DIY is relatively cost-effective for audio tapes vs. other digitizing for a few reasons. The audio machines are cost-effective as long as you are somewhat flexible on quality and don’t need the content you digitize to be perfect. And because audio files are much smaller than video files, most computers and hard drives can handle the work. So when it comes to audio cassettes, getting them digital at home is legitimately achievable as long as you don’t require perfect sound. When it comes to hiring a professional audio cassette-to-digital conversion service, if it’s too cheap, we recommend finding someone else. Audio recordings have decayed a lot, and the purpose of using a professional transferring service is to get the most you can out of a challenging audio tape. If you see something really cheap, it means the cassette-tape-to-digital service is not engaging the files and just doing what you’d do at home anyway. So when it comes to audio cassette to digital services, we recommend going with the more sophisticated players so that your investment pays off.