Tascam CD-A580 Rackmount Cassette/CD/USB MP3 Player Recorder Combo

Great value! Excellent machine.

Exactly what I needed to enjoy my music collection on Sonos system.

Bought this to replace in my church’s sound system. Those who run it seem to be very pleased.

I have many Tascam units. The most annoying thing with this unit is the display panel. All my other Tascam units are orange and very easy to read from any angle. The CD-A580 has like a white/blue display that you can not read it from any angle. To be able to read the display you must be in front of it. The control panel is a little confusing at first because of the arrangement of the control buttons for the cassette and CD player and USB recorder. You have to look to make sure you are pressing the correct button. It is a little pricey, but it is a Tascam.

I bought this thing to convert old irreplaceable music cassettes to digital for posterity. I don't know why anyone would want to record anything ONTO a cassette these days (especially from a CD), but I guess they have their reasons. The first unit I bought was one of those things that look like the first Walkmans. Absolute useless trash. The next I bought was the ION Tape 2 PC. It was quarter of what the TASCAM cost but it's obvious why. The TASCAM is way more solid, heavier, and better thought out. Everything is higher quality. With the ION, you had to install or download special software and I could never get the thing to "communicate" with my mac so it didn't matter anyway. With the TASCAM, that isn't even an issue. You stick a flash drive in, put in your cassette, touch the USB button and hit play. The result? Songs on the flash drive that I can THEN bring into any computer and edit, manipulate, email, post online, whatever. Before I returned it, the ION was having other issues and I was afraid it would eventually eat and destroy a tape. Not so with this. Also, any customer support was just non-existent from ION (I tried). I think if I have any trouble with the TASCAM, I should be able to get some help. SO- yeah, it's expensive, but if you want to archive your old cassettes with ease and without worrying about them in the process, this one is totally worth it.

I purchased this unit for the cassette deck play-back capability which works fine in every way. Cassettes that I recorded on my previous cassette deck (TEAC CX-210) still sound pretty darn good on the CD--A580. I'm persnickety about quality and being able to regenerate the sounds with all of the flaws that go with the old cassette recording-while not introducing new issues or flaws. No new issues at all. The soft touch logic drive works as good as any high-end tape deck from the 80's. No issues with PLAY, FF or RW of 90 minute cassettes. Cost is a bit steep but I was shopping for a quality cassette deck that was new and in-the-box. Some notes of which I did know before I purchased but thought I'd mention (since you've read this far...): No auto-reverse, USB only records 128k bps, no digital output capability like optical or coax. It does have auto-stop. It does have a head-phone output with volume control (attenuation only). Have not used the CD yet. Have not recorded cassettes yet. Playback has been stable with cheap (low quality) and high quality cassettes. Check out the TEAC or TASCAM website for the operating manual.

I have been using it for a couple of months now. It appears to be quality made. I use it so far to record my old cassettes music to USB so I can transfer to my computer and onto IPhone. I haven’t used the CD disk player as I have a old Sony 5 disk still working. It appears to have a safety shutdown feature on the cassette desk. I was recording a old music tape to USB and the cassette deck suddenly stopped. On inspection I saw the cassette tape had torn and I was able to get it out off the tape cassette heads without damaging them. Here are the two feature where I could see need for improvement: 1) The 3 and 3/4 by 1 inch window monitor has in my opinion poor digital graphics. It’s kind of “ old school” and you have to be looking at it at a straight ahead position to be able to see what’s displayed. 2) The view window in the cassette deck is NOT illuminated so if you want to see what’s happening during recording, for example, you have to shine a flashlight through the view window. Why they couldn’t have put a low watt led light in there I don’t know? 3) A price range of about $350.00 would in my opinion make this worth the price as I think it’s current price is a little expensive.

I am a singer, and I have a lot of old cassette tapes of accompaniment tracks that I have used for years in churches, etc. Most churches no longer have cassette players, since everything has gone digital. Unfortunately, most of those old cassette accompaniment tracks are no longer available, let alone in digital format. So, I needed to transfer those old tapes into mp3's. I have always loved the quality of Tascam products. This is no exception. I bought the Tascam A-580, and I'm glad I made the choice. Everything about this machine shines of high quality construction. It is made to last, and based on the Tascam equipment I purchased years ago (early 1990's) that are still running strong, I have no doubt this one will last, too! The only downside is that this seems a little pricey for a cassette/CD/mp3 player/recorder. But, if it lasts as long as the others I bought, I won't complain.