Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this at a local Walmart for casual use (recording my guitar practice sessions for later review). I paid $26.00 plus tax for it. What a ripoff. It's very cheaply made and doesn't work for squat. The play/record/rewind/ffwd buttons are sticky and hard to engage...you have to use one hand to hold the machine down in order to press the buttons with the other hand. You can't hold down the ffwd button while it's playing in order to audibly find your way on the tape (particulars annoying since there is no tape counter). The rewind and ffwd buttons don't stop automatically when the tape reaches the end. The unit does come with an AC adapter, but even when not running on battery power, the tape mechanism is so cheap that playback warbles noticeably. The frequency response is horrible (no bass at all), and unless you use the included plug-in microphone, anything you record is so faint it can't be heard above the tape noise. Oh yes, the included mic...the cable is so short (about 6") that you basically have to be sitting right on top of the recorder in order to use it. Since the cable is so short, the mechanical force of its physical connection to the recorder itself tends to knock the mic over. Overall, this is the absolute worst tape recorder I've ever purchased (I've owned dozens...I grew up with these things). Based strictly on my experience with this steaming pile of plastic, I would probably never purchase another RCA electronics product. I would have given this thing negative 17 stars, but I couldn't figure out how to hack Amazon's site to let me do that.