Nice Automation controls, pitch control, relay play, multi-segment LED vu's, well-built

Somewhat Noisy***

Wow! Have things changed...

I recently was packing up my things to move to a new house and found BOXES full of cassettes from a previous move that I had completely forgotten about. Some of these cassettes are of OOP material so I figured I'd hop on down to Best Buy and buy an El-Cheapo cassette deck to play these cassettes and capture them to .wav files and then burn the audio to CD. Needless to say, I haven't shopped for a cassette deck in years. They are super-cheap these days and absolutely LOADED with features. I was more concerned with playback than record, and had settled on the low-end Sony TC-WE305 as a means to get the audio to disc. I noticed that BB had an open box TC-WE435 for a few bucks off and after haggling with the manager ended up taking the 435 home for the same price as the 305. I am certainly glad I did.

Frequency response is adequate. I like the multi-segment LED vu 'meters' as well. The auto-reverse mechanism works flawlessly, but is somewhat noisy, as are almost all auto-reverse machines. The machine is almost dead-quiet, however, when a tape is simply being played or recorded. Switchable Automatic Recording level is included. A center-detented VR pitch control is also included and the control also has a handy on-off button to keep you or little one's fingers from having any effect should the pitch knob be inadvertently rotated.

This deck, while appearing solid and sturdy, is made in China. I only mention this because Chinese equipment, while often feature-laden, is often (perceived, at least) as lower build quality than the Japanese counterparts. This deck seems to be up to Sony standards for build quality, however.

Again, compared to 10-20 years ago, one can get a heckuva lot of features for very little money in a cassette deck. While the cassette is a dying medium, the sony TC-WE435 should serve you well until its death.

Similar Products Used:

Many Cassette decks, both consumer and professional throughout the years.

This Twin Cassette Deck is excellent. I bought this deck for $300.00 Australian and it is great. It is a pleasure to add it to my all sony
component home theatre system. I thoroughly recommend it, as it has many
features including the new HX-PRO Noise Reduction and Multi - AMS Track
Search. Thumbs Up for this one Sony!! By the way Sony in Australia (Melbourne)
Have been pretty slow in the delivery of this cassette deck.I was
told that the United States and the British seem to get more priority in the
delivery and we Australians always have to wait. Who Know"s but anyway
it is still excellent!!

Easy to set-up and use. Price ($129 US 6/00). Good sound quality. Continuous 3 hour play from both transports. Auto record level. Compact size, light weight

No remote control

My 15 year old, twice repaired, Kenwood tape deck passed away a couple of months ago. I used it to make tapes from CD's for my Walkman, which goes along on my morning runs. I was very supprised at the cost and quality of tape decks when I started shopping for a replacement. CD players have forced the price of tape decks down just the way DVD players are now doing to video cassettes. I picked Sony based on reliability, sound quality and price and features. My othe Sony products (walkman-boombox-clock radio) have never failed. The sound quality for tape was very good against TEAC and Kenwood. I believe I paid around $200 for my old Kenwood in 1985 so at $129 in 2000 the Sony is a very good value. The auto record level is a feature I did not think I would like, but I use it all the time and the music stays at the same volume throughout the entire tape, no more turing the volume up and down. The only down side is a lack of a remote. This is a minor inconvenience and one less remote to keep track of. I usually just set up to record and let the thing go. I am giving the Sony five stars for value. It's does not match cd quality but the sound is very good, its has just the right featues (dual relay cassette, auto record level with manual over-ride-easy to read meters) all for well under $150. I am taking one star away for the lack of a remote control. This is not important to me but it may be to others

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood dual cassette deck (died).

Price- features

No remote

I finally bought this tape deck at Best Buy for $149. I guess some of you got a better deal, though I see. I have a high end system and this if the first tape deck I have EVER bought! That's pretty unusual considering my system:

Amp: Yamaha DSP-A1
DVD Player: Sony S7700
300 CD Jukebox: Sony?
Tuner: Kenwood?

I have already copied 4 full length tapes and so far this thing works great. I wish the digital counter went in real seconds and minutes, though. It counts faster than it should.