept in the on-position, for example, with epoxy glue.
Another useful feature is a red colored light display that indicates the battery level. This Sony recorder is equal in size to the Panasonic machine. (I wanted to avoid accidental activation of either of these buttons, with the consequent ruining of my recordings). The quality of the recording is muddy and lacking in treble quality. Since I wanted to make certain that the voice activating recording switch was left OFF, and the slow recording button was also left OFF, I used epoxy cement to permanently keep these buttons in the desired position.
It has so many great features and will allow me to transfer some of my best cassettes tapes to my PC - burning them to a CD.Priced right too. I'm enjoying this product.
The durability is great. This is a product which a visually impaired person has used for years with great ease and success. I am glad to see we were able to order another for her.
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