It seems to me that Tascam is living up to it's heritage with this deck. It plays new and old cassettes reliably. I'm torn on the particular bells and whistles that used to be offered in the 1990s, like 3 heads, auto reverse, input / auto monitor......but the truth is I have tapes and simply wanted to have a brand new deck to play them on. While the price seems rather steep for lacking said features, it's considerably cheaper than buying a good deck with those bells and whistles from 25, 30 years ago and then having to ship it to someone who can refurbish it. Have you seen the price for a Dragon? YIKES. Even the professional offerings of Tascam from the 90's command a pretty hefty price if they are in tip top shape. All that being said, I'm very happy with the 202 mk7. It is a no frills deck that I expect to last many years. If I had it to do over again - I would.
I was tired of vintage tape decks that I was used to having. I had a Pioneer CT-F750 that was great, but it quit working. I then got a Denon DRM740 that was defective when it came in, an Akai GXC 730D that also came in defective, then another Denon DRM740 that had the same problem as the first one. SO I got tired of all the B..S.. and ordered the Tascam 202MKVII. I own a Tascam 424 MKIII 4 track recorder and a Tascam DR-70D so I am familiar with Tascam's quality. I was not disappointed. The 202MKVII is a beautiful deck with straightforward controlls, the operation is smooth and quiet. In fact the only thing I would add to the impressive features is auto reverse.
It's got 2 recording and playback heads plus a recording level indicator and a microphone and headphone jack and I can also rewind and fast forward tapes in both compartments, also the tape counter are things I didn't have on my other recorders. Just wish the front had a lighter look, though.
I have been collecting Vinyl, and CDs during the past year. I decided to incorporate a quality cassette deck to go with my stereo system.
The Tascam 202MK7 exceeds my expectations so far; it is a quality cassette deck.