Gracioso Portable Cassette Player Recorder Converter,Cassette to MP3 via SD Card,Tape Player with 1000mah Rechargeable Battery,Built-in Microphone&Speaker,Headphone Jack,16GB SD Card

I've been very pleased with this device. Not only does it work flawlessly but it comes with additional components such as the microchip, the USB adapter and audio cord. The subtle sound effect that serves as a reminder to turn off the device to limit the drain on the rechargeable battery as well as the backlit LED screen are thoughtfully appreciated features. I do wish that the counter didn't restart each time that the device was stopped and that an audio file could be contined following a pause, but this is a common limitation with the devices in this price range. Its quality value deserves more than five stars

Was skeptical about purchasing a device that could convert cassettes to digital, but decided to try it out since I still have quite a few cassettes with recordings that would be impossible to duplicate otherwise (i.e., radio broadcasts, educational courses, books on tape that are no longer available, etc.). I have already converted three cassettes to mp3 format, and I'm pleased with the results. The converter is simple and easy to use, and the buttons are largely self explanatory. The manual is OK, as the instructions are translated from Chinese to English and lose a bit of correct syntax or translation, but overall understandable. The 16GB micro card comes with a pair of test songs, which is helpful when setting up and learning the features. The card is large enough to hold a number of conversions, although I only convert one cassette at a time, and then transfer the conversion to my computer and erase the card before converting another. The only drawback I've found is that I can only convert one side of a cassette at a time; so each cassette ends up having two mp3s (i.e., Side A and Side B). It would be nice if the pause feature allowed you to turn the cassette over and continue recording so you could get the whole cassette on one mp3. However, you cannot open the cassette door in "record" mode, and once you stop recording, the next time you press record, a new mp3 is created. The sound quality is decent, but of course depends largely on your speakers (i.e., the computer speaker is tinny, but using a wireless bluetooth speaker sounds much better). I've found that the mp3 sound is pretty much an exact duplicate of the original cassette sound. I'm also glad that I can now listen to my recordings in my new car which does not have a cassette or CD player, but has USB ports which accommodate zip drives to connect to the sound system.

First off, the player works great for intended use of many. You can play cassettes, you can record them simply to MP3 with a built-in function and you can edit those files down. Two things to improve the device. BLUETOOTH capabilities. If you could connect to a soundbar or speaker wirelessly, since it’s now 2023 after all, the cassette playing function would be a huge benefit to owning this. I went through the whole record process, which was the whole reason I was drawn to this machine in the first place. I have so many demo tapes of bands that haven’t made it to the digital age and I haven’t had a functional tape player for years to listen to any of them. I’ve been hoping for a new dual deck component manufacturer to come along and save me from my dilemma, but so far they’ve been all questionable build quality and not worth the investment. MP3 ENCODING SETTINGS! I finally got my laptop ready for the USB process and tracked down an old desktop program to check the MP3 quality of these files, since I still had no idea how I was going to split MP3 files into individual tracks. The device manual has no mention of encoding settings, so I expected something decent, but EncSpot showed a sloppy encoding job and only 160kbps, which meant all the recordings are going to be a 1990s level of ‘bad MP3 encoding’ waste of time unfortunately. Ideally, it would be nice to record to .WAV and you choose the encoding process from raw files, but I guess I just need to hook up the player to my laptop now and go old school line-in recording with Sound Forge or whatever modern audio recording program is on the market these days. If a new version of the device with MP3 encoding options and BLUETOOTH connectivity ability came out, I’d definitely take the plunge since the tape playing function is sound enough compared to any old Walkman variety. For $35, this player is still workable enough for the general cassette enthusiast looking to digitize their collections.

If you are like me, and have a bunch of cassettes you want to digitize without a lot of complicated effort, and want sound at properly recorded levels, this is for you. I finally found something affordable, easy to use, with excellent results. I compared it to some original songs of a family member that had been digitized ten or more years ago, and using the original tapes on this machine produced dramatically better results in clarity and sound volume. I have tried another recorder that required the Audacity program and used a mini cd to install to computer, and I learned it is not worth the effort. Also, unlike this Gracioso Player it didn't have a built in speaker. The process is quite straight forward and worked well with my 2023 Macbook Pro. The only caveat is that the thumb drive did not show up on my desktop initially for some reason , but if you open disk utiity and click mount, it immediately worked. Have fun going down memory lane.

The Gracioso Portable Cassette Player Recorder Converter allows you to convert cassette tapes to MP3s via an SD card. It features a rechargeable 1000 mAh battery, a built-in microphone and speaker, a headphone jack, and a 16GB SD card. Initially, I was skeptical about this product, but my doubts changed quickly once I started using it. The quality and craftsmanship are impressive. This compact cassette recorder makes digitizing your music exceptionally easy. The included mini-SD card and adapter are all you need to download your music onto your PC or iOS devices. The sound quality of the digital downloads is excellent and very clear. The on-screen display helps create multiple tracks or just one. Overall, this product is user-friendly, and I highly recommend it, giving it a perfect 10 out of 10.

I had several cassette tapes I wanted to convert to MP3 format and decided to give the CR-381 a try. It arrived promptly, and I was pleased to find the battery fully charged, so I could dive right into the process. The device comes with a SIM card, which is used for storing recordings. While the card works well, I personally found it a bit too small for comfort—I was worried about misplacing it, plus it was a pain to take out and put into a third party reader to transfer data. Additionally, this added yet another step to transfer files to put them on the include USB Drive, but it’s manageable with the right setup. At first, everything worked perfectly. I recorded my first cassette, and it sounded great! The process was straightforward: Insert the cassette. Press Play on the panel to start the tape. Press Record on the digital panel. The screen displayed "Recording," and I knew it was working. Both sides of the first tape recorded without any issues, and the resulting MP3 files were easy to transfer. Unfortunately, things took a turn after the initial success after recording the first couple of tapes. The Record button would no longer work and it would not display the words "Recording" and did not record which made the product worthless. I tried several options and conditions to get it to work again with out success checking for available storage space, charging the batteries, setting the correct configuration to record, but none of these options work, I just would not record and it was worthless at that point. I ultimately returned it back to Amazon

No problems converting cassettes to mp3. However (as others have noted), the resulting mp3 files play a bit fast. In audio editing software, I slow down the speed to 95%, and it then sounds OK. Update: I now have two of theses. I can confirm that the second unit plays at normal speed. So, the speed issue is only on some units. Update #2: Sigh, the second one has developed a problem in the last few days. The auto-stop isn't working most of the time (but not all the time). When the auto-stop fails, it will continue to record blank noise if you don't manually hit the stop button. Auto-stop works fine on the first unit. How many of these recorders does one have to order to get one where everything works? I'm still using the second unit, but you have to monitor it carefully. I've got another 75 tapes to record to MP3. ==== Final update (March 2024): I've now converted about 160 cassette tapes to mp3. So, despite the random quality issues, they are holding up to repeated use. Also (and this is important), the final quality of the mp3 is very high. No noticeable background noise, and they files sound as good as the original tape.

This recorder is easy to use and was at a great price point to give new life to a bunch of old but excellent OTR cassettes and books on tape. Very few bells and whistles but has worked perfectly so far. It came with a 16gb micro SD card and a good quality USB drive to transfer recordings to the computer. Battery life is quite decent as well even while recording. The controls aren't exactly intuitive but they aren't bad either and as long as you follow the instructions it's a breeze to use. My only big wish would be that it have auto stop for fast forward and rewind but it doesn't. It does have auto stop for play mode though so it's not a huge deal, especially for the price point. If you're looking to transfer your old cassette tapes into the digital world and aren't especially picky about a bunch of bells and whistles, this works great, has decent build quality and has very acceptable sound quality. Sucks having to do the transfers in real time but there's no other way with tapes and with the auto stop in play mode, at least you can walk away from it and just flip or change tapes as your time allows, you don't have to sit with it. The display screen has a real time digital counter while the cassette is playing so you can gauge when you're towards the end of the tape as well. Getting to use it as an MP3 player with a speaker will be an added bonus later on.