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.

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 moment6) 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.

This tape deck is great to have for a DJ system.It create great tapes so far.

This is a great unit. I've owned/used several tape decks over the years, (They all eventually wear out), but this the best I've owned. Good quality sound, well made and one of the things I like best is that the function keys are easy to see; white on black. I recommend this unit to anyone who needs a new cassette tape deck.

The best of the best.

I bought the Pyle dual deck model PT-659DU. I have a large stash of cassettes from the '70s - '90s which were recorded off the radio and I want to copy them from tape to CDs.The big problem is that the right-side well plays tapes at about 1.5 times the normal speed. In all likelihood this is caused by the cheap Chinese knock-off Mabuchi motors being used. The left well is perfect! Great, clear sound, especially since most of these tapes were originally recorded on Chrome tape.I registered my purchase on Pyle's website. They offer a warrantee which lasts 13 months, so if anything else goes wrong, I can mail it to them for repair or replacement. Happy so far with the left side of the unit which works great!

Not sure who dropped the ball at Pyle, but after receiving the unit I hooked it up to my computer. The PnP (Plug-and-Play) USB output, when plugged into a computer, sends only MONO output. So... all those music cassettes that you want to dub off to digital will sound like crap. I plugged it into both PC and Mac computers and there is no method to have the Pyle send Stereo over USB, only Mono. A workaround it to take the RCA outputs out of the Pyle and bring it through a separate USB stereo interface and then into the computer. Kind of defeats the purpose of buying this thing, no? Can't believe Pyle thought this was acceptable. There is no description or warning of this in any of its descriptions or its instruction pamphlet. Sure it plays cassettes fine, but digitizing stereo tracks is not possible without more hardware.Oh, and the lack of a headphone jack is another oversight.