TEAC W-518R

Rating:
Summary: Not bad...not bad....
Review: But auto-stop would have been nice! It's also the only piece of hi-fi equipment I have without a remote! It's kind of a pain to get up and both STOP the cassette and have to wait around for the end of a rewind or FF to stop it manually when everything ELSE you have can be handled from across the room!

However, I have to commend the excellent separation and hiss suppression of this unit. The signal-to-noise ratio of this value unit must be one of the best in its class! I hear NO hiss whatsoever from tapes as old as the hills, whether regular oxide, metal or chromium, withOUT the Dolby that comes with it on, even! They, in fact, come VERY close to rivalling my CDs for purity of sound. And the dubbing capability...?? It's so weird to have been away from cassettes players for so long, and come back on the market to see that just about EVERY unit has a dual cassette bay design...! When did this start and was demand for such units so large that even BARGAIN units have them? Who knows, all I know is that I have an excellent sounding unit, albeit with a somewhat inconvenient manual operation, that I can copy cassettes with, at high speed yet!

I also might add that this company was one of the gold-standard brands back in the day for reel-to-reel recorders, so it's no surprise that it sounds good. It ought to hold up well, too.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad...not bad....
Review: But auto-stop would have been nice! It's also the only piece of hi-fi equipment I have without a remote! It's kind of a pain to get up and both STOP the cassette and have to wait around for the end of a rewind or FF to stop it manually when everything ELSE you have can be handled from across the room!

However, I have to commend the excellent separation and hiss suppression of this unit. The signal-to-noise ratio of this value unit must be one of the best in its class! I hear NO hiss whatsoever from tapes as old as the hills, whether regular oxide, metal or chromium, withOUT the Dolby that comes with it on, even! They, in fact, come VERY close to rivalling my CDs for purity of sound. And the dubbing capability...?? It's so weird to have been away from cassettes players for so long, and come back on the market to see that just about EVERY unit has a dual cassette bay design...! When did this start and was demand for such units so large that even BARGAIN units have them? Who knows, all I know is that I have an excellent sounding unit, albeit with a somewhat inconvenient manual operation, that I can copy cassettes with, at high speed yet!

I also might add that this company was one of the gold-standard brands back in the day for reel-to-reel recorders, so it's no surprise that it sounds good. It ought to hold up well, too.

Rating:
Summary: Underpowered
Review: The unit just doesn't have the needed features to make it. It does not have an auto-stop for the auto-reverse deck. It does not have the power to drive the longer tapes. I find that many tapes end up with significant wobble as the tape reaches the end.

Rating:
Summary: TEAC W-518
Review: THIS CASSETTE PLAYER IS FLIMSY PLASTIC, THE CONTROLS FEEL LIKE THEY WILL BREAK AT LIGHT PRESSURE. ONLY ONE OF THE DUAL CASSETTES SELF-REVERSES. A CHEAP UNIT. TERRY WILLSON

Rating:
Summary: Lousy Quality, Lousy Customer Service from Teac
Review: Within 30 days after recieving this unit, the "play" button on the left deck stopped working. My wife called the local Authorized Service Center. The Service Center said to bring it on down and they would need the Packing Slip for warranty work. I had my order paperwork, but do not normally save packing slips. The SC advised calling TEAC for warranty work authorization--shouldn't be a problem, they said.

My wife called TEAC Customer Service and spoke to someone named "Sandy". She said they could not authorize service for something bought over the Internet--for all they knew it could be a rebuilt unit. My wife gave her the order number and said J&G Sales would verify it was a new unit. She refused to check.

After much discussion, "Sandy" finally told my wife to send her the paperwork we had and she would "determine if it had any merit".

I became very angry after hearing of the arrogant treatment given my wife and told her not to send TEAC a damn thing. I would rather pay out of my own pocket than deal with them. I told J&G sales and Amazon about my experience. Amazon kindly sent me a discount certificate because of my problems--I will not use it because this was no way their fault. Also, J&G Music/Computer Sales was very helpful and they seemed rather astonished at TEAC's response. J&G sent me a copy of my order invoice to send TEAC.

I thanked them, but did not use the invoice--rational or not, I was mad.

I asked the local Service Center to estimate the repair costs for the unit--that I would pay for it out of my own pocket if it was a reasonable cost to fix. Turned out it was over $90 for parts with the total about $183. The left side deck mechanicsm needed replacement.

I told them to junk it, or keep it for parts if they wished.

I won't be buying any more TEAC equipment of any kind, rest assured. Not even if it's the best around. The customer support is arrogant and unhelpful.