Price Paid:  $5.00 from Goodwill

Summary:
Yeah- can't beat the price...

Don't ever pay full price for stuff, that's what I say. I got my deck at a Goodwill store yesterday for 5 bucks. Cleaned it up, plugged it in, and I'm back into the process of transferring tapes to CDR.

Here's my advice. Go to thrift stores *a lot*...

If you see a halfway decent looking piece of audio gear, and the price is right- don't worry about whether it will work or not. Just grab it. What's the worst case scenario?

You're out 5 bucks...

Strengths:
It works. I have no idea how old the unit is, but upon direct comparison between commercially-released music that I had on both cassette and cd- the tape speed on both sides of the deck were identical to the cd. This unit wasn't treated lightly either, so- rugged? Maybe...

Weaknesses:
Jury still out...

Similar Products Used:
Many, many cassette decks of various makes and types.

Price Paid:  $150.00 from catalog

Summary:
You get what you pay for. This was a waste of money. If you're a heavy tape trader or musician, this deck will not last. For the casual listener who makes copies occasionally and wants a deck to supplement their stereo, it might not be bad.

Strengths:
The unit I have has pitch control. Low on other features, no auto reverse. Relatively good recordings for such a cheap deck.

Weaknesses:
No durability. Springs went out after a year of heavy use. Not worth repairing.

Summary:
This is the only component cassette deck I have ever owned and it continues to perform flawlessly after 3 years. I don't use it much, mostly to record tapes for the car or to make copies of CD's for friends, family, etc. The quality of the recordings are very good, especially with metal tape. I've seen the latest model, TDW-354, on ubid recently and highly recommend it.

Strengths:
excellent build quality, great sound

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
none

Summary:
I have the 354, the model above this one, which includes pitch control and a microphone jack. For the most part this deck is fine, and since I also have a JVC 5 disc changer, recording via compulink is easy. However, deck A seems to lack the dynamic range of the recording deck, deck B. I clean both decks around the same time, but some of the higher frequencies are lost with playback on deck A. I'll try using a head demagnetizer and see what happens. Paid $189 for this deck about a year ago, and I think that it was pretty much worth it. As far as features go, it's great.

Summary:
I had the TDW-354, but I got rid of it. Why? It broke many times, too many too count. So I got another one which also broke several times. I loved the mic jack and features, along with the adequate sound, but both 354s crapped out on me so much I became very unhappy with JVC. Thank goodness for extended service plans. I now have a Harman Kardon deck, which sounds fantastic, works great, but sadly has no mic jack or song search. Buy this deck if you like living on the edge. I was sorely tempted to blow my 354a into many small pieces, but maybe you will have better luck. I hope so. 4 stars for features, 0 reliability makes an average of 2. Good luck!