Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

This product was installed in connection with our Church's PA system. So far it has meet our expectations. The sound is good and it is easy to operate.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

Unit works as advertised, make sure you have music CD's to burn with. Would be 5 stars but there are a few nitpick items, no light on tape window, loud cd drive. Buttons sometimes take second press to register. Read your instructions closely to get burning setup straight.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

The unit arrived in good condition in good time. I am still learning to use it but everthing seems to work well so far. I found some CD-R Music CDs at our local target store. CD-R data disks do not work in this recorder.I intend to use it to record my LPs on CDs and USB sticks. That works just fine.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

Had a rush project to digitize 57 cassette tapes in 7 working days. I opted to do blocks of 6-10 at a time and recorded directly to USB/flash drive. While the process had some hiccups, I can't say they were unexpected. Working with a clunky analog medium like audio cassette in a drag and drop world, required a little bit of old school common sense at times. Digitizing is done in real time. Don't expect any short cuts. Post editing a must for qc purposes.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

Most everything is great about this product. It is easy to use and records from cassettes to CD very well. The only improvement I'd make would be to back-light the cassette section so that you can see tape utilization a little more easily.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

I've owned a number of TEAC units over the years, my last one being a high-end reel-to-reel, which tells you how long that has been. At the time TEAC was always among the very best you could get and I was always happy with their gear. In terms of features this unit has a lot to like about it and seems to be well built. But it has a few quirks you should be aware of.

- I have not tried the CD recorder because -- it requires blank music or "digital audio" CD media! Do you have lots of spindles of 'regular' blank data CDs? Too bad. This unit will refuse to record on them. Keep in mind that this is not a 'technical' problem but a licensing one. With Digital Audio blank media, you are paying a kind of tax because it is assumed that you will be recording copyrighted music onto the disk. Digital Audio disks are just like computer data disks except for a digital signature written to the Digital Audio disk. If this unit doesn't see that signature, it will refuse to record on it. I had originally planned on copying all my cassettes to CD first and then later rip the CDs on my computer to iTunes. But with a drawer full of perfectly good blank data CDs (which work just fine as music media when written from a computer), I refuse to be forced to go out and buy a whole bunch of new blank media. Fortunately you can copy directly from a cassette to a USB thumb drive, saving as an MP3 file, but...

- The cassette --> CD recording method has a feature where the unit will try to determine track breaks on its own, automatically breaking the cassette up into separate tracks on the CD. But for cassette --> USB recording there is no such automatic feature. You can, if you want to, manually mark the tracks. But I wanted unattended copying from my cassettes, so this does me little good. The unit does have a auto-reverse cassette deck, so you can do both sides at a go. But I prefer to do each side of the tape as a separate session to keep the MP3 file sizes a bit more manageable. Remember that if you recorded most of your own tapes, a cassette is typically 30 or 45 minutes a side, so your MP3 files will be that long. That's a good sized file. And recording a side of a tape that is empty creates the same size file as one full of music.

- The USB recorder doesn't always start and stop when you press the front panel buttons, or when the cassette player stops. I don't believe this is a defect in this particular unit, but rather some sort of artifact of how the built-in computer is polling for 'events'. To record from cassette --> USB, you select the output (tape), load the tape, and press the RECORD USB button. Usually this works, but sometimes it ignores the button press. Sometimes 2-3 times in a row. An annoyance. But more annoying is that the USB recording is suppose to automatically stop when the tape ends. It usually does, but like the button presses, sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, the USB continues to record dead air. This can make for a pretty darn big MP3 file by the time you notice that the tape has stopped but the USB recorder hasn't. Again, not ideal for unattended recording. Ignored button presses can be seen in all the controls I've used so far -- for example sometimes it takes pressing the stop or rewind button a couple of times for the unit to pay attention to you.

- Sometimes when loading a cassette, the take-up reel does not engage the hub. You have to eject and reload the cassette. Over the years I have owned literally dozens of cassette desks, both cheap and expensive, and I don't believe I've ever had one with this quirk.

- There is no light behind the cassette window, so you can see the tape packs. A common feature on any good cassette deck.

- The head stays in contact with the tape during fast forward and rewind. This is a common feature for decks that allow you to automatically scan for the blanks between songs. But this unit doesn't have that feature, so this just adds a bit of unneeded wear to the heads.

- There is no choice on the sampling rate from cassette --> USB. It is preset to 128K. That seems adequate for most cassettes, but for important original recordings it would be nice to be able to opt for higher settings.

- Out of about 60 tapes transcribed so far, I had one session where two tapes were copied at 'double speed' to USB. The tape playback speed control, which I never touch, was set to normal. About 10 tapes later it has yet to repeat this little quirk.

- The rewind and fast forward seem slow compared to other decks I've had. A minor issue. I have had two snapped leaders so far, but I blame that on the age of the tape, not the unit, given how non-aggressive its fast wind speeds are.

The Good News....

- The transcriptions sound good. On casual listening with my old ears, the MP3s sound as good as the original tape.

- Even though the deck is an auto-reverse unit, it has an intelligent auto-stop which will prevent this unit from eating your tapes. But you need to be alert. If the unit suddenly stops in the middle of a tape. Rewind the tape for a second or two, then pop it out, rap it on the table a few times, then make sure both hubs are turning freely. You can do this with your pinky finger or a pencil. If you forget to rewind the tape before ejecting, you'll find a loop of tape extending out of the cassette. Usually it should not be so much that there will be any damage. If this happens, just put a pencil in the take-up hub and wind in the loose tape. Then rap the sucker (the cassette, not the tape deck!) on the table a few times to free it up and try again. Whatever you do -- don't just keep hitting play if the unit stops in the middle of the tape. You're just forcing the unit to eat the tape.

Sorry I can't report on any of the other features -- I'm using this unit as a convenient way to copy all my cassettes to MP3 so I can cull them later with computer music editing software. I could have used an A-to-D converter with one of my current top-end cassette decks, connected to a computer, but I got this unit because I wanted to be able to just load a tape, press a button, and walk away. Except for the quirks described above, that approach is working pretty well so far.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

This product was installed in connection with our Church's PA system. So far it has meet our expectations. The sound is good and it is easy to operate.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

Unit works as advertised, make sure you have music CD's to burn with. Would be 5 stars but there are a few nitpick items, no light on tape window, loud cd drive. Buttons sometimes take second press to register. Read your instructions closely to get burning setup straight.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

The unit arrived in good condition in good time. I am still learning to use it but everthing seems to work well so far. I found some CD-R Music CDs at our local target store. CD-R data disks do not work in this recorder.I intend to use it to record my LPs on CDs and USB sticks. That works just fine.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

Had a rush project to digitize 57 cassette tapes in 7 working days. I opted to do blocks of 6-10 at a time and recorded directly to USB/flash drive. While the process had some hiccups, I can't say they were unexpected. Working with a clunky analog medium like audio cassette in a drag and drop world, required a little bit of old school common sense at times. Digitizing is done in real time. Don't expect any short cuts. Post editing a must for qc purposes.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

Most everything is great about this product. It is easy to use and records from cassettes to CD very well. The only improvement I'd make would be to back-light the cassette section so that you can see tape utilization a little more easily.

Comments about Teac AD-RW900-B CD Recorder with Cassette Deck and USB Port:

I've owned a number of TEAC units over the years, my last one being a high-end reel-to-reel, which tells you how long that has been. At the time TEAC was always among the very best you could get and I was always happy with their gear. In terms of features this unit has a lot to like about it and seems to be well built. But it has a few quirks you should be aware of.

- I have not tried the CD recorder because -- it requires blank music or "digital audio" CD media! Do you have lots of spindles of 'regular' blank data CDs? Too bad. This unit will refuse to record on them. Keep in mind that this is not a 'technical' problem but a licensing one. With Digital Audio blank media, you are paying a kind of tax because it is assumed that you will be recording copyrighted music onto the disk. Digital Audio disks are just like computer data disks except for a digital signature written to the Digital Audio disk. If this unit doesn't see that signature, it will refuse to record on it. I had originally planned on copying all my cassettes to CD first and then later rip the CDs on my computer to iTunes. But with a drawer full of perfectly good blank data CDs (which work just fine as music media when written from a computer), I refuse to be forced to go out and buy a whole bunch of new blank media. Fortunately you can copy directly from a cassette to a USB thumb drive, saving as an MP3 file, but...

- The cassette --> CD recording method has a feature where the unit will try to determine track breaks on its own, automatically breaking the cassette up into separate tracks on the CD. But for cassette --> USB recording there is no such automatic feature. You can, if you want to, manually mark the tracks. But I wanted unattended copying from my cassettes, so this does me little good. The unit does have a auto-reverse cassette deck, so you can do both sides at a go. But I prefer to do each side of the tape as a separate session to keep the MP3 file sizes a bit more manageable. Remember that if you recorded most of your own tapes, a cassette is typically 30 or 45 minutes a side, so your MP3 files will be that long. That's a good sized file. And recording a side of a tape that is empty creates the same size file as one full of music.

- The USB recorder doesn't always start and stop when you press the front panel buttons, or when the cassette player stops. I don't believe this is a defect in this particular unit, but rather some sort of artifact of how the built-in computer is polling for 'events'. To record from cassette --> USB, you select the output (tape), load the tape, and press the RECORD USB button. Usually this works, but sometimes it ignores the button press. Sometimes 2-3 times in a row. An annoyance. But more annoying is that the USB recording is suppose to automatically stop when the tape ends. It usually does, but like the button presses, sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, the USB continues to record dead air. This can make for a pretty darn big MP3 file by the time you notice that the tape has stopped but the USB recorder hasn't. Again, not ideal for unattended recording. Ignored button presses can be seen in all the controls I've used so far -- for example sometimes it takes pressing the stop or rewind button a couple of times for the unit to pay attention to you.

- Sometimes when loading a cassette, the take-up reel does not engage the hub. You have to eject and reload the cassette. Over the years I have owned literally dozens of cassette desks, both cheap and expensive, and I don't believe I've ever had one with this quirk.

- There is no light behind the cassette window, so you can see the tape packs. A common feature on any good cassette deck.

- The head stays in contact with the tape during fast forward and rewind. This is a common feature for decks that allow you to automatically scan for the blanks between songs. But this unit doesn't have that feature, so this just adds a bit of unneeded wear to the heads.

- There is no choice on the sampling rate from cassette --> USB. It is preset to 128K. That seems adequate for most cassettes, but for important original recordings it would be nice to be able to opt for higher settings.

- Out of about 60 tapes transcribed so far, I had one session where two tapes were copied at 'double speed' to USB. The tape playback speed control, which I never touch, was set to normal. About 10 tapes later it has yet to repeat this little quirk.

- The rewind and fast forward seem slow compared to other decks I've had. A minor issue. I have had two snapped leaders so far, but I blame that on the age of the tape, not the unit, given how non-aggressive its fast wind speeds are.

The Good News....

- The transcriptions sound good. On casual listening with my old ears, the MP3s sound as good as the original tape.

- Even though the deck is an auto-reverse unit, it has an intelligent auto-stop which will prevent this unit from eating your tapes. But you need to be alert. If the unit suddenly stops in the middle of a tape. Rewind the tape for a second or two, then pop it out, rap it on the table a few times, then make sure both hubs are turning freely. You can do this with your pinky finger or a pencil. If you forget to rewind the tape before ejecting, you'll find a loop of tape extending out of the cassette. Usually it should not be so much that there will be any damage. If this happens, just put a pencil in the take-up hub and wind in the loose tape. Then rap the sucker (the cassette, not the tape deck!) on the table a few times to free it up and try again. Whatever you do -- don't just keep hitting play if the unit stops in the middle of the tape. You're just forcing the unit to eat the tape.

Sorry I can't report on any of the other features -- I'm using this unit as a convenient way to copy all my cassettes to MP3 so I can cull them later with computer music editing software. I could have used an A-to-D converter with one of my current top-end cassette decks, connected to a computer, but I got this unit because I wanted to be able to just load a tape, press a button, and walk away. Except for the quirks described above, that approach is working pretty well so far.