Maxell CD-330 CD-to-Cassette Audio Adapter (190038)

I still haven't updated my car's cassette deck to keep up with the times. I also have an older record/cassette/CD combo player in my house that doesn't have an auxiliary input, so I had to use an audio adapter to make it work. I used to have a Phillips adapter, and it was fantastic. The sound quality was adequate for the task at hand. That one recently broke (the wires became a little finicky, requiring constant pressure to play both channels). ) After that, I resorted to using my back-up plan. RCA made the adapter. That one only had one channel, and the sound quality sounded like it had been filtered. The bass notes weren't quite round, and the treble sounded like it was tuned down a notch. rate. I decided to look for a replacement, but it appeared that many stores had discontinued carrying these small adapters. I suppose it's not worth it to support a dying technology, and an adapter would just take up valuable shelf space. The only place I could find one was at Radio Shack, but they only had one for $20, and I couldn't get a guarantee that it would work with an iPod or even provide the high quality sound that I wanted, knowing full well that it wouldn't be HD quality sound because I was playing it through an adapter on a 15-year-old cassette deck. br>br>Well, after a little searching on Amazon (and other sites), I came across an excellent selection. I was going to stay away from the brands I'd had bad luck with in the past. mediocre experiences I was also wary of the Chinese imports with no brand names that seemed too good to be true. Maxell was there, and I saw him. In terms of cassette technology, this is a well-known name. and noticed that the cost was reasonable. I decided to put it in my shopping cart and try it out. br>br>The item arrived in a timely manner. It didn't appear to be as it appeared in the photo - white with a slight variation in packaging - but with the addition of a new feature - a subwoofer amplifier Okay. That was a unique experience. I handled the adapter after it was taken out of its packaging. It gave the impression of being extremely low-cost. My old ones appeared to be twice as heavy and better built, but I figured they were close to 20 years old, and the market for CD-ROM players had dried up. Adapters for cassettes had most likely evolved significantly. Anyway, I chose a song from my iPod that I knew would sound good on the Phillips adapter but would sound terrible on the RCA and other adapters I had. I put on George Harrison's "Awaiting On You All. " It had Phil Spector's signature "Wall of Sound" and would test the limits of this small adapter. With so much going on in this song, it would be easy to spot a flaw. The song began with crisp and clear guitars and that beautiful deep bass line, and this was before I even pressed the bass boost button! I tried it out on a couple of other songs from the album, like "What If Life" and "Wah Wah," and it worked perfectly. br>br>I experimented with various musical genres - classical music; computerized; rock; hip- hop. They all did a fantastic job. The sound quality was far superior to what I had anticipated and far superior to that of a cassette adapter. My only criticism is that when I used the bass booster, it resulted in an overabundance of bass. It never sounded bad; rather, the music's balance was thrown off, and the bass without the boost was adequate. This adapter is something I would strongly recommend to a friend. While the sound produced by this adapter sounded great at first, I'm not sure if there will be any degradation over time; however, if this one fails, I'll buy another.

Harold MELLOR

| Mar 21, 2021

This cassette adapter was purchased so that I could listen to my iPod Touch in the car. I needed to buy this or an FM transmitter because only newer model cars appear to have a direct line in or USB input. This device's audio quality is superior to FM transmitters, in my opinion. The adapter, however, did not work well right out of the box. It would make my car tape deck alternate between "side 1" and "side 2," eventually ejecting with an error. It would fail to play successfully approximately 80% of the time.

I fixed this with just a simple small (eyeglass or computer) Phillips screwdriver. Remove the 5 screws from the back of the cassette and pry the two sides apart; because it is made of cheap plastic, all of the internal parts will spill out all over the place when you open it. ALL THE PLASTIC PARTS (3-D) WERE REMOVED. There are four gears in total, plus one rubber-coated plastic gear and the sprockets in the two turning holes. You might only need to remove one or a few parts, but since the whole thing comes apart as soon as you open it, I just removed everything. It's now fully functional. The only drawback is that the tape deck in the car makes a slight noise because the wheels are spinning freely and without resistance. However, you won't be able to hear it unless you turn off your music or podcasts, so it's a moot point. br>br>The only part you need is the metal part on the other end of the cable that connects to your ipod or other device; the rest of the internals, I believe, were built with too much resistance, causing my tape deck to believe it has reached the end of the tape and it is time to switch sides. I'm not opposed to making this adjustment for less than $10, but it makes me wonder why it was designed and built so poorly in the first place, and why they added parts that are unnecessary and cause the unit to fail!.

Allen McCoy

| Apr 06, 2021

These are incredibly easy to use devices. Any electronic tinker could cobble one together if they had an old cassette recorder they could cannibalize for a read/write head. Fortunately, the price reflects this, so making one isn't worth the effort. br>br>Unfortunately, the low cost does not allow for extensive quality control. The first one I got kept playing every 30 seconds or so in my car's player. Then it'd play for ten minutes before cutting out during the silence in between tracks. I have no idea how the player's "auto eject" function interacts with the cassette, so I had no idea where to begin trying to fix it. br>br>Amazon was very accommodating in exchanging it for another of the same model, which has been working flawlessly. I only gave it three stars because I had to exchange it. ONE SUGGESTIVE SUGGESTIVE SUGGESTIVE SUGGESTIVE SUGGESTIVE SUGGEST There's a channel the length of the cassette body where you can slide the wire into where it comes out at one corner. If you do this, the connection where the wire enters the cassette body will be protected, allowing the cassette to last longer.

Hayes Schmitt

| Sep 30, 2021

My Honda's CD player doesn't sound as good as this. The sound is fantastic when I connect it to my phone via an equalizer app. My car stereo appears to have been upgraded with a $100 amp/equalizer. Although the overall quality is excellent, the cord could be thicker. The adapter does not make any noise. There's no sound at all. br>I saw a few reviews where people had trouble getting it to work. One of them was a Honda as well. Here's how you go about it. It took me about ten minutes of fiddling to get it to work. It would FF/REVERSE then eject when I put it in, so I finally put it in when the car player was set to CD. I double-checked that the CD was still in the player. I switched to Cassette after the cassette adaper settled in, and it worked fine; it appears that this is the only way to get it to work. br>Maxell has long been known for producing high-quality cassette tapes. This is a high-end adapter. It's something I'd buy again if the opportunity arose. It's been working flawlessly for the past month.

Everly Bridges

| Sep 02, 2021