Sony TCWE475.CEK > Reviews (4)

The tape player almost feels jurassic when you consider that subsequently the the compact disc the mini disc followed and could arguably be superseded themselves by blu ray audio. However it certainly brought back nostalgia when listen to this cassette player. As people will have noticed already due to the age of this player and due to manufacturers ceasing production of cassette players, it is now only possible to purchase these second hand. This also has it's upsides to as it provides the potential benefit of picking up a bargain for very little outlay.

Upon seeing this cassette player again, you are instantly reminded of why in it's heyday it was such a popular product. First of all, we have the sturdy rugged built design which means barring accidentally dropping this on the floor, it is definitely built to last. Secondly the attractive feature of this is the twin cassette deck facility which allowed for the easy copying of one cassette to another. This seems somewhat ironic especially when you take into consideration the uproar that copying music has generated in this day and age.

However music technology has moved on and in this regard, it becomes a matter of what extent people have embraced the compact disc. I to still own some cassettes but as they have essentially been phased out, my newest cassettes are almost a decade old. The key test of course is comparing like with like and it under this test that cassettes unfortunately lack the sparkle. I feel that in every aspect of sound reproduction, this cassette player comes up short against comparably priced cd players. There is certainly a nice bright sound to the music, you can contentedly listen to music without calling into question aspects of the sonics but compared to compact disc players, there is a definite lack of spaciousness, as a result, recordings feel quite flat and muffled and a result there is the conscious awareness that you are not hearing the sound as it was intended to be heard.

This is a solid, well built cassette player and has it's charms but for those whose primary focus sound quality, then I am afraid the tape player has clearly had it's day.

Summary: It's good, but has been quite comfortably suprassed by cd's