Honestly, with the change in todays recording environment, I would say the Teac or Sony brand of cassette deck would be the best.
cassette deck allowing you to convert your cassette collection to CD or MP3 with included recording software.
Any of the Sony Walkmen will be great for recording classes.
To copy a cassette to a CD requires either an audio recorder or computer with an audio input and CD burner. To use an audio recorder, connect your source cassette player to the device and place a blank writeable CD into the device. To use a computer, connect your source cassette player to the line in jack on the audio card and run audio recording software while the cassette is playing. Burn the audio files using the CD writer.
The main reason an individual would use a cassette converter would be to convert song(s) from a cassette to a more modern medium such as an MP3. Cassette converters can be purchased from stores such as Amazon.
A light weight portable cassette player is what you would want.
Synchro dubbing was a feature found on dual cassette decks that allowed the copying of a tape quickly. The playback deck's transport would control the recording deck, and syncronize the copying of a tape.
The most you should expect to pay for a cassette deck is around $130 and that would be for one of the dual cassette decks.
That would be the RCA RP3538 Micro Cassette Recorder.
I suggest getting a portable cassette player and hook it up to a FM transmitter. However, it would be much less of a hassle to buy a different stereo for your car that has a cassette player.
I'm not sure how you would go about creating a cassette deck from scratch but I did find an article on how to repair an existing one at http://www.ehow.com/how_114068_troubleshoot-cassette-deck.html.
My apologies, I'm new to this site. I'm using this to specify. I'm looking for one particular recording that I used to own on an audio cassette decades ago. Sadly, the cassette is lost, but even so, I never had any name or anything. All I can say is: the stories were read by an Englishman with rather a tenor than a baritone. So far, none of the recordings I found on Y*utube came close in poignancy, funniness, quality. Any help would be appreciated. --> unbelievable, what's possible in the internet age: found it: David Davis was the narrator. Now it seems, there is only the audio cassette recording from 1995. Or does anybody own a digital version?
A normal quality car cassette player costs about $25. If you already have a cassette player, you can purchase a cable to connect it to your car's audio panel.