Sony TCM-210DV Standard Cassette Voice Recorder (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I bought this for my wife who is technology adverse. We previously had a digital recorder that she found complicated and difficult to use and finally it failed. This one is easy to use and does the job. Sound quality is OK considering it has a tiny little speaker. If better sound is desired, one can use earbuds/phones. Battery life seems reasonable. This is great for people who want a simple, reliable and easy to use compact recorder.

received this product in sealed plastic package that seemed to have been immersed in sea water.The cassette mechanism was internally corroded. The charger didn't work and the instruction manual was verydiscolored from dried out water. Too bad. This was an excellent Sony product in its day.

I found this a very useful tool. It is easy to use, has good sensitivity, has an internal speaker that has plenty of volume, and is small enough to easily fit in a jacket pocket. The pause button that allows momentarily stopping playback is also useful. Someone in a previous review said it was difficult to load cassettes. I conclude that they just didn't know how to do it. You just drop the cassette into the door with the proper orientation and close the door. One thing I would prefer is to have the view window in the door show the takeup reel of the cassette. At the beginning that reel moves at a faster rate and it is thus easier to confirm that the tape transport is running. Speech is recorded with good consonants making it easier to understand (My hearing is severely impaired). I can't make any judgement as to the quality of music because I have to use fully programable digital hearing aids that alter the spectrum. As a result, what I hear is not what others would hear.

Sony TCM-210 DV Standard Cassette Voice Recorder has everything you need forrecording quickly with excellent sound quality during playback. What I like mostabout this recorder is the speed control which has a very wide range, [slow-fast.]They also added a switch that will play the tape at a crawl (if you don't havehave another cassette) so you can double the recording time, or say you want toslow the tape even more after the speed control is down all the way, this featureworks incredibly well. You won't need batteries. Sony supplies an adapter, you getmuch more consistant and even power from the wall vs. batteries. Consideringthe quality, all the features, reliability, and the adapter, you are gettingfar more than what it currently retails for. Sony continues to stay ahead in technology.It is very lightweight. (I wasn't expecting it to be so light,I really thought it was goingto be cheap.) When I used it for the first time I couldn't get over the quality. It's verydurable,and does an incredible job of recording for a hand held unit. Thank-you Sony!!!

Not much experience with the thing, but it's working perfectly so far as a playback device for some interview tapes. It's plastic, light, cheap-feeling but not excessively so. I have lots of experience with Sony products working for awhile then dying. Fingers crossed this won't be one of those. I'd hope by now they'd know how to make a reliable cassette machine! (But I know better.)For the price, the feature-set is good with speed control and an option to double the recording time, presumably by cutting tape speed in half.This is no music recorder, but it's doing well with voice and the tape-handling is okay so far... no eaten tapes! Not a mission-critical machine. For that you'd want a digital recorder anyway. I got this only to access legacy cassettes.Again, for the price, it's a solid device.

I am very disappointed with this product. I bought it because I have 2 tapes of my family history and no other way to play them. Although the product is easy to use, the clarity on the playback is very poor. I can barely hear the audio even at its loudest volume, yet it comes through loud and clear on the 12 year old tape deck in my car. I guess I'll have to sit in the driveway to hear about my family. Even though Sony touts this as "Clear Voice" I beg to differ. Think twice before you buy this product!

I bought this from Amazon on October 23, 2013 to replace one like it that I had for years. I had confidence in a Sony product. Unfortunately this one lasted only until February 2015. First the microphone didn't work. So I used an exterior microphone to record my chorus practices. Then tapes started breaking and ruined recordings. Lastly, it played back previously recorded music with a "chipmunk" sound regardless of the adjustments I made to correct it. I'll buy one more, because my digital recorder will not let me reverse and I need to do this to practice my chorus music. When this one stops working, I'll spend no more money to replae this model. While it worked I liked it. Now I resent having to buy another product after such a short period of time. Too bad electronics are not built with parts to last like they once did.

Really good quality for modest price, as long as you're still using cassettes for recording. All the controls you need for speed, rewind, finding your place. Very sturdy construction and lasts fairly long on one set of batteries.If you have a lot of old cassettes around that you need to play, this is a good buy. If you are still recording, spend the money to get the best quality cassettes, because the sound is pretty good.