Customer Reviews

Panasonic RQ-A220 Cassette Player / Recorder

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was afraid Panasonic would phase this item out. Like their SL-PH270, a portable CD player with built-in speakers, this is a pocket-sized device for musicians and listeners on the go who don't carry an MP-3 library and prefer not to be tied to headphones (as a result I use it frequently and ubiquitously). Moreover, it's the only model of its type that features stereo recording and reproduction, making it suitable for recording live music. Granted, the playback has little separation or bass, but the sound is still superior to comparable monophonic models, whose use is primarily for dictation.

For this latest model, Panasonic has sacrificed a bit of compactness to sound quality (there's an extra speaker). I preferred the lighter, smaller model, though the thing still easily fits in a jacket pocket.

Be forewarned that, though the machine will record radio broadcasts, the tuner's poor selectivity and sensitivity limit such use unless the headphones, which serve double-duty as an antenna, are plugged in. Also, contrary to Amazon's description, this machine doe not have auto-reverse. Finally, it's curious that Panasonic would produce a miniature cassette recorder capable of recording in stereo (through the stereo input) but then offer no microphone, even as an optional accessory (the on-board mic is strictly for mono recording). I solved that problem by purchasing the mini-stereo mic made by Sony (expect to spend more than the cost of the machine).

I bought the Panasonic RQ-A220 Cassette Player/Recorder after working part-time at a Radio Shack. Of all the things in the store, I thought this portable recorder was one of the niftiest things I saw there.

For months, I wanted to transfer my music cassettes to my Mac after endlessly trying to find CDs or even MP3s over the net of the many rare songs I love (and have owned for years) but couldn't find anywhere. When I saw this cassette player/recorder, I thought "Bingo!". I bought a Y adapter, connected the single stereo plug to the RQ-A220 and the two RCA ends to the back of my Mac (which has RCA and S-video connections) and used a freeware called Coaster (it creates AIFF files. It's for Mac OS 9 only) and after converting the AIFF tracks with iTunes, voila, instant MP3s of my favorite music. Coaster is extremely easy to use and it's free! The sound from my cassettes with the RQ-A220 is CD quality. In fact, the songs sound better than those I ripped from my CDs.

The RQ-A220 almost has everything: it's a voice recorder. You can connect a stereo microphone to it if the built-in microphone doesn't cut it. It's a radio. It plays cassettes. It can record off the radio or another source (if you have the right cables of course). It has three tiny built-in speakers, which is what initially caught my attention. And included with the recorder is a set of stereo headphones. When you listen to music with it (or when I connect the Y adapter to the headphone input), you can listen to music as is or with Extra Bass System, which gives a better sounding quality. I use the XBS option when I make my MP3s.

The sound from the three speakers is not super high quality but it's surprisingly good nonetheless, certainly for a product that fits in the palm of a hand. Oddly enough, of all the types of music, classical music and jazz sounds the best when listening to it through the three speakers, more so than pop (just good) or techno music (bad). And the speakers are perfect for listening to sports broadcast or any kind of talk radio.

There are two caveats about the RQ-A220: finding and keeping a radio channel is sometimes difficult because of the sensitivity of the tuner dial. And there's no 3v adapter to plug-in the cassette player/recorder to a wall socket when I need to work with it for long periods of time and batteries just ain't enough. I bought a 3v adapter (at Radio Shack, of course), so this problem was quickly solved but I still wish the adapter came with the recorder. As for the radio, well, a digital radio would have been better. If the RQ-A220 came with a digital tuner, I would have given it 5 stars instead of 4.

Keep this in mind: you can buy the RX-D20 boombox from Panasonic for almost the same price and you have a digital radio, a CD player with the RX-D20 and better speakers (we used the RX-D20 for our radio at the store and the sound from it was good). But you can't carry a boombox in your pocket or purse, so one has to pay a little extra for a more compact product.

All in all, I like this tiny stereo player/recorder. It's beautifully designed and the sound quality from it is excellent.

*BTW, the manufacturer specifically states on the product that it was built not in China, but Taiwan. Arf!

For the price, this unit has good recording and playback quality. I don't really like how the rewind button doesn't pop back up when the tape has fully rewound. While you can still hear the unit is "activated" at this time, luckily there must be some sort of quasi autostop function, since you don't hear the unit trying to continue to rewind (indicating undesirable stress on the unit on top of battery expenditure).

There is a warning in the manual not to use high bias tapes. I only buy high bias or metal tapes and so I took the plunge. FYI, with high bias tapes, I haven't really noticed any problems with sound quality on record or playback of live music, dictation, or internal radio transmissions.

I purchased this to convert my taped records/cassettes to CD. So far, it has worked very well. I use Audio Cleaning Lab 2004 to import the music onto my computer and clean the tracks before burning to CD. It's smaller than I thought it would be - and I wish it had digital radio - but I think it's better than a tape deck. Sound quality is good. Use rechargeable batteries.

I bought this cassette recorder based on the reviews of other customers. I was looking for a cassette recorder with accurate pitch duplication.
I had also ordered two Sony WM-GX221 Walkmans which both were off more than 30 cents sharp...and off by the same amount.
The Panasonic was a little less off (less than 30 cents sharp)
so I decided to keep the Panasonic.
If anyone finds a walkman sized cassette recorder with better pitch accuracy, please let me know. it's been really difficult to find something better than the old Sony walkmans that I had before (which Sony no longer manufactures).

THIS LITTLE ITEM ARRIVED YESTERDAY AND THE PRODUCT FEATURE LISTED INCLUDES "AUTO-REVERSE"

THIS UNIT DOES NOT CONTAIN AND HAS NO AUTO-REVERSE AS LISTED ON THE PRODUCT FEATURE AD ON THE WEB-SITE, SO BACK IT GOES, A REAL SHAME TOO (THAT'S THE REASON I PURCHASED IT)-HAS REAL GOOD TONE
AND A GOOD SOUND FROM MAKING A RECORDING BUT WANT & NEED AUTO-REVERSE AND THIS UNIT DOES NOT HAVE IT

This recorder was purchased due to an early 80's model that just recently quit working. It would actually record what was playing on the radio with the same amount of quality you would get from a boombox. Anyway, I was not too suprised to see that Panasonic still makes a "recording" walkman. I know that name belongs to sony, but what else do you call them? This machine, unlike my older one, has external speakers that are suprisingly loud for such a small device. Additionally, it can record in 3x, so a 120 minute tape now lasts 360 minutes, or 3 hours on each side. I enjoy this feature for lectures, but it is not as good of quality for music as the 1x function. The only real drawback here is the station "drift". As you are listening to the radio, it will slowly move off of the station, and sometimes onto another one. I can't get it to stop. So if you are recording from the radio, you should babysit this one or else you will not record what you expected.

I can tell everyone right off the bat that this product was probably $80 at Best Buy seven years ago, but can't exactly remember if this were the very model they carried back then for a short time. It isn't worth the $400 if your main use is for recording from the internal microphone and microphone jack--lackluster at best. There is too much background noise due to 'noisy' erasure system (or low S/N ratio), and the microphone sensitivity is substandard compared to even an inexpensive tape recorder with voice activation, for example (although most of those are DC bias--this Panasonic is AC bias). In other words, if you talk normally more than ten feet away, your voice will barely be audible (and everything else at that distance). With headphones plugged in, the radio sounds almost as good as a decent boom box would, and the recording from radio is very good. The unit erases over chromium dioxide, but isn't 'optimal' (same for metal, about 50-60% the 'record volume' on playback compared to normal bias; metal erases somewhat poorly). The magnet erase head is white (unlike the characteristic gray one in my RX-CS710). Yes, this unit is all plastic and feels fragile, but is lightweight. The included headphones are decent, unlike the tiny earbuds bundled with most mp3 players to cut way down on packaging cost and size. No belt clip (a bit on this down a ways), but a wrist strap is standard fare.

If you want quality recording for lectures or live music, this RQ-A220 won't do justice. It is a novelty with speakers, and they sound quite good. I don't like it that it has just 1X and 3X (should have 1X, 2X, and 3X record speed), but the sound from the radio at 3X speed is quite awful (mostly sounds like an old, run-down 8-Track). Buttons press down very easily and tape plays, fast-forwards, and rewinds well. It does have cue and review (press rewind or fast-forward during playback to hear the garbled sound to get to a point quickly). It doesn't pop the buttons back up for rewind and fast-forward, but will when end of tape reached during playback or recording.

Three stars, why:

- Voice recording: 1 star
- Radio recording: 5 stars
- Normal bias recording: 5 stars (optimum; recommended by manufacturer)
- CrO2 bias recording: 4 stars (a little below optimum)
- Metal bias recording: 3 stars (incomplete erasure, somewhat below optimum)
- Build quality: 3 stars (all plastic and feels like a toy)
- Playback through speakers: 4 stars (as good as Sony TCM-200)
- Playback through headphones: 5 stars
- Radio reception with headphones: 4 stars (perhaps average given such a small scale; space restriction)
- Without headphones: 2 stars (even a strong station signal quite fuzzy without them doubling up as form of antenna)
- Radio dial/button operation: 3 stars (radio dial a bit tight and odd placement; often easy to slide the AM/FM/tape instead of the pause switch, but depends which side of the unit is facing--speakers side or tape side)
- Record speed feature/quality on extended speed: 1 star (doesn't have 2X speed option as a voice recorder such as Sony TCM-200; sound like an old tape and low signal output on 3X record)
- Unusual extra feature: 4 stars (slide to listen through speakers or disable speakers for headphones with/out XBS; would be nice if you could boost bass on speakers too)
- Overall value: 3 stars (fair only because this unit is very limited in availability and popularity in my theory)

Do I recommend this product? In putting my purposes in your shoes, probably no. Some of the features don't work well (as said, the voice recording) and the price is far too high due to rarity. I am so glad I chose Sony MiniDisc over this back in the day, and still have it. Like the Walkman, BetaMax, and MiniDisc, Sony has fallen victim to sudden times of change. This Panasonic is no exception because most cassette recorders of today (mostly phased out) aren't made to the quality standards as they were one-quarter century ago. As other reviewers have said, this isn't a true Walkman; comparing is like apples to oranges. This 'compact' beast is not fit for the gym without a belt clip and its size, and lest the breakable feel of it in your hands is all for the worse. That said, you're always better off with an mp3 player today anyway, regardless what materials they were made.

I'll stick to my Panasonic boom box and JVC tape deck for quality recordings on cassette. Lesson learned. This really is a nice unit though if you don't intend to record voice and want to listen to tapes on the go. This niche product by a major brand looked smart in appearance but ended up run-of-the-mill in all due respect.

(Vintage) buyer beware.

I bought one that the speed was a little slow on so I bought another one-even slower. I like the size of this and that it has a speaker and I use it all the time. Maybe there are some out there that have correct speed. If you buy one immediately test it against a tape player you know is correct. I'm hesitant to buy another one and held on to the ones I have too long and let the warranty expire. I don't use the radio much-very tricky to dial in. Wish Panasonic could make em a little cheaper and a little better but still a nice "niche" product.

I have used this to record the radio on a cassette and I was very impressed with the results.