I am finishing my dissertation.. and I recorded interviews with a handheld and I have been using this tape player from a friend.. and for playback it rocks. i was using a transcriber with footpedal and I never thought I would use a tape player. but the shoebox design makes it okay but more importantly I can hear so much more on this tape player than I could on the transcribers. For transcribing it does have a pretty big backspace (ie.. when I hit return for a second, it really rewinds)but  I think it has great sound.  My only advice - don't do interviews at Starbucks! :)