Silvercrest SKD 1000A3 casete converter presentation

This is a  cassette player and converter  that just passed  my hands and returned back to the shop  bought it Lidl at a price of 22.5 euros ....

As you know  Lidl chain of supermarkets  every week  they offer news series  of products that are recycled  every half a year. Same happens to this nice and tiny cassette converter . Hoping that this small gadget could fulfill my interests in converting several cassettes  I bought it with  the hope that it could fulfill my interests : including a internal memory so that  recording  could be off computer . It was  a specification  not noticed in the box , so it was  the only reason  i boght to check into the users guide

Anyway i made a  very short check  very carefully  without opening any plastic paking in case i cold return it back.

Just opening its box the  following items were included:

A guide (easily unpacked from its wraper )  , the player , a USB cable , earphones  two batteries and a CD called Audiolava  that  is the  real time  converter

Unfortunately  no information was available for  internal  memory ! that means the  converter can only  convert on trhe fly with  computer via the USB ... Gosh  , it was  not my intention ... so is the reason to return it back...

The casete player can be easily removed from its foam wrapper  by carefully detaching the scotch tape

This is the picture of the  player with the cover closed .....

and  here witrh the cover open!

and here with a  tape for minimal test

Here are all the playback control buttons . ON top are the  direction button , playback , FF (fast forward), REW  rewind , the playback button and the  stop button

and aboveare the controls  for volume , USB   earphone and eject

and here is  how compares with  my Aiwa  tape player

For the sake of the  review i did a  very short  audio test by installing  two batteries from my collection and  used a company tape  (original commercial  recording  )

The SKD  required  at least two times press PLAY  so that it can start play . Otherwise ti seemed  as 'dead'!

Sound: sound is great ! (used  the Sennheiser  earphones  for the best possible audio ) and compares with the also great audio  from Aiwa with little more higher tones.

As Aiwa is quite old (13 years after  the purchase) that possibly means that the  speed is somehow  slower than the nominal. Checking the  speed pf Silvercrest over Aiwa , foe at about one 'hash' over (Mi note shifts  to Fa  in silvercrest )

While changing  direction on Silvercrest and  changing tape,  the direction  remains the same . That means  if the   tape is played in the  reverse (the B side  while the normal side is in A )and you change the tape  , the  tape is played on the reverse  side !

Maximum volume is relatively  low. compared  to Aiwa's  at least 25 db !  Its sound is still comfortable  with the Sennheiser   earphones

If  the player  had an internal  memory  i could keep it . Otherwise  it is very good  though with relativity  low though  sufficient volume.

AIWA JX704 cassete recorder player!

AIWA JX704 cassette recorder player!

One of the oldest here gadgets!!We have bought this very nice designed model 12 years ago , whern tripping in Singapore. The main reason was to use two cassette players in order to record as much as possible from the  Singaporean radio waves.It was similar  to what i did on 89 when i recorded with another i think bought again there cassette recorder


And this is possibly the only gadget protected in its cover box :

as noticed in the picture  this radio includes: (with short comments  inside )

• AM (ie MW ) and FM tuner  with PLL synthesis. [the tuning is made with two very small buttons on the left of the player just left of the mini display ]
• reverse recording. [indeed  it does it ! ]
• remote control .[it uses a  provided cable with a handy remote control system tere will be a photo of it ]
• 30 stations preset [via  3 banks . the system car audio uses ]
• super bass . [from the LCd display controls ]
• auto reverse playback [yes , that was something used in most models of the time ]
• 25 hours of operation ,using alkaline batteries  !!

Here is a picture of the left part of this player . You see how small are the tuning controls . At trhe left 'bottom' there is a mains plug with 3 V. This plug is too thin. Is compatible with Nokia plugs though it requires  3 V to operate .Just look that this player in not so thick as other older models and it ca 4 cm.

Here is the opposite  side. Volume control, an operation   LED  (able to show battery level a bit ) , an oscillator (for trashing out the whistles  carriers  while recording )a microphone  input and earphones

and here is a belt base , though of plastic  design.  fore this reason I do not trust it.

and here is a photo of the remote control . Just look at the  format of the plug: all controls are amde with the third pin :

and hre is a picture of the remote control :

• On the base of the triangle there are two grey buttons :the FF (fast forward) and the REW (rewind ie fast backwards ) that act also as preset memory changers> The middle button (with the blue colour) is used to reverse the  cassete direction and stop the radio
• the small button near the edge is to start  radio  or change the radio band
• quite  sophisticated system, huh?

adn here is the side view of the control :

This is the attenuator (ie volume control that attenuates from the maximum levels ) and a  switch tht locks  the player

and this is the stereo microphone that connects  to thee player via the mic plug . it is a  dynamic lapel microphone

Here is a description of the front view

Left  button starts  radio and changes  the bands: two  for FM and one for AM(each band with 10 memories )
reset deletes every thing
MENU  :menu operations followed by  mode/set
The adjustments are :
SEL (normal - hi for bias ie standard or metal tape)
BASS : standard bass or super bass
DIR :  paly once the tape play continuously
FM stereo or mono

Hold: cancels all button operations
Middle button : changes  cassette directionality
FF REW  for fast forwarding /fast back-warding . Don't think is quite fast . It is below  2.5X  the normal cassette  speed
REC : for recording . Though you can expect  a high  fidelity recording , most trebles   are lost


And some comments on radio playback using the Carefour earphones  :

FM  : listening FM  is quite  treble-y , having more treble than Bolong radio . Seems  not very sensitive  as most stations have some hiss
AM: quite good sensitivity  with nice and clear audio. Filter is quite wide  so that inter mod whistles are  heard . this is the reason of using the OSC  while recording


I found that the AN 200 antenna  can be quite helpful for enhancing MW reception. The best point to locate the player is this :

And for cassette audio playback :
Using again the same (Carrefour) earphones (and tested also with Sennheiser's heads)  by using original cassettes (with Dolby ) audio sounds great!