BTO PlusDeck2 PC Cassette Deck

Manufacturer: PlusDeck
Supplied by: PlusDeck
Street Price: $149

by Dean Barker (3/06/2005)

Introduction

Lot’s of us older geeks have music collections too.  A good bit of them however are on tape and/or vinyl (that’s called a record for you kids.)  Playing older recordings is becoming more and more problematic.  Let me explain; yes, there are record players still around but when was the last time you saw one for sale in BestBuy.  Also, would anyone call me completely crazy if I said that finding a car stereo cassette deck would be equally difficult in five years?  I didn’t think so.  Another example; I’m a big Books on Tape listener because I spend so much time on the road but I also want to listen to CDs when I drive without a couple of eight foot sections of cord from a portable CD player that interfaces through your cassette deck.  I resolved my problem, even though this was an expensive fix, by picking up a dual CD/Cassette player to the tune of $450.  What’s the point of having these recordings if you can’t listen to them?  Oh, for a simpler and less expensive solution! 

Enter the PlusDeck2.  The BTO PlusDeck2 addresses this whole issue by giving users the ability to convert tape to digital format AND vice versa.  Saving audio from tapes to your PC allows you to then burn the recordings to a CD giving you more latitude is where and when you can listen now.  Some of you are asking why can’t you just do this by plugging an audio output right into your PC audio input?  Well, you can do that but the PlusDeck2 makes things much cleaner and simpler, can you say unattended transfer?  Read on to find out.

What you get

The PlusDeck2 package includes the PlusDeck2 unit of course, 20-pin ribbon cable, connection pass through card, serial cable, audio interface cables, mounting hardware, a well laid out manual and installation CD.  Superficially looking at the components, setup looks to be quick and painless.

The unit

The PlusDeck2 unit is the same size as a standard CD-ROM with observed dimensions of 145x40x215mm.  The front bezel is beige with a purplish-blue inlay over the cassette port.  Several controls are present here.  Moving left to right, we find a circular area controlling which side of the tape is being accessed, a stop button as well as a pause.  Next to these is a deck mounted volume control, a record button, fast forward, rewind, headphone jack and mic in.  The large black knob is actually two things, an eject and unit activity indicator. 

     

The unit is powered off of a standard 4-pin Molex as you can see.  The other connection is for a 20-pin ribbon cable that is responsible for transferring data between the unit and your rig via the pass through card shown above.

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