TEAC AD-800 CD Player and Cassette with USB Codec (Black)

• Supports CD-R/RW and MP3 Disc
• Auto Reverse Cassette Deck (Rec/Play)
• MP3 Recording from CD/Cassette/AUX
• MP3 Playback from USB Memory Device
• Remote Control

The TEAC AD-800 allows you to record audio from the tape deck onto a connected USB flash drive in MP3 format. From there, connect the flash drive to your computer and either save the MP3 file to a music folder on your computer, or write the MP3 files from the flash drive to a CD (using your computer).

While this device does NOT write the audio tape directly to the CD, it's a fairly trivial step to perform that function by writing the recorded music from the flash drive to the CD using your computer. Just be sure that you are translating the MP3 files into standard CDA audio files when you write the CD. Your software should, at some point, ask if you are creating an audio cd just say yes.

You can download a manual for the AD-800 at teac~com/resources/pdf/ad-800/AD-800-EFS-C.pdf. That might help you decide. (Substitute a period or dot for the ~) Or just google for AD-800-EFS-C.pdf.

Page 28 of this manual specifies the USB/MP3 recording specs as having a bit rate of 128kpbs, but no sampling rate is specified.

This Teac deck cannot write to USB flash memory unless it's formatted in FAT. NTFS and HFS will not work. Most USB flash drives are sold preformatted in FAT32, but you may want to double-check that if your flash drive seems to not work with this Teac. If the flash drive is NTFS you'll have to reformat the USB stick in your computer, choosing FAT format.

Buy TEAC AD-800 CD Player and Cassette with USB Codec (Black) Now

A couple of absolutes: (1)Conversion to MP3 will result in significant loss of audio fidelity, but it's a loss most people can live with and, perhaps, don't hear. (2)A minority of computer users have the hardware/software knowledge to convert their cassettes and LPs to a digital format which will allow them to listen to this music on their MP3 players. Analog to digital conversion may be simple for some, but for most people, their analog music library is lost when their analog playback machines cease to function.

The Teac AD-800 is not a do all, be all for everyone wishing to convert their analog library to digital media. What it does do, however, is provide a very simple process of moving analog information recorded on cassette to a USB flash drive in MP3 format. Once in MP3 format, the digital media can be easily moved to a computer hard drive, cd, cd-r, MP3 player, etc. It is important to note that there will be audio quality lost as the full spectrum uncompressed audio is moved from the analog cassette to the flash drive in MP3 format. For most listeners, the change is imperceptible and acceptable.

Because there also is the MP3 Codec from the CD and the Aux input, you can also convert CDs and vinyl to MP3 via the USB port and a flash drive. Yes, some procedures are very slow and a pain, when compared to copying digital files directly to digital files. Dubbing analog audio is in real time.

My purchasing confession. I scouted this machine for several weeks before buying one. One of Amazon's "More Buying Choice" vendors, at their website, is offering this deck at $30.00 less than it's shown on the Amazon site from that vendor.

I made this purchase because my pro model Tascam deck, after 25 years of use, died. I have some cassettes that deserve being heard. Also, I like the ability to use the Aux to MP3 codec to convert the audio from HD televised concerts directly to MP3.

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I purchased this item because two of the three Amazon reviewers indicated the unit could copy from Cassette to CD. HUH? This is completely NOT true. I have no idea what these reviewers are doing, or how they are doing it, but on its own, this unit does NOT record from cassette to CD. This information can be verified by going to the manufacturers web-site, and checking the customer reviews there. In the end, I am in the process of returning the unit, since I purchased it solely to transfer my cassette tapes to CD. And we all know what "returns," means...a lot of waiting around for products to get back to their point of origin, sellers to notify Amazon of the return, processing credit card refunds, etc. In all fairness to TEAC, I'm sure that this product is otherwise fine. And the selling company is very good about returns, as is Amazon. So everything will eventually be fine. But returning products IS a bit of a hassle, and I will be very careful when making decisions based on customer reviews from now on.

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I am a "Senior Citizen" of the female variety and not at all an audiophile, but I hooked this guy up to an old amp I inherited when my father died and got it working perfectly on the first try! My old cassette tapes sound wonderful, and the documentation is very good, which is half the battle. Fear not to tread...

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This was a recent purchase and the TEAC AD-800 has proved to be an excellent deck. The controls are clear and easy to use. The sound quality from the cassette and CD is excellent. The USB port is on the front face for easy access. I found it very easy to store music from cassette onto a USB storage device for transfer to my laptop. To me, TEAC has a good reputation for quality, so I anticipate long life out of this unit.