# Cassette To CD: Anything New On The Market? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680 "2012-02-03T20:14:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/1 "2012-02-03T20:14:13Z")
The last time I did this was about 10 years ago with a cassette deck and Roxio and then burned the CD. Very time-consuming. I still have about 50 - 90 minute cassettes from my radio days which I’d like to convert to cd and was wondering what y’all would recommend that’s a bit more current? I’ve seen these stand alone retro turntables which have that function, but wanted to wait to buy it till I heard back from you guys. Thanks Quasi ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/2 "2012-02-03T20:18:49Z")
How much faster could it get? You still need to play the cassette in realtime. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/3 "2012-02-03T20:27:04Z")
No, you wouldn’t. IIRC, the cassette would record faster, but on playback would be normal speed. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/4 "2012-02-03T20:32:40Z")
That’s why I asked about that stand alone thing. If I _have to_ play in real time, at least it would be a self-contained unit. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/5 "2012-02-03T20:36:19Z")
Doubling or tripling the playback speed would require a dedicated Cassette duplication device, which is something that already exists - for a price. Nobody is going to make a high-speed Cassette-CD duplicator these days - there’s not much of a market for such a specialized device. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/6 "2012-02-03T20:36:27Z")
Quick – invent a high speed dubbing cassette-to-mp3 deck! I’D BUY IT… but you wouldn’t sell many… your problem is that your target audience is rapidly approaching the end of their consumer years. (the oxide’s flaking off our acetate all too quickly) ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/7 "2012-02-03T20:44:16Z")
That’s right. Those tapes are easily 20 years old, which is why I’d like to get them on a better medium (although cd’s aren’t immune to deterioration, I know). I’d like the tunes mostly for the car and sometimes here at home. I know how to store them as MP3’s, btw, but I like to check with my Doper friends before I spend a lot of money. Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/8 "2012-02-03T23:21:06Z")
What are you looking to do, **Quasi** , and how much money do you want to spend? Do you want to record cassettes to your computer, or do you want to record them directly onto a CD without using the computer as an intermediary? Here’s a [stand-alone CD recorder](http://www.amazon.com/GF-550-Turntable-Cassette-Radio-Recorder/dp/B0046TSBUW/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_0) that will record from cassettes or vinyl. It’s a bit pricey at $337.98. On the other hand, here’s a [recorder that plugs into a USB port](http://www.cassettetousb.com/?tid=G02) and records onto your hard drive. You can then burn a CD if you desire. It costs about $60. I haven’t used either, so I don’t have any recommendations, but those are a couple of options. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/9 "2012-02-04T00:14:39Z")
The practical answer is “no”. The hardware and software to do what you want to do re accelerated recording of cassettes and decelerated CD burning is way beyond anything you even want to think about paying if it was even still available. Just dump the cassette output to your PC as a sound file then burn at your leisure or listen to them as mp3s on a portable device. Even CDs are kind of retro these days. It’s not like you have to hover over it. Set it to play record while you do other stuff. The cables to do this is are a few dollars. There are also freeware recording programs that will do more than you need. ---
**Author:** ![srzss05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/10 "2012-02-04T13:22:36Z")
> [@astro](#): > > The cables to do this is are a few dollars. There are also freeware recording programs that will do more than you need. There are also reasonably priced “boomboxes” that have a USB output that uses a flash drive recorder and MP3 conversion. But you still have to do it in real time. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/11 "2012-02-04T13:40:44Z")
Real time is okay with me (got nothing _but_ time these days, anyway). Simplicity and decent sound quality are the most important factors. I appreciate it, guys! Q ---
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassette-to-cd-anything-new-on-the-market/611680/12 "2012-02-05T04:19:55Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Quick – invent a high speed dubbing cassette-to-mp3 deck! > > I’D BUY IT… but you wouldn’t sell many… your problem is that your target audience is rapidly approaching the end of their consumer years. > > (the oxide’s flaking off our acetate all too quickly) Are you calling me old? Huh? Ehhh .. get off my lawn, whippersnapper.