Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic RXFS430A Mini AM/FM Stereo Radio Cassette Recorder

I've used this recorder for about four years to record my voice lessons. It's WONDERFUL. I literally spent a couple hours listening to different recorders in the store to find one that would record clearly and capture signals hot enough to hear easily. This one was the best by far! It is amazingly clear, lightweight and its mechanical parts are working well after lots of use.

I had one of these little guys back when I was 14. I am almost 23 now and I have to say, these things will take massive punishment and STILL work amazingly well. The technology is dated, to be sure (Since we now have handheld video camera's that record on CD-R's in real time) but if your looking for something to take to work and want to be comfortable leaving it laying around and want to just have it on the radio, this is it. I remember they had amazing sound and clarity. I would say if your going to leave it in one place, and wanted to update it, hook it to your CD player with a cassette adapter. It will sound great. Great for work, but bad for home. Why? ITS OLDER TECHNOLOGY! 'Nuff said. But great if you wanna go retro and listen to some old beats and break dance!! :D

This is a nice unit, all analog, good amplification with good room filling sound. Recording off the FM tuner their's almost no degration of playback sound. Sensitive microphone, picks up outside sounds and voice clearly. Tone control works well, uniformly turning down only the treble, which is nice for tapes that have a really sharp treble. Tape transport is smooth and handles tapes gently. I removed the cover, inside is quality and the speakers have large magnets. AM has excellent sensitivity, but slight quircks with FM, occasionally hearing 2 stations at the same time. Their's not much movement on tuner knob. I wish AFC was added to FM, as this would help prevent drift and make for easier "dialing in" of stations. FM static can be annoying, but directing the line cord-antenna carefully gets rid of it for the most part or switching to FM mono for weak stations but then you won't hear the spacious stereo sound. The FM tuner on this all analog unit could have been a little more refined but I can live with it.
Overall a great compact simple low priced boombox. Now if only Panasonic would bring back their beautiful boomboxes of the early 80's? Perhaps a Special Edition? In silver?

I purchased this item because of the name Panasonic and also I was looking for a SMALL UNIT to carry to work I saw the word MINI and thought it was small as they did NOT include the dimension of the unit now I have to pay for returning it and the inconvience DO NOT USE THE WORDING MINI IT IS VERY DECEIVING PLEASE GIVE DEMENSIONS WHEN DESCRIBING ITEMS TO BE ORDERED OVER THE NET.

First of all, I was delighted to find a radio/casssette player on the market, since they have all but disappeared. An added plus was its being a Panasonic brand, which I have always found to be very satisfactory.
In general I am pleased with the product. The radio seems to have a fine sound. I am disapppointed, however, with the sound quality of the cassette player. Scratchy.