This weekend, I discovered the fun fact that buying a decent portable tape player (even in Japan) is a rather challenging task. I went to the world-famous WALTZ tape store in Naka-Meguro, Akihabara, BIC Camera, and a slew of used music equipment stores
The only machines I could find were:
Overpriced
Fugly
Broken or Partially working
Really low quality
I just can't bring myself to pay 3500円 ($30) for this garbage because then I will be stuck with it after I'm done and I have a decent collection of tapes that I want to continue using the portable tape player for. I'm going to keep on scouring online via Yahoo! auctions until I find what I'm looking for... I have a nice $1500 Fireface UCX audio interface to convert this into .WAV once I find a decent tape machine.
Why can't I just buy a cheap, vintage Cassette Boy?