Difficulty converting cassette to digital with audacity.

I'm not buying 87dB s/n on cassette. Without NR on a decent tape it's about 60dB. With Dolby C, HX pro and proper level setting I'd say it maxes out in the mid 70s. Maybe with Dolby S you could break 80dB, barely.

Everyday, probably not pushing S/N,. for sure. Everything over here gets a buried needle run through and a backing off. S/N is 3 pct distortion level. Here's a "Alien" review with measurements on one of my Sony cassettes;
Sony TC-K555 Cassette Deck Review price specs - Hi-Fi Classic

It clearly states that it can do 70 & 80 with B & C. I've a photo of the Aiwa High-Com sittin' on my Luxman k-8, so it's not like people were not chasing S/N in the late '70s. This $25 Luxman I posted a pic of does 89 S/N with normal tape. My personal recording of Rock and the like rarely got any NR but the other stuff did : ) This last Luxman does well with DBX and the Fuji DRII tapes. The old DBX II might not always track so well, but I can toss that on any deck or recorder. So, tracking a Telarc Firebird CD will be really low, trying to get those orchestra hits to hit in the right spot - good NR pays off.

The point being, a Realtek is spec'd to 90 on the ADC, so why pay $30 for 87 - and nicer ones do 192k in and out
 
How much do you want to bet the OP's cassettes don't come anywhere close to those numbers? He probably has no idea what NR was used. I don't count dbx (all lower case, by the way), it's a special case. Three percent distortion is getting into car stereo grade standards, not audiophile standards. On a three-head deck with the bias adjusted using four formulations of tape selected for optimum performance from a large group (a.k.a. ringers) it hits 80 with one of the four and, lo and behold, mid 70s with the rest. That makes the 80dB one an outlier and, to me, suspect. I would need to see that repeated by an equipment measurement expert I trust before I accepted it. At best it's the absolute upper limit that in most cases would not be reached.

To boil it down, the Behringer interface should be fine for now.
 
Once again, what is the point of spending $30 for the Behringer.

No, they could be evidence cassettes for all I know, though some appear to be STEREO : ) Ya, it could be hard to find tapes back then. I think I only have one actual BASF Chrome vs fake Chrome. haha One TDK and one Ampex Metal tape was enough. That Ampex Gold sounded pretty good to me and I went through a couple 10-pack cases of that.

3-pct is standard spec. Half the consumers know how that spec shit works. Cassette is at -20 VU to get any freq response - you have to reduce VU going from 30ips at each step down to 15/16ips for any hope of frequency response. As it is, cassette, or, open reel, there will be recommended tapes in the manual - they want you to get the best performance.

The Sony Manual uses NAB and the best C is 74 with Sony FeCr - it's all there : ) They only ref spec with Sony tapes, though. They give a comprehensive guide to beginning saturation levels for different kinds of music using Sony tapes. People could plug that in for around $400. Better decks around '83 were claiming 94 S/N

Luckily, I can find open reel outside the name brand pricing mania that perform to MFG spec. Here, too, 3-pct is realistic, as many like recording up there with peaks(if not vocals) in the red.
 
Once again, what is the point of spending $30 for the Behringer.

Because it is cheap and will do the job.

The requirement is to transfer audio from cassettes to computer. It is not a technically difficult job, it does not require high end specifications. It is fit for his purpose and is a good, uncomplicated solution.
 
Like I said, I do that all the time with the Realtek and SoundMax on-boards. Damn straight great I don't listen to people suggesting I buy something : ) hahah Na, the world won't fall apart if he buys the Behringer. My blue stripe Tascam 122 is USB1.1 and still has one input chan. working
 
Ha ! So, happens, Tascam is showing a new cassette with CD and USB. Said it will convert sources to USB storage, but don't know if the are options for that. 399 euro
 
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