Pyle Dual Stereo Cassette Tape Deck - Clear Audio Double Player Recorder System w/ MP3 Music Converter, RCA for Recording, Dubbing, USB, Retro Design - For Standard / CrO2 Tapes, Home Use - PT659DU

PYLE PT-659DU cassette deck review. Love it so far, played 6 old cassette tapes and it works perfectly. My sound is great, but I’m sure this depends on what you’re amplifying it with and your speakers. My system is a secondary system in my workout room. I’m using a Sony receiver and Klipsch bookshelf speakers and it sounds rich. Love the CrO2 ability, makes my old Maxell recorded tapes (some 30+ years old) sound great. I wasn’t sure how 30 year old tapes might sound but they’ve aged very well. I had to return the first one I bought, it failed at power up? Amazon sent a replacement in two days and all is good. The new unit rocks my old tapes and now I have to save up to buy high bias blank tapes. (Wow! the price of blank high bias tapes has exploded) Overall I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another PYLE unit, it sounds very good for a $200 deck.

I bought this new tape deck because I was tired of having problems with various vintage decks I bought used. Pyle does not have the best reputation but there just aren't many companies still making tape decks in 2025. The only real knock I have on this tape deck is the buttons feel a bit cheap. They kind of flex a bit when you press down. Otherwise it seems fairly well-built. The ability to record type II tapes is a big plus. It records tapes just fine. Playback sounds as it should.

works well and looks very nice with it being a cheaper model i am impressed at the quality of this cassette playe3r

I gave this thing the benefit of the doubt. I read through all the other reviews and thought "one offs? "not my unit!" but I should have headed the warnings because everything that has been said about this has come to fruition. My 28 year old Sony dual boy finally went the way of the buffalo and I did not want to spend up for a Tascam or Teac but my hobby of dubbing live shows back to cassette has been consuming me and I needed a deck - I bought this particular one. I will just fire off all the negative aspects of this because the only positive really, really, is that it can play a tape - that is it. I have been trouble shooting for the last 2 days, swapping tapes, swapping wires, cleaning the unit, the unit is already dead. So here are the cons - the biggest - IT HAS CEASED RECORDING PROPERLY (static rumbles to no sound) AFTER 2 weeks - I got less than 14 full days with it - I am throwing it out this afternoon, will probably sledged it actually - junk box. 1) it's cheaply made with thin plastic; I believe I could shot-put it about 25 yds it is so light. 2) There is no auto reverse - this should be a basic function on a modern tape deck that cost 200 dollars. 3) You cannot hear what you are recording if you have an external input plugged in - so you are kind of flying blind, also, sometimes it is just nice to listen to what you are taping from the source. Even the near 30 year old tape deck allowed for this as well as auto reverse. Pyle basically is just ripping people off with this junk, I would put it in the should cost 35 dollar range. 4) Massive amounts of air/tape noise with every recording, joke levels - again, I am comparing it to a 30 year old object that worked up until 2 weeks ago amidst a huge taping project. How has the technology regressed this far? 5) Tape frequently get jammed and you feel like you could break the deck face at any moment 6) The audio meter when recording (blind) from an external source reads at certain levels - upon playback they are hotter and this difference can cause a lot of annoying trouble shooting to get it right. I would say avoid this at all costs - it is not worth it - go to thrift or vintage shops and getting an older model if you don't want to make the price jump to the big leagues, you will regret it - I am an avid music collector and listener as well as a musician, please take my humble word on it - I now regret it.

I am so happy with this product. It works great , priced right , stylish looking. My old sony duel cassette deck , died.. I have a lot of old cassette music , I was afraid they were gone forever . Luckily I found this one on amazon , plus 2 others . I choose this one for the name , and looks.+ options. I'm glad I did. this does so much more than my old sony. it also looks more stylish. the reset counter lights up digally. the sound is great !! easy to use. very happy ! tim Oshea

Plays nice

I bought this deck with a couple of purposes in mind, namely to copy my aging tapes to new tapes and create mix tapes from mp3's. I had no intention of transferring my tapes to my computer since all the songs were already available as digital downloads online, and besides I my old tapes were all recorded on normal tapes and were only of passable quality to start with. This deck offered me all the options I needed for a very reasonable price. I do not claim to be an expert audiophile, just your average music listener. I hooked up my phone to the Line-in inputs on the back and played back songs from my mp3 collection which I recorded on tape using Chrome good quality new tapes. This deck supports playback and recording of chrome tapes, so that was great. One has to be very careful with the sound recording level, which can be adjusted using a rotary knob on the front because it's easy to overload the inputs with resulting severe distortion of the recorded sound. In the end, I had a mixed tape of some of my favorite music, something I had not done in probably over 25 years! Geeky fun :) A few things to note: The deck is cheaply made and it shows, but it works as it should. There is no auto-reverse which is annoying but one can learn to live without it. There is no Dolby noise reduction built in, but that did not seem to noticeably detract from the quality of the recorded sound. There is no headphone jack, which is an unusual oversight, so I had to hook up a headphones amp to the Line-out jacks. I also used powered speakers with no issues. Finally, you cannot hear the input sound while it is being recorded, again a minor annoyance. So in the end, despite the above mentioned shortcomings, I am pretty happy with this deck, at least for my particular needs. I did not try the USB transfer option, so I can't speak to that.

I've been collecting music since I was 15. I am now 70.I have thrown out nothing. Needless to say, I have over a thousand items in my collection. Cassettes the bulk of the collection. Heartbroken when Cassette decks left the cars, decks for home use are rare . Imagine my dismay when my top of the line Sony died. Dusting off Cassettes, I couldn't play. Pyle to the rescue. Hearing my music again. This deck is everything I need to hear those 70/ 80 sounds again. This is a very basic deck, no bells or whistles. IT PLAYS MY CASSETTES on my home component stereo system. That's all I need. You can use this to convert the Cassettes, but I am a purest. It can record, but that was not my purpose for purchasing. It looks good, sounds good, and has me dancing to the tunes of my youth. Reasonably Priced, built like the original decks of the 70's. Highly recommended if you still have Cassettes and want to hear them again. Thank you Pyle.