If you need to transcribe tapes for any reason at all you will save yourself hours of time and frustration by using a tape recorder/player intended for transcription - rather than your tape player alone. Panasonic has been making this good machine for more than a few years. To my knowledge it's the best value around.
The foot pedal is essential and easy to use, and allows you to stop, start, and back up your tape without taking your hands off your keyboard. The speaker is good, there is a tone adjustment, and in addition a headset (and this one is comfortable to wear)enables quiet transcribing - and improved intelligibility, because the sound of your keys going a mile a minute won't interfere with your hearing your taped material. Importantly, there is a control lever for tape speed - for "variable speech control," so that you can play your tape a bit slower, or faster (which you sometimes need, too).
There is a mic and a remote jack, andfast forward and fast reverse. A tape counter - your odometer - is helpful.Different little lights glow when you're taping, recording, when the machine is on. This is a straightforward, simple, and gimmickless machine that is very nicely put together. It measures a neat and tidy 8 by 10 inches, and packs up simply and with no fanfare. Indispensible - if you need to transcribe tapes.
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Panasonic RR-830 Desktop Cassette Transcriber / RecorderProduct Description: Transcribe audiotapes with this Panasonic transcriber. The Panasonic RR series is designed for the small office/home office market. The RR-830 uses standard cassette tapes and has V.S.C. pitch (0-+100%) and speed (-15-+100%) controls. It features 4 LED indicators for power, tape run, quick erase and REC 3-digit tape counter.Variable tape speed allows for playback control, with in/out switch and level control. Lightweight headset ensures comfort. 3-position backspace allows you to adjust how far it rewinds when you take your foot off of play: 0, 1 or 3 seconds. Foot controller is included for play, backspace, and rewind functions.
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I ordered this transcriber but ended up returning it.Everything seemed to work well but I couldn't tolerate the noise the tape made during the auto-rewind.This transcriber requires that the play button is engaged in order for the foot pedal to operate.Because of this, as you let off the foot pedal and the tape rewinds just a bit to allow you to catch up, the tape screeches in your ear as it does so.I couldn't concentrate enough to remember what I was typing.Not a good feature.Probably wears tapes down, too, since it is under that stress as it rewinds.