Customer Reviews

Sony TCM-929 Pressman Desktop Cassette Recorder with Automatic Shut-Off

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I've had one of these since 1993. It's perfect. It's a tape player and recorder, and that's it.

It never jams on a good tape. It's perfect at what it does.

Being an audiobook lover I use it to listen to my books around the house and it has had a lot of use!

Unlike units that have CD players, the tape is the focus, not an afterthought.

Also, it's far superior to tape units that switch sides for you, because they often switch sides at the least resistance, not necessarily the end of the tape.

In summation, this is the tape audiobook listener's friend for reliable, no trouble, listening for hours and hours and years to come..

This is a very nice cassette recorder, that is loaded with features that most cassette recorders don't have anymore. It has microphone jack, ear jack, tape counter, sliding volume control(on side of unit), built-in very sensative mic, that picks up full-fidelity sound. Uses full-size cassette tapes, has full-auto stop; which means that it will stop in Rewind, Fast Forward, and playing or recording. Speaker produces good sound, with clear recordings. I recently recorded old 78 records, using this recorder, and placing it near the record player. It produced, very clear, full-fidelity recordings; even from scratchy sounding 78 records. It also has cue and review, that let you rewind or fast-forward to selections without pressing stop key. Comes with AC adapter, and uses 4 "AA" batteries. Recorder is simple to operate, but produces good voice or music recordings. It has ALC for perfect recordings every time, without making adjustments. Highly recommend this recorder.

Upon reading other customer reviews I bought this tape recorder. It is ok for voice recording and playback, but when I recorded my piano practice the playback sounded awful. Since I had bought it for that purpose I returned it. For voice it has a good tone and the machine noise is less than others I have heard. So, especially considering all the features including cue/review it is a good choice for voice recording.

I made the mistake of buying a slightly cheaper GE recorder, with horrible sound.

The Sony is only a few dollars more and immensely better. Very good sound reproduction, even using only the internal mic.

Automatic shutoff and a carrying handle are extra features which other low-price units don't have.

I bought this to record our band practices and to play some kid book cassettes. It was ok - not great, but just fine for the price - until it just froze up completely. Hmmm... about two weeks after the short warantee period. (No abuse, it was treated very gently.)

The Sony TCM-929 Pressman Desktop Cassette Recorder with Automatic Shut-Off is a pretty good--maybe even very good--tape recorder in this price range. I like the fact that it takes the traditional old fashioned type of tape recorder and improves upon it. We get features like a microphone jack, a headphone jack--and there's even automatic shutoff for when we can't be there right at the exact minute the tape stops playing! The handle also makes for easy portability; this can be used to record just about any sound. Words, music, lectures and conversations, you name it.

The buttons are easy to read and understand; there's practically no explanation needed for the five or six buttons in the front of the tape recorder that handle features including play, fast forward and rewind. The pause and eject buttons work reliably, too. Great! Just as Amazon notes, there is also a built-in microphone and speaker--but if you want a very clear voice recording there is a microphone jack so that people can get a very good recording of their thoughts right onto that cassette tape.

It even comes with an AC adapter! If you need to carry this around and you can't plug it into an electrical outlet, just use the four AA batteries you'll need for roughly eight hours of usage. Of course, if you use strong batteries you may get up to nine or even ten hours usage; I think eight hours is slightly too short for what you'll get out of battery usage.

One thing I must tell you--as I'm sure you can imagine, this isn't exactly the world's most durable tape recorder. After all, the price is very good for people in all income brackets. What does this mean? It means that I wouldn't bang it around or let small children play with it unsupervised. If dropped it could well break and that would be a shame. Handle with care for the maximum life of this tape recorder!

Another caveat: although they say it records lectures well, I'm not sure just how well it will be able to record a professor's lecture unless you're rather close to the professor when they talk. This occurs simply because it's not capable of picking up voices and nuances of words from larger distances. I will have to take off one star for this to make this a four star review. Believe me, I tried to use this for my continuing education Spanish classes; and I was disappointed. I was not able to get a consistently clear recording of what the teacher had said. Good thing I took notes just in case this failed me on that score! One way to possibly get around this is to ask the teacher if you can place the tape recorder on their desk while they lecture; maybe that will work if your teacher doesn't mind.

Overall, this is one fine tape recorder for everyday use and less demanding tasks like recording your own thoughts. It records especially well when you use a microphone that plugs into the machine instead of using the built in microphone. If you're looking for a good tape recorder in this price range and you don't need extremely heavy-duty features, this tape recorder is for you!

Good quality machine
Compact and easy to carry with you.
Very good sound for voices and choral group.
Good features, it has and does everything as advertised.
Very good machine for the cost.

Well made, inexpensive, simple to use cassette Tape Recorder. Thankfully it does not have 43 "extra" functions that you will never use and require 3 hours and a Degree from MIT to program before it starts to function.

It works well, and is truly portable with one hand so it can be used as you walk with any optional plug in microphone and headset ( not included ) if you also require privacy in recording/playback.

I wish I could give it 10 Stars.

With the purchase of a new car, I found that I had no way of playing my favorate cassette tapes. This works great and I use it in the house as well as on the road.

I bought this tape player with a very specific purpose in mind. I am a criminal defense attorney and the majority of the recordings provided to us by the court or the prosecution come on tapes. I needed something to play the tapes in my office and occasionally in court. It had to be compact enough to fit in my briefcase, loud enough and clear enough to play in court, and had to have a counter so I could key sections of a transcript to a tape and easily locate the bits I wanted to play during a hearing. This little machine was cheap, and it does all that.

I gave it a 4 instead of a 5 because of one small issue. If you use headphones it only plays through one ear. Not a big deal, except it means headphones do nothing to improve the sound quality of a poor recording.