Sound quality is very good on this deck. I have cassette tapes that hiss or drag in lesser quality decks, but will play beautifully in this. I am impressed with the quality of cassettes recorded with this deck as well. I record cd's onto cassette for use in the car, so this gets a real workout. All the tapes recorded sound as good as the ones that come pre-recorded.

I am also pleased with the controls on this. Everything is easy to read and operate. No confusing buttons or knobs. Even the back of the deck where you hook up the wires is self explanatory. They are marked so that you never have to open the owners manual.

In overview, this is the best cassette deck I've owned yet. I've owned Teac, Pioneer and Sony, and from now on I will stick with JVC products. I can't say enough about this deck. It is reliable, good sounding, inexpensive, and easy to operate. This is the best value out there.

Fine audio component (Rating: 5.00)
Review : This is a high quality unit at a moderate price. It has a solid feel to it; the controls operate surely and quietly; the tape transport is quiet; the sound quality rivals that of CDs. I cannot distinguish the sound of recordings made with it from that of the original source. Features such as AMS work perfectly. Even now there is need for a fine tape deck; this is one.

Big Dissappointment (Rating: 2.00)
Review : I was quite impressed with this unit until I tried to play a fourth tape. That's right, got to play three tapes for my 160 bucks.

Apparently the drive belts have started slipping on both wells. Usually starts a couple of minutes into a tape and usually clears up right at the end. In between is barely recognizeable as music. Cleaned the heads, retensioned the tapes on other decks - no go. All the tapes that won't play correctly on the JVC play just fine on two other older, cheaper decks.