| | |  | Microcassette Recorders | Home » » » » » Portable Tape To Mp3 Player | | | | | | | Description: | | Convert your old cassette tapes to digital files for music on the go. Turn your tapes into MP3s and listen on your computer, iPod, or in the car! TAPE EXPRESS is a portable, handheld USB tape player that works with all kinds of tapes. It has an easy-to-use USB connection for sending the music on your tapes right into your computer where it's instantly turned into MP3 files. You can listen to MP3s on your computer, load them onto your portable music player, or record them onto a CD and listen in your car. Rediscover those old songs with TAPE EXPRESS! TAPE EXPRESS is designed with your on-the-go life in mind. Its portable design fits in virtually any bag and enables you to play and transfer music anywhere. It runs on battery or USB power when connected to your computer for flexible operation. TAPE EXPRESS comes with ION's exclusive EZ Tape Converter software. This powerful, yet easy-to-use program guides you through transferring your music and even can integrate with your iTunes Music Library. In addition to transferring your tapes, TAPE EXPRESS has an audio output that enables you to listen on your stereo, headphones, or other speaker system for hours of enjoyment. It can play Chrome or Normal cassette tapes. Reconnect with the music on your old tapes anywhere you go with TAPE EXPRESS. | | | Features: | |
• USB tape player turns music on cassette tapes into MP3s
• Portable design fits in virtually any bag and enables you to play and transfer anywhere
• Flexible battery or USB-powered operation
• Comes with EZ Tape Converter software to guide you through transfer
• Plays Chrome or Normal cassette tapes
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 5.5 inches | | Product Width:
| 3.5 inches | | Product Height:
| 9.0 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.5 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.1 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 3.3 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.85 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 172 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 172 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
171 of 172 found the following review helpful:
 Great for the MoneyAug 18, 2010
By K. Hyndman
After reading some of the reviews, you would swear that this was a piece of junk, however it was exactly what I needed to get these old recordings off of tape and into my iTunes! Granted, the player is made of plastic (chromed plastic). It's not something you'd want to abuse or tote around with you, but sitting on my desk it does the job it is intended to do. I just transferred a 20 year old musical recording of a friend of mine and now it's off of that old tape and into my system where I can back it up for the future.
If you're looking for a cheap way to turn your tapes into MP3s, this is a great way to go. It was super simple. I loaded the software in about 2 minutes, plugged it into my Mac's USB port and pressed record and play...It's as easy as that! The only drawback is that if you want to separate your tape into separate songs, you do have to sit through the song and press "new track" on your screen. Otherwise, it's pretty great. If you want a super high-end system, this isn't it, but I'm very satisfied with my results so far.
109 of 110 found the following review helpful:
 If you learn how to use it, this baby is awesomeMar 05, 2011
By T. Farnsworth
"kermit fan"
I needed to convert my tape collection, and we tired of using headphone jacks. This thing is fantastic.
In response to other reviews:
1) The unit is plenty loud enough even with the cheapo included headphones
2) it's not meant to be used as a walkman. Don't try and you won't be disappointed.
3) The included software has good intentions. Poor execution. Use Audacity, not iTunes.
Pros:
1) It's the right price
2) Easy operation
3) True plug and play on Vista. Just plug it into a USB port and it worked instantly with Audacity. Did you hear that? No driver problems! Very unexpected, very welcome. This gets ignored when it works well, but people complain about it when it doesn't work.
4) Loop feature. Turn on the tape, walk away, come back when it has done both sides.
5) Auto volume for recording. Don't have to mess with it.
6) No batteries, no power cords
Cons:
1) Plastic body. It'll hold up for my tape collection, but I would never take it outside.
2) Hum during recording. Don't know if it's the tape or the player, but it happened on both cassettes so far.
3) No auto-stop. When it has played both sides of the tape, it should know that it is done, right? It doesn't.
How to use it (or how it works for me):
Plugged in the USB cable (no battery needed, none used). Put in a tape. Pressed play.
I have used the included software option and the Audacity option. Audacity is better. Here's why: the included software has a feature. It auto-detects when a song ends and another song begins. But it is not 100% (it missed 3 breaks in the tape I just did, and it was a commercial music tape). And it does not have a noise reduction function, which it desperately needs.
Using Audacity, download it for free. Then follow the links on the Audacity site and download the lame MP3 encoder. That's the name, not a description. It works great. Using this setup is simple:
1) start Audacity
2) click record
3) press the play button on the unit
4) when you are done recording, click stop in Audacity
5) stop the player
6) select a small section of "silence" in the recording.
7) in the Effect drop-down menu, select Noise Removal
8) Click Get Noise Profile
9) Select the entire recording (all 90 minutes at once if you have a recording that long)
10) in the Effect drop-down menu, select Noise Removal
11) Click Remove Noise. Wait for it to finish.
12) You can easily see where songs start and finish, so highlight 1 song, go to file-->Export selection as MP3, and save it. Do this for each song. You now have the songs saved, named, and noise is removed. You don't need that tape any more. You win!
201 of 210 found the following review helpful:
OK Hardware; HORRIBLE SoftwareJul 13, 2010
By firstron
I spent several hours trying to copy a tape to my HD using the software that came with this unit. It was a NIGHTMARE!
First of all, the software REQUIRES that you download and install iTunes (200+Mb.) or IT WILL NOT RUN. Second, the ion software lets you input the artist and titles, then switches you to iTunes where all the titles and artist info disappears. Thirdly, you can not go back to a previous screen without losing everything.
The iTunes requirement was not divulged in the item description, in the advertising or on the box. This would be a deal-breaker for me if I had not purchased it on E-Bay. iTunes may be a great program for those who need it's features but, on my netbook, it is pure and simple bloatware. The program has many features I will never use and it sops up over 200 Mb of hard-drive space. In the end, I deleted the Ion software and iTunes and installed Audacity (about 2.0 Mb). Audacity was easier to use and required less than 1% of the hard-drive space of the Ion software plus iTunes.
The hardware, in my opinion, is quite adequate for it's intended purpose. It is intended to allow you to convert your tapes to digital format on your computer. It is plenty robust enough for that purpose. After copying your music to your computer, it would be reasonable to assume you would listen to the digital copy from then on, and never have a need to play the tapes again.
29 of 29 found the following review helpful:
Works Great!Nov 28, 2010
By Ragamuffin
Wanted to transfer my cassettes - especially my holiday collection - to MP3s and my laptop doesn't have an audio input (which is different from a headphone input) to accomplish this properly; even with downloadable software from the net. I didn't want to invest in a whole conversion receiver system, so I went with this. Despite some unfavorable reviews, I was hoping that the software, the USB cable input, and the cassette system itself would do the job. Boy was I right. The thing works perfectly. I have already transferred some treasured cassettes to MP3 and they sound better than ever. The software works seamlessly with Itunes. I just loaded the software and started recording immediately. The only things you have to play with are the record level and if you want the software to split into tracks. You can just let your tape play, if you chose, and it WILL automatically split the songs into different tracks - very cool. If you're like me and you're a little bit concerned about some of the negative reviews - don't be. If you have Windows XP or above, Itunes, a USB input, and a CD player to install the software - you'll be fine. I picture the unfavorable reviewers as people with very low computer saviness, very old operating systems, or those too stubborn to use Itunes. Great product.
24 of 25 found the following review helpful:
Great Idea, But It Gave Me Headaches FirstSep 03, 2010
By Lawrence Lapka
"Larry L. Colgems"
I purchased the Ion Audio USB Portable Tape to MP3 Player several weeks ago. Although it gave me major problems at first, now that I have figured the darn thing out, it does pretty much what it is supposed to do: allow you to convert your old cassette tapes to digital files on your computer.
One world of warning: the disk that they provide for setting up this thing is pretty much useless and should not even be tried. I did everything I was supposed to do, and the message came up that I had to download iTunes for this thing to work. Nothing was further from the truth, but by the time I found this out, I had downloaded iTunes and the thing still would not work ... and I tried this on computers that had iTunes already installed.
Anyway, I heard from other reviewers that you could use Audacity, and I had that installed already (I use it for the Ion Turntable), and proceeded to try that program ... but it still would not work.
On a lark, I not only reinstalled Audacity (it take maybe a minute to do), and also installed a new Beta version of this program. I tried the product on the old but newly installed Audacity, and it still did not work, but I tried it on the newer Audacity, and lo and behold, it worked!
And yes, it does record pretty low, but not so low as the sound files are useless. They are highly listenable.
One tip--when you use Audacity, set it to line out or whatever term your version of Audacity uses.
But all in all, even though I struggled at first, the thing does work. It is not up to the Ion Turntable, which I have never had a problem with, but it is a handy alternate instrument for putting all of those cassingles you have on your computer.
Out of five starts, I would probably give it a three--but remember, do not even attempt to use the software they give you, because if you do, you will cause yourself lots of headaches.
Use Audacity instead!
See all 172 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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