Coby CA-747 Dual Position CD/MD/MP3 Cassette Adapter
by Coby
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List Price: Our Price: $2.04 You Save: $12.95 (86%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Coby CA-747 Dual Position CD/MD/MP3 Cassette Adapter
Customer Review: Decided to tinker, now buying another
Summary: 4 Stars
I carefully read all the reviews before buying this product. I liked that people had taken it apart to make it work better in their stereos (and that it was CHEAP!). So I did try it out first in my car stereo (Subaru 02 factory), and it worked pretty good, actually it worked great. The only drawback was that I could hear the cogs spinning, epecially on really quiet songs. I thought to myself, "I can fix that." So I proceeded to take it apart.
Hint #1: Most of the screws holding the cassette together are on one side, but don't miss the two on the other side. Because I did. I believe it was the ultimate reason for my failure. What happened was that I wasn't able to get the sides completely seperated (surprise!), which foiled my plan of seeing where everything belonged before I began dissassembling. Several things fell out immediately, including two springs. I decided to just go for it and take out ALL the gears, THAT would take care of that gear noise. Which leads me to:
Hint #2: The gears in the middle (that would turn the tape if there were tape in the cassette) are there for a reason. When I put the gearless cassette in my stereo, there was nothing for the stereo to engage so it just spit it right back out. Fortunately for me, it was at this point that I discovered the two screws I had overlooked, so putting things back together was a lot easier. I put all the gears back in (this part was relatively easy, even though I hadn't exactly seen where they had all come from). I decided to leave out the gear that was the offensive gear in the auto-reverse posts.
Hint #3: The auto-reverse gear that people are referring to is (I think) the one gear that you have to unscrew a screw to remove. I am not 100% sure on this as I wasn't really having that problem in the first place and wasn't ever able to get the damn thing to work again, but if for some reason I decided to go through this mess again that's what I would start with.
As I'm sure you have gathered, my cassette is still non-functional. I finally put everything back in, with the exception of those two springs, and I really think I got all the parts back in the right spots. But it did work, at least until I messed with it, and after looking at the Phillips, I have decided that the rock-bottom price makes the gear noise liveable. So hopefully I can keep my hands off the next one. Oh, and if anyone can tell me where those two springs go, I would really appreciate it.
Customer Review: My Ipod sounds Perfect in My Car!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
The road I traveled to find a quality device to play my Ipod mini through my car was a long and dangerous one. My first car did not have a cassette deck, so I bought an Itrip for my ipod. It was cool to wirelessly transmit my music to an FM station...for maybe the first month or so. I live in Long Island, NY, and I quickly realized how often I had to change stations for the Itrip to work effectively. After a while there was always static, and the device was literally falling part. Chances were I was going to get into an accident while trying to get music to play while driving!
With my new car, I took advantage of the cassette deck and tried out this product by Coby, and I have no regrets! Its inexpensive, easy to lock and load, and I was was so impressed by the clear sound quality that my Ipod plays through the deck! There is no static and no deficiencies in the quality. I have owned this product for about 1 month so far. Other reviews of cassette products write that the cassette is noisy while it spins. I must say that this Coby deck is NEARLY SILENT. Other great features about this product is the ease at which you can play it in both front and side loading cassette decks, and the fact that the 4 foot cable that connects to the Ipod is both generous in length, but also coiled so that it does not get in the way! Like I said, at first I thought wireless was the way to go, but honestly, the coil is no hassle at all...and I kinda like that I can just place my Ipod on the passenger seat next to me and know that it is not going to go anywhere.
In conclusion, this product is a bargain, and gives me high-quality sound for my Ipod-mini in my car!
Customer Review: Good for listening to an iPod in your car
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this as a gift for my boyfriend. He has a first generation iPod touch and I wanted him to be able to listen to it on car journeys. I looked at a lot of different products but came up with a lot of problems - not compatible with the touch, cigarette lighter plugins that are too bulky, FM transmitters that won't stay tuned it, poor quality products that break quickly.
Finally I decided to go with the tape converter. There is no hassle with tuning, you just insert the tape, plug in the iPod and it's ready to go. As for noise, it doesn't hiss or tune out like FM transmitters I have used, though there is a quiet but audible clicking noise if you have the music on at a low volume.
I haven't had any problems with it turning over etc as others have described. At first we had an issue with the tape deck ejecting it constantly, however we finally pushed it in more firmly and it stayed. I don't know if the problem was the tape or the tape deck, but since we pushed it in fully we haven't had any problems.
The sound quality is very good, not as crisp as a CD of course, but way better than FM transmitters. It plugs in directly to the headphone jack, so it will work for all kinds of mp3 player and iPods. So far we have used this tape for dozens of hours and it has been easy to use, reliable, and very enjoyable.
I would recommend this product for anyone with a tape deck in their car. It is great value and works better than any other product I have tried for listening to an iPod in the car.
Customer Review: Great, and Easy to mod if your tape deck is auto-reverse
Summary: 4 Stars
I was using an FM modulator, but didn't like that with my iPhone, it would create feedback in the car speakers, so I decided to switch over to a cassette adapter. This one works fantastic for the price. Sound quality is fine, about what you would expect from a cassette tape. The cord can be adjusted to travel from the adapter horizontally or vertically, which is great depending on your tape deck.
The only negative I found was that after a few weeks of use, it stopped working properly. My car's tape deck is an auto-reverse deck, and I have no idea why it worked perfectly for weeks, then shut down on me and stopped, but if you look at J Cristofferson's review, there are tons of comments on how to fix this. I used these instructions to open the cassette (Carefully, lifting the two screw side so as not to lose all the pieces), and removed the tape reverse assembly. Then, as stated in that review, remove the metal screw that holds in the white gear without the black band around it, putting the screw and spring back on without that single gear. Put everyhting back together, and like magic, the cassette works perfectly now, even in my auto-reverse deck.
I only wish that it came designed to do this without modifying it, but trust me, opening up the tape and fixing this is so simple. Takes about 5 minutes, and I have no experience with this kind of thing whatsoever, so if I can do it, you can do it!
Customer Review: Excellent Product
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent product. I have been using it to connect my portable MP3 player to my car audio system. I have been using it daily for over a month and it work EXACTLY as it should. The sound is truely excellent and indistinguishable in quality from my car radio or CD player. The construction quality also seems to be excellent.
One thing I especially like is the coiled cord. I had used a similar product some years ago and the long connecting cord was always an inconvenience - it would hang down and get in the way during use. When you wanted to store the item in the glove box, it would just add to the clutter. With this product the cord stays neatly coiled and out of the way - it does not clutter the dashboard or floor area and is easy to store.
One thing to keep in mind when using any product like this - some (but not all) car tape players have a "skip" mode. When a tape player's "skip" mode is active, it listens for silent portions of the tape. If it is detects any silence for more than a few seconds, it will automatically go into fast forward until it "hears" sound again. If your tape player has a "skip" mode, be sure to cancel this mode - i.e., put the player in "normal" play mode. Otherwise, you will find the tape player trying to "fast forward" over any silent portions of your audio feed.
I would highly recommend this product.