QFX RETRO-39 Portable Shoebox USB to Cassette Tape Recorder, Analog Cassette Tape Deck with Built-in Microphone, 3.5" Bluetooth Speaker with FM Radio

It does everything that it says that it does, well enough. Nothing it produces will be of “high quality”, but good enough for your investment. However, if you’re an audiophile, you’re gonna wanna pass.I love it. I know exactly what it is and what it isn’t. But buy at your own “risk”, if you will. Still, my opinion is that reviews completely trashing it are in fact just putting the operator’s ignorance on display; This thing can record via multiple sources/signals, and is not limited to only the built in microphone (as another review suggests).

I was looking for a cassette player to listen. I was not interested in recording or taping anything. I have had it a short time, so far so good. It definitely reminds me of the ones that were available in the 70’s. Since I have had it for a very short time I can’t comment as to quality. I have had it for about 10 days.

The media could not be loaded. Disappointing is the only word that fits. The tape unit has everything a user might want: USB, Bluetooth, internal mic, even a decent sounding FM radio receiver. The only thing missing is the ability to record tapes that are useable.With Bluetooth connected and active but idle so far as sending data, there is not a sound coming from the built in speaker. And given that USB is digital, there should be none. But, set the unit to record that “silence” and then play it back, and you get far too much white noise. Record music and the level of background noise is high enough to make the tape unusable.Complicating it further, though the computer’s sound volume is set to 75% of maximum, the volume of what’s recorded, when played in my car’s system is significantly quieter than it is when switched to the radio, or disk player (a JBL speaker system in an older Toyota Avalon). That is not true when playing a tape created on some other system.In fact, with some of the tapes I recorded you can hear speech in the background that obviously is bleed-over from the unit’s FM system, which was been switched off when the recording was made. And, in the background of a tape that recorded only silence is a rhythmic thud.And if that weren’t enough, the unit ate two of my tapes, which were pulled behind the transport drive and crumpled.It’s a nice unit, and I want to like it. But somewhere in the chain, someone screwed up.

I got one several months ago and loved it. After lending it to a friend who broke it I got a replacement, and the speaker seems to have some feedback or noise that’s most obvious when the volume is low. It also seems to get staticky really fast when playing off a tape, but that could be due to the age of the cassettes I’m using. Other than that it’s decent!

This is a cool cheap item. The packaging was damaged. I wish Amazon would put it in an outer box. Nonetheless I kept it because it was so amazing. Looks and feels exactly like similar items sold in the 70s. It does everything they did and more. Imagine the unit acting like a blue tooth speaker. It will pair seamlessly with your iPhone and when you play songs on your phone they will play through the cassette recorder’s speaker. If you now engage the record mechanism with a tape in it: voila you are making a tape of what’s playing in your iPhone! You can also control forward, back and pause of your iPhone with tiny buttons on the unit. Just like a Bluetooth speaker. You can also play FM radio and record that. Who the heck listens to radio anymore? Regardless the FM radio gets amazingly good reception! No way of telling which station you are listening to. Allows an external mic 🎤 or a line in from your stereo. I would not hesitate to buy this just for fun. I’ll be interested to hear the quality of a tape made from Blue Tooth, and then played into a stereo through the line out. Will it be high fidelity? Will it have the tin AM radio type sound?: I do not know! Will be fun to play with. In any case buy without hesitation, and then get some blank tapes and 4 C cell batteries while you are at it. One thing it does not do is allow you to listen to it with a set of blue tooth headphones. You would have to use wired ones through the line out. How 70s! Have a blast!

Sound is iffy, depending on the volume. It’ll be complete static once i go close to the lower setting. Quality in general is pretty mediocre at best. Does what it is says and is a good size. I wouldn’t spend the amount I did on it again though.

Delighted to learn that cassette machines are available from amazon when mine broke. Still have a lot of music and books-on-tape in my collection. The QFX machine is well made. Sound is very good. It even has an FM radio. Recommeded.

I'm old and I got a desire to play a cassette tape that I had, and after looking around I settled on this. I really like it. I like the ka-chunk buttons, the styling, and I really like the heft of it when it's full of C batteries. The speaker is small but I like it too. It's nostalgia overload for folks of a certain age.One thing to be warned about, it's not designed for recording mix tapes and things from the external line in. The record function only works through the integrated microphone, so the record function is really for recording dictation and the like, as the old versions were. You will need to acquire a tape deck that can record from a line in in order to make your own mix tapes. But as a player with line out, bluetooth, and USB support, it's a surprising amount of modern stuff built into an adorable package. If QFX made a modern retro tape deck that could record from an external source, I'd have bought that too!