Does anyone on this subforum has a cassette deck like this one?
http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics...nversion/9778/

I have several old tapes I want to convert into MP3 to prevent further magnetic deterioration. Most places that offer such service usually charge outrageous money for that. I was going to do it myself but I cannot justify buying a $120 unit just for a one-time project. I was thinking if I could borrow such device from somebody for a reasonable fee...

Any recommendation will be appreciated

 

Or maybe I could borrow a decent tape deck and use my laptop/desktop built-in sound card to perform analog-to-digital conversion?

 

Or just download the music online and throw them tapes away.. The sound quality will be shiet imo... I still have tapes I think...or I may have thrown them all away when I found TORRENTS.. dont pay $$...I couldnt do it..

 

The stuff that I wan to preserve cannot be found on torrents... Some of it is a big rarity, and some of it is a family archive of conversations from 70's

 

^^^I understand.. Some music you just cant find online which is the OLDER stuff sad to say..

GL on your search...I hope someone comes up with such a device.. because I dont know anyone that has tapes anymore.. would be cool though...

 

I think that device would be the easiest way. Otherwise you could play the tapes and get software such as 1AVCapture to convert the media to a digital file as you mentioned before.

 

I found somebody who can let me borrow his decent Yamaha deck. Now I hope that the tapes have not deteriorated too much, and my sound card has a decent ADC in it.