Low wow 0.07%, very clean play back, advance controls are excellent, Control A1 link for other Sony gear, better looks than newer 635 model, price

Too nosiy when switch sides/functions, no stand by power - manual power switching (what a bummer!!!)

I've used this player close to a month now, paid $149+shipping through Crutchfield. Initially I was not inclined to buy a tape player but finally looked at the price and the ugly looks of the newer model motivated me to buy this puppy.

Plays very nice. S/N and Freq. ranges are very reasonable. I have not tested recording feature, but I am quite sure it would be nice as well. You can even program the tracks that you want to play!!! records on both tape wells.

I have the following items linked:

Sony STR-DB930 (one of the best receiver for under $500)
Sony CDP-CX300 (another good buy)
DCM KX-12 series 2 speakers (also a good buy for loud music lovers)

This setup works very nice for me. The remote that came with my receiver handles the tape deck very well.

Very good sound

the deck is a little loud when you change sides

This a very good tape deck for the price I love it! I think I paid $130 for it at the Wiz but it has been so long ago this would make a good starter but anyway so far nothing has gone wrong with it. Does not eat tapes up that I know of try it one day and you will love it!

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Sony

For 200 bucks this thing's a steal!!! I bought it mostly for making car tapes since recordable cds are getting affordable. So I wasn't looking for serious sound quality or dolby s or anything like that. I was surprised by the sound quality though. It's slightly on the mellow side, rolled off highs and such. But it seems to be a good thing in a lower priced tape deck. Flaws don't show, prerecorded tapes even sound pretty good. Features?...Just about everything imaginable!!! Dolby B and C, both wells record, both wells have music search, automatic tape bias calibration, automatic recording level. I didn't think I was going to like the auto record level because I'm picky about getting it right (getting the gain wrong messes up the tonal balance of the recording), but it does just as good a job as I can by ear. Quality seems good so far (had it several months now). Great deck for pushing the record button and getting a tape that sounds like you put some effort into it!!! I think the sound quality and features of this cassette deck are easily worth $200.00 so I'm giving it the highest rating of 5 stars for being a product that does everything it's supposed to do quite well.

I bought this today with the intention of having a convenient way to tape a couple of favortie radio programs without having to switch tapes, copy audiobooks, and create tapes for rental cars that have tape deck only. I didn't expect much - in fact I half expected to be so disgusted that I would return the deck the next day. I agree with the above reviewer - this deck is a good deal. I bought it at Sears on closeout for about 1/3 off the normal $200. I taped a couple of selections (CD - reflective acoustic instrumentals that I thought might show some wow/flutter) to this deck (without Dolby) and my Sony JES520 minidisk deck and compared the results. My conclusion: I could hear some tape hiss (but not much - subtle white noise) which of course was not present on the minidisk recording. But I didn't hear any wow/flutter, which amazed me after having heard a couple of really bad Sony cassette decks in the past. The tape didn't have quite the frequency range of the minidisk recording, but was very listenable - the previous reviewers adjective "mellow" seems appropriate. I bought it for features and I've spent only about an hour with it, but from what I have heard thus far this unit is a keeper; its sound quality is excellent for a tape deck in this price range.

One-touch dubbing, calibration to a specific tape, easy track search feature

Counter doesn't display MM:SS, no pitch control, no Dolby S

I'm not thrilled with it, but it did what I needed it to: dubbed bootleg tapes from one Maxell XL-II to another. Just pop both tapes in and hit the dub button and you're golden. However, if you have it set to play both sides it won't wait until both tapes have finished side 1, so I prefer to keep it on manual side-flip.

Weaknesses? I used to use a TC-805, and it blew this thing out of the water. An integrated pitch control (that worked on one well only, so I could pitch-correct while dubbing) and a counter that displayed in actual minutes and seconds rather than the arbitrary counter on the TC-625 made it well worth the extra $50 or so. My advice is to shell out the few more dollars for the latest incarnation of that model (835?) and skip this one.

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Sony TC-805, a bunch of ancient Technics decks, a top of the line Fisher from 20 years ago