Ion Tape2PC USB Cassette Deck

So far I haven't had any problems at all with this device. I initially bought it because my old tape deck that I used to transfer tapes to my pc broke, and I figured I might as well buy a new one that's specifically designed for this purpose. As another poster pointed out, it is large, like the old dubbing decks. I don't quite understand why they had to make it a dual dubbing deck, as I can't imagine a scenario where I'll ever need to dub tape-to-tape. If they'd kept it a single cassette playing unit it would have no doubt been smaller in size. Still, it's nice to have two cassette decks in one in case something goes wrong with one side. The software included is okay, but no better than you can get online for free. All in all it does what it's supposed to do, with no bells and whistles. But if space is a concern, you're better off with something like Plus Deck's tape-to-pc converter. It installs directly into an empty drive bay and integrates more directly with the pc. Though installation is more tricky than with this unit.

The ION Tape2PC is a very useful and easy-to-use piece of equipment that enables me to archive cassette recordings to MP3. I have a large collection of impossible-to-replace live radio broadcasts that I can now duplicate to MP3 and CD. I've found that cassettes deteriorate over time and start to wobble and sound shaky, as we all do after 18 years or so. It also serves as a traditional dubbing cassette deck, which only adds to its value as a component. And for $120, it was a bargain. More impressively, I received it 5 days after placing my order, way ahead of expectations. Hat's off to Amazon and UPS, and ION for its unique products.

I've been looking for something like this for a long time. I have a lot of audio cassette tapes that I wanted to change over to cd's. The TAPE2PC does all that and I can choose what songs I want or don't want to go on the CD from my PC. I have no complaints.

I like the Ion because I have a lot of cassettes that I didn't want to repurchase in CD. This allowed me to put the cassettes into mp3 format and listen to them on cd's, on my I Pod, or whenever I am on the computer. It's a good product and easy to use.

When I started downloading music from my old tapes, I thought that this is going to be amazing. The fun starts when you actually start to import the music files to i tunes. Some music files would not import. Some would import double files. Some would import shadow files that do not play any music. As for the Gracenote, that is a different and worse nightmare. It makes downloading the music files much slower as it has to go and search for similar files for every file that you download. The worse part of it is that you have to guess which song belongs to what track to pick the title that Gracenote comes up with. Honestly I never found it helpful and just a waste of time.
But after all, this is the only thing out there (that I know of) that converts your tapes to digital files. So I guess I should not complain.

the unit itself is fairly easy to use, although the instruction manual leaves a LOT to be desired.

the included software is clumsy. it cannot be paused to pass over unwanted songs. you have to completely stop, download and convert the copied songs, then resume copying at the next song.

This product works great I just wish it had a way to auto stop after your tape had finished. It took many tries to remember to stop the unattended recording when the tape finished.

I could not get this product to work with my Mac.
Fortunately, I was able to figure out a way to get my cassettes transfered to the digital realm.
I just use this product as a cassette player.

For years I have sought for a product with these capabilities -- somewhat like the mythical search for the "Holy Grail." I have bought several electronic items that purported this capabilitity -- none worked. I listened to a tape that I definitely needed archived to mp3 format the other day and decided to make an internet search for audio tape to mp3 capabilities. I ordered this one with the expedited shipping. I ordered it Friday night and it was delivered early Monday morning. It installed easily on both my MAC and IBM systems. It exceeded my wildest expectations. I can't remember when I have been happier with a purchase. Hurry, hurry, hurry -- they will raise when they discover how good this item really works! Can't say enough about it -- I have literally thousands of old lecture and radio tapes that need archiving -- this machine will receiving a workout.

The setup is very easy. There are 2 software that come with the product. Audocity which is a freeware and is used to manipulate the sound and the effects. the second one is an easy to use software that allows you to save the track to your Itune. This makes it easy to use and import to your Itune and Ipod. the deck itself is just like any other tape deck, nothing special about it. The gain control is in the back which makes it a little harder to reach, but the rest of the operation is easy. I know you can do this opeartion with any deck and an inexpensive cable from your Radioshack, but the fact that it's all there in the box and you can set it up in less than 5 minutes is worth the extra money. I would recommend it.

ION Tape2PC USB Cassette DeckI like the tape deck controls and ease of use. Software leaves much to be desired. I have not used the tape to tape. The USB connection works great.

The hardware makes it extremely easy to port over cassettes to ipod format. However, the software is missing a key feature. When the cassette has ended, the software does not know it. In other words, unless you are present monitoring the transfer. You will keep recording silence. The software and hardware should talk to each other and know when the cassette has ended!

Very poor. I ordered one it came damaged and the record button would not work. I returned the product again and the second was also defective therefor I took a refund.

not enough directions
all I got was what the part were not how to record or use the tape deck.
What can it do and how to do it.....????

This is a great product. It is very easy to use, and is making transferring tapes to digital a breeze. I had bought a tape player and hooked it up to my computer previously, and ended up with a 60-cycle hum I couldn't get rid of. I tried running an extension cord all the way downstairs to an outlet I knew was grounded, unplugging everything that was unnecessary, etc. Nothing worked. This product doesn't have a hum at all, and it comes with very nifty software that allows me to edit the audio files. I've found that some tapes are too soft, and others too loud, and I'm able to equalize them using the software. I'm transferring my Mom's books on tape to digital so she can have them on her I-Pod - it's going to be a great present for her birthday. Thanks to the ION Tape2PC!

We needed to call the help line a few times to use this item. The instructions that came with it were pretty useless. Once we were told how to set it up, it did what it was supposed to - i.e., allow you to download a cassette tape to my Itunes and then to my IPod touch.

For those of us who grew up in the analog era, the digital one requires some modifications. This unit helps move us in that direction. Inconvenient to have to make the switch, but good tools help.

After reading most of the reviews of this item I was unsure of purchasing it, but I had no stereo system to hook into with the $15.00 gizmo from Radio Shack, a clutter of cassettes, and some one-of-a-kinds that I desperately wanted to preserve on CD. I ordered it. Fearful of the instruction snafu others wrote about, I set it up. In nothing flat I was easily copying the cassettes to computer, then to CD. It is simplicity itself! Incredibly easy to use and a great deal of fun, I consider this one of my very best purchases of late and would endorse it to anyone!!!

I was able how to figure out how to record but two things that bothered me was that you have to precisely start and stop your cassette recordings at the beginning and end of the song for a clean recording. Also, it's very tedious to name every track you've recorded. Last but not least, they don't mention it turns your stereo recording into a MONO file which is fine if you don't mind your songs sounding like they were made in the 60's. If I had it to do over again, I would wait until they come up with one that has stereo imput and OUTPUT.

The first problem was the item was bigger than I expected. I live in a small space so it didn't work well for me. The bigger problem was it didn't work at all with my Mac computer. The enclosed brochure was no help, neither was on-line support. The technical support, offering an e-mail response within 48 hours, came several days after I had already returned the item.

It's been a joy to hear tapes I hadn't played in several years. The ION Tape2PC USB Cassette Deck ably served its purpose for me. I used the EZ Audio Converter software, which came with it, and it is quite simple and I've been pleased with the results. You can also dub cassette-to-cassette, although I'm in the process of getting RID of tape and have no need to create more. I also plugged it into one of the auxiliary imputs of my elaborate stereo and it worked just fine that way too. I ended up with favorite old tapes easily transferred to my iTunes and iPod and CD.

My primary objection is that it has an old fashioned feel to it, quite lightweight, with the sort of push down keys I've not pressed in DECADES (they remind me of a cassette deck I bought in the 1970s!). And I find the "gain" dial on the back, which controls the output volume, a nuisance and I wish ION had put that control on the front of the player. But one manages to adjust to it and all the cost cutting has resulted in a very inexpensive player that more than serves its stated purpose. And I'm delighted with old tapes now safely on my iPod and I can play them whenever I want. The bottom line is that I would buy it again.ION Tape2PC USB Cassette Deck

i have a g5 mac.
and i had zero problems. great quality of sound. very easy set up. i've done about 40 tapes so far. and they've all turned out great. it takes a long long time. but it's certainly very very easy.

mac users should be reminded to change their sound input to the usb.

This is every thing I'd hoped it would be, plus more. Right out of the box, no learning curve, user friendly. I highly recommended this to any one who has tapes to convert to mp3. Based on the number of tapes converted, the unit has already paid for itself.

Despite some of the other reviews here expressing difficulty in using this device, I found the process completely problem free. Literally within 2 minutes of having it out of the box, I had it hooked up to my macbook and was digitizing my old cassettes. You can listen to your tapes through the speakers in your computer as you record and you just have to hit the "new track" button in between songs and it creates a new file for you to name when you are finished. The majority of my tapes sounded great as I was converting them to MP3. Unfortunately, playing the newly created digital files was extremely disappointing. The sound quality is absolute crap. I fiddled with the gain settings and recording levels and could find no improvement. My 20 year old cassettes sound far better on their own. If anyone knows of a product that is this easy to use but that actually creates listenable results, please send me an emal.

This review in general is for PC users.

At this point in time I installed it on two machines Windows 2000 and XP.

On the old Windows 2000 machine I have the "ION Tape2PC USB Cassette Deck" attached, and installed "iTunes" and "EZ Convert". The "iTunes" for Windows 2000 you mast download from web site, because Windows XP version wont work. My reason is that "ION Tape2PC USB Cassette Deck" is slow mechanical device. There is no automation to play and break the original cassette into "mp3" files. By design this process is slow and manual. This way I can perform my work on XP machine and run slow process on a slow machine.

On the Windows XP machine I have installed "iTunes" and "Audacity" software. The reason is that "Audacity" sound manipulation software will run much faster on a good machine.

I'm using flash USB memory to transferring files from Windows 2000 to XP machine.

Over all:

Software is easy to install and work stable.

Instructions are poor written. "Audacity" is included software but there are no descriptions in the manual, and you must study this software from the help menu option.

Be patient and take your time to research on the Internet for various specifics. All answers are available even for not technical people. You must be ready and willing to study to achieve positive results.

I would not qualify this product as for professional high quality outcome results. This is little more then average conversion approach.

Easy set up, but neither software package is suitable for recording. Both my wife and I tried unsuccessfully to get the software to work without babysitting the recording process. Neither of us is a computer novice. It does work well with GoldWave [...] which I have used successfully to digitize my cassette collection. With GoldWave, I open a file, press play on the deck and record on GoldWave. I return when it's done and save the file. I can decide later if I want it in iTunes. The sound quality is good without any post processing to remove noise required. Buy it for the hardware, forget the software.

I had great expectations that I would finally be able to convert my extensive cassette collection to mp3's but I couldn't get sound through my PC speakers. You need to hear the music to know when to start and stop the conversion. I followed all of the instructions but still couldn't get sound. I emailed Ion twice and I'm still waiting for a response. You have a 30 day period to return items to Amazon and I couldn't wait any longer for tech support that might never come. I returned it to Amazon and now I'm waiting for a refund.

The Ion Tape2PC does an excellent job of copying cassettes to my computers hard drive. Which is the reason why I bought the player. I was expecting a slight degrade in the quality since I am going from analog to digital but so far the recordings sound just like CD's.

This product was very easy to install and learn to use. I have been using it for about a month now and so far it is good to go.

This is a great product, I have nearly completed copying my cassettes to the PC and it works great. One improvement would be if the software allowed you to enter a category for various artists and let you change the artist for tapes that have mixed artists on it. Now, I have to go into the info tab and change each one after the conversion.

Works very well. The standard software is SUPER simple.
The buttons feel a little cheap. Other than that it's great.
One main concern I have is if you also have the ION turntable,
I haven't found a way to have them hooked up at the same time
and I have gotten ZERO response from their customer support. I
have tried more than once and using multiple contact listings and
have yet to even get a response.

Mechanically the Tape2PC works OK and the quality of sound is average but the instructions for recording and playback are seriously lacking. No where does it say you have to disconnect the Ion unit from the PC before playing back recorded music. Nor do the instructions tell you to use the "B" deck only for recording and there is no volume control on the Ion unit...hidden in the pitiful instructions I found that the "Gain" control on the back of the unit could adjust the recording volume to some extent. After you figure all this out on your own it seems simple but it would really save a lot of time and user stress to write clear straight forward directions of how to use the damn thing. Most of the help I received came from reading other users' reviews. As usual though Amazon shipping was prompt, faster than I expected, and it all arrived intact.

Its Horrible.

1) You have to have iTunes installed
2) Its commandeers the audio drivers in Vista
3)YOU have to click to tell the software where the track changes are
4) YOU have to enter the song information

To all those people giving this a 5 star review: If you just want to record a cassette to your PC hook up your walkman to the line-in port. Works just as well.

The software is worthless.

Using it for the first day, so to short to give it a 5 star ranking. But everything works as described in the manuals and together with Audacity this is one powerful combination. The tape deck is not top notch, as you can guess from the pricing, but it shure is good enough for saving old cassette tapes to a digital format. Connecting and using the deck is a no-brainer. Configuring your computer to work with an USB audio device is not very hard (and clearly described in the manual). Using Audacity takes some time and experimenting, but the time spent is certainly worth it. The deck also comes with the much simpler 'EZ Tape Converter' but it doesn't give you the level of functionality and control Audacity offers. Of course you can also use an existing audio casette deck and a 'Y' cable (stereo cinch to micro earphone). But if you are still using your audio cassette deck hooked up to your stereo set (especially if it is in another room) the Ion Tape2PC makes a great dedicated conversion machine.

The ION Tape2PC dual cassette deck is super easy to use. Only one cable to plug in to the computer and you're up and running. Easy, automatic export to iTunes is a great feature. The Gracenote program (which is supposed to "guess" what track you're playing) is hit and miss. Highly recommended for its purpose.

Product was received in quick and timely manner. It arrived in excellent condition. I immediately opened it to see if it works because I was skeptical about it transferring cassettes. It did all it said it would do. I love it. I am in the process of transferring my huge collections of cassett tapes to CD. The only problem I had was I had no control of the separate tracks. I bought a software, Roxio, that seperated the tracks. I invested wisely. Thanks

This item was a great and inexpensive way to convert a collection of old-fashioned cassette tapes to mp3 format. It was very easy to set up and worked like a charm the first time I tried it. If you have the time, it is easy to convert tapes to pc format files. It sure beats going out and trying to find and buy cds to replace the cassettes.

For the longest time, I've been searching for a great program to load on the computer that would allow me to transfer all my old cassette tapes to mp3 files on then transfer them to cds. Everytime I looked into it, the program was costly and cumbersome to use as you still have to find a way to connect the cassette deck to your pc with all these confusing cables etc. When I saw this product, it haunted me and I finally picked it up and lets just say with no effort at all, I've already rid myself of nearly 100 cassette tapes!!! This thing is easy to hook up and most of all user friendly. I think the hardest part was downloading the i-tunes which converts the audio files to mp3's. If you have a ton of tapes lying around the house, pick this sucker up. It's well worth it...and for you people with Albums, get the turntable. I'm sure it's as easy to use!!!

It took me a week to figure out the Ion Tape2PC. The product came with the wrong CD (for PC, not Mac), and virtually NO instructions. I downloaded the EZ Audio Coverter program; it ran, but the resulting files were inaudible. I downloaded the Audacity program, but it was created by Dweebs on Venus; it's absolutely indecipherable. Finally got hold of Tech Support; they walked me through a simple process of telling my OSX iBook how to "hear" sound input through the USB port. (Go to Hard Drive / Applications / Utilities / Audio Midi Setup, choose USB Codec.) Now the EZ Audio Converter runs GREAT; it's so simple, it has only three steps -- impossible to screw up. The sound quality -- even from 30-year-old cassettes -- is fantastic! I've recorded 40 cassettes so far, copying the iTunes files onto CDs. These "data files" play on PCs (& Macs) -- not on old CD players, but reportedly on new ones. This is a great product -- once you get it figured out!

The Ion Tape2PC is just what I've been looking for, to transfer tape info to MP3. Very easy to use. Recommended!

At last an extremely useful tape machine for archiving rare cassette tapes to either iPod or CD-R. The Audacity software, often maligned in some of the other reviews here, is very simple to use, and with excellent results, but requires that you first read the short 'Read Me' text file that accompanies it. This explains some straight-forward stuff that needs to be done, such as setting a 16-bit rate. Once these prelimaries are out of the way, your computer can record easily from the tape deck.
Also, there is a lot of 'how to' info at the Audacity site and Wikipedia too, which should help anyone edit their tapes into clearly delineated, separate tracks for the iPod or CD playback.

It's probably a bit early for a review as I'm still trying to get this thing working. The documentation is pretty bad. For example, it refers to the tape deck as a turntable and really doesn't offer much information. I am getting lots of noise on my recordings and am still working with that. If you have an Apple computer, as I do, you are pretty much on your own as the recording software provided with the machine is not compatible with the Mac OS. Instead, you d/l Audacity. I'd really like to see a well documented device with both turntable and cassette along with custom software. I bought the Ion (both cassette and turntable) because that's all I could find (I don't need something that looks like a 1930s radio). My review is: I guess it's OK; wish there were something better.
jor

I have a Mac with the latest software Leopard which seems to be a problem. I have not been able to make a noise free transfer yet.

Works great. The only drawback is that the software will a cassette into one big, giant CD track unless you physically tell it when to cut the tracks.

had this product for a month and still have not been able to burn a disc with it, have installed the proper software and still nothing..waste of $$