cheap equipment for students

[Christina Wasson]

Here's a different kind of question about recording equipment.  Our
department wants to buy some cheap tape recorders that we can lend to
undergraduate students doing a variety of different class assignments, for
linguistic anthro and other anthro courses.  A surprising number of
students do not have tape recorders.  Or they have the cheap microcassette
recorders which produce terrible sound quality.  We are a tiny department
and do not have a lot of money, and want to be able to buy 5 or so.  Does
anyone have suggestions for the most inexpensive equipment possible that
would still have some kind of reasonable recording quality?  Since the mic
makes a big difference, what about getting $30-$50 tape recorders and
augmenting them with mics?

Thanks in advance!
Christina

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Christina Wasson, Visiting Assistant Professor
Anthropology Program, DePaul University