ION Tape Express Portable Analog To Digital Cassette Converter with Headphones

by ION Audio

Product Features

• Portable cassette tape player with integrated analog-to-digital converter lets you convert recordings and music to a digital format
• Portable design fits in virtually any bag and enables you to play and transfer anywhere
• Flexible battery or USB-powered operation
• Comes with EZ Tape Converter software to guide you through transfer
• Plays Chrome or Normal cassette tapes
• Perfect for old dictations, archiving hard-to-find music and safekeeping of precious audio in a future-proof, portable .MP3 format

› See more product details

Product Description

Turn your tapes into MP3s and listen on your computer, iPod, in the car, or in the palm of your hand! TAPE EXPRESS + is a portable, handheld USB tape player that works with all kinds of tapes. It has an easy-to-use USB connection for sending the music on your tapes right into your computer where it's instantly turned into MP3 files. You can listen to MP3s on your computer, load them onto your portable music player, or record them onto a CD and listen in your car. Rediscover those old songs with TAPE EXPRESS +! TAPE EXPRESS + is designed with your on-the-go life in mind. Its portable design fits in virtually any bag and enables you to play and transfer music anywhere. It runs on battery or USB power when connected to your computer for easy operation wherever you go. TAPE EXPRESS + comes with ION's exclusive EZ Converter software. This powerful, yet easy-to-use program guides you through transferring your music and can even integrate with your iTunes Music Library. In addition to transferring your tapes, TAPE EXPRESS + has an audio output that enables you to listen on the included headphones, or connected to your stereo or other speaker system for hours of enjoyment. It can play chrome or normal cassette tapes. Reconnect with the music on your old tapes anywhere you go with TAPE EXPRESS +. iPod and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

280 of 283 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If you learn how to use it, this baby is awesome March 4, 2011

By T. Farnsworth

Amazon Verified Purchase

I needed to convert my tape collection, and we tired of using headphone jacks. This thing is fantastic.

In response to other reviews:
1) The unit is plenty loud enough even with the cheapo included headphones
2) it's not meant to be used as a walkman. Don't try and you won't be disappointed.
3) The included software has good intentions. Poor execution. Use Audacity, not iTunes.

Pros:
1) It's the right price
2) Easy operation
3) True plug and play on Vista. Just plug it into a USB port and it worked instantly with Audacity. Did you hear that? No driver problems! Very unexpected, very welcome. This gets ignored when it works well, but people complain about it when it doesn't work.
4) Loop feature. Turn on the tape, walk away, come back when it has done both sides.
5) Auto volume for recording. Don't have to mess with it.
6) No batteries, no power cords

Cons:
1) Plastic body. It'll hold up for my tape collection, but I would never take it outside.
2) Hum during recording. Don't know if it's the tape or the player, but it happened on both cassettes so far.
3) No auto-stop. When it has played both sides of the tape, it should know that it is done, right? It doesn't.

How to use it (or how it works for me):
Plugged in the USB cable (no battery needed, none used). Put in a tape. Pressed play.

I have used the included software option and the Audacity option. Audacity is better. Here's why: the included software has a feature. It auto-detects when a song ends and another song begins. But it is not 100% (it missed 3 breaks in the tape I just did, and it was a commercial music tape). And it does not have a noise reduction function, which it desperately needs.

Using Audacity, download it for free. Then follow the links on the Audacity site and download the lame MP3 encoder. That's the name, not a description. It works great. Using this setup is simple:
1) start Audacity
2) click record
3) press the play button on the unit
4) when you are done recording, click stop in Audacity
5) stop the player
6) select a small section of "silence" in the recording.
7) in the Effect drop-down menu, select Noise Removal
8) Click Get Noise Profile
9) Select the entire recording (all 90 minutes at once if you have a recording that long)
10) in the Effect drop-down menu, select Noise Removal
11) Click Remove Noise. Wait for it to finish.
12) You can easily see where songs start and finish, so highlight 1 song, go to file-->Export selection as MP3, and save it. Do this for each song. You now have the songs saved, named, and noise is removed. You don't need that tape any more. You win!

230 of 233 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for the Money August 17, 2010

By K. Hyndman

Amazon Verified Purchase

After reading some of the reviews, you would swear that this was a piece of junk, however it was exactly what I needed to get these old recordings off of tape and into my iTunes! Granted, the player is made of plastic (chromed plastic). It's not something you'd want to abuse or tote around with you, but sitting on my desk it does the job it is intended to do. I just transferred a 20 year old musical recording of a friend of mine and now it's off of that old tape and into my system where I can back it up for the future.

If you're looking for a cheap way to turn your tapes into MP3s, this is a great way to go. It was super simple. I loaded the software in about 2 minutes, plugged it into my Mac's USB port and pressed record and play...It's as easy as that! The only drawback is that if you want to separate your tape into separate songs, you do have to sit through the song and press "new track" on your screen. Otherwise, it's pretty great. If you want a super high-end system, this isn't it, but I'm very satisfied with my results so far.

239 of 252 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars OK Hardware; HORRIBLE Software July 12, 2010

By firstron

I spent several hours trying to copy a tape to my HD using the software that came with this unit. It was a NIGHTMARE!

First of all, the software REQUIRES that you download and install iTunes (200+Mb.) or IT WILL NOT RUN. Second, the ion software lets you input the artist and titles, then switches you to iTunes where all the titles and artist info disappears. Thirdly, you can not go back to a previous screen without losing everything.

The iTunes requirement was not divulged in the item description, in the advertising or on the box. This would be a deal-breaker for me if I had not purchased it on E-Bay. iTunes may be a great program for those who need it's features but, on my netbook, it is pure and simple bloatware. The program has many features I will never use and it sops up over 200 Mb of hard-drive space. In the end, I deleted the Ion software and iTunes and installed Audacity (about 2.0 Mb). Audacity was easier to use and required less than 1% of the hard-drive space of the Ion software plus iTunes.

The hardware, in my opinion, is quite adequate for it's intended purpose. It is intended to allow you to convert your tapes to digital format on your computer. It is plenty robust enough for that purpose. After copying your music to your computer, it would be reasonable to assume you would listen to the digital copy from then on, and never have a need to play the tapes again.