Cassette-Shell Sized MP3 Player/Recorder

octa-g writes: "USA Today tech reviews is featuring a nifty little cassette sized MP3 player that records analog audio. 'The Digisette Duo-DX can copy cassette tapes in a dual-well tape deck or boombox. Or you can make recordings by connecting an output cable from a stereo source to the Duo's earphone port and holding down the Duo's play and fast-forward buttons.' The ability to record audio straight to the player, or to record some of my old tapes/LPs to MP3 without a computer or other recording equipment intrigues me." This sounds like a good way to add fast-forward to the old car radio.

Comments

Here is the product website

[Pig Hogger]

Here is the product's actual website.

*boggle*

[American AC in Paris]

This sounds like a good way to add fast-forward to the old car radio.

...brining it up to par with all the new car radios that have fast-forward pre-installed...

"Honey, can you fast-forward NPR to 7:00 am? I want to see what my commute is going to be like tomorrow..."

Re:*boggle*

[Neon Spiral Injector]

You could always use one of those 8-track to casette adaptors. My family had one we used in our Chevy stationwagon. I did get a portable CD player and used one of those line-out to casette adaptors to go into the 8-track adaptor.

Sounded about as you would expect.

Re:This has been out for how long?!

[Tin Weasil]

The unit you are refering to has been out for quite a while. The unit being reviewed here is actually quite new, and rather more advanced then what you are refering to.

This particular device allows you to control playback with your tape deck audio controls, and if placed in a tape recorder, actually allows you to record directly to MP3. This could be a very nice function for college students recording lectures as they can transfer the lectures back to PC for archival purposes.

This is actually a NEW (as in news) way to present the whole cassette-shaped MP3 player metaphor.

I disagree

[Catskul]

I use a cassette adapter to listen to mp3s (and the rest of the audio coming from my computer) and the sound is crystal clear. The low quality of sound you are refering to comes from the magnetic tape itself, not the tape player, so this player should be capable of high quality output. And as the previous post stated, it holds 96 MB and is upgradable to 160... Which is pretty decent. Read the article, maybe you would have caught that.

Don't buy if you own a 2001 Accord

[Frank of Earth]

I owned one and it worked great in my wife's Honda CRV, but in my Honda Accord, the tape deck wouldn't properly align with the heads on the mp3 player. I tried plugging the cassette adapter into one of those Sony cassette -> cd adapters and it worked fine. Of course, that kinda defeats the purpose of an MP3 player that can be used without an adapter.

The only other thing I didn't like about it was the flimsy battery door. That would definately be a tape job after a few months of use.

Here is my review of it on Amazon.com

I was excited to see that the Digisette improved from it's orginal design and made a better tape like MP3 player. Unfortunately, on my Honda 2001 Accord, the tape deck won't align properly with the head in my cassette stereo, causing lots of static and distortion. It's not the player itself, because it works fine in my wife's Honda CRV. Actually, it works if I use an old Sony cassette adapter plugged into the mp3 player.

Im not an electronic engineer, but I think if Digisette would make the head on the mp3 unit bigger, it would have worked fine. I compared the head of the mp3 to the Sony cassette apadter I had laying around and the Sony head is much bigger.

Digisette support was very helpful and had me try a few fixed, but none fixed the distortion and static.

As far as the controls and stuff, everything worked fine. Like I said, if you have a 2001 Accord, I wouldn't recommend it.