Audio Systems: cassette to cd recording, cassette tape to cd, cassette to cd recording

Question
With your experience in recording,what would you recommend buying for a cassette tape to cd recording.I have lots of cassettes that are quit old and would like to transfer them to cd.I would prefer a stand alone unit or if you have some ideas for downloading to hard drive if it's not to complex- ideas on software? Cost range no more than 300.00. Thank you

Answer
John,
 If you already have the cassette deck and the computer, then the entire process would cost about $5. All you need is a cable that has a single 3.5mm stereo plug on one end and splits into L/R RCA plugs on the other. There are also adapters that allow you to plug into a USB port, but this is the cheapest route.
 Connect the RCA plugs into the line-out of your cassette deck and the 3.5mm stereo plug into the line-in on your computer's sound card.
 Now the recording process...if you are using Windows, there is a standard sound recorder, Start-Programs-Accessories-Entertainment-Sound Recorder. It's simple to use but I personally would recommend a recording program with more buzzers and whistles, such as Audacity, which is free or go even one better with Adobe Audition which gives you a free trial. The reason I recommend these is transferring analog to digital is going to expose all the hiss of older recordings and they both have noise reduction and they will allow you to clean up the starts and stops. If this doesn't matter to you then go with the cheapest and easiest.
 From this point just hit record on your program and play on the cassette and away you go. Get your signal as hot as possible without clipping, that is going above 0. Digital distortion will be painfully obvious. A little trial and error to get your best copies, save to your hard drive, then burn your CDs. If you don't have all the gear or ins and outs I mentioned write me back and I will show you other methods.