Using an RCA cable with two male stereo ends

I have a collection of cassette tapes of old family gatherings. Sound quality isn’t a priority (although it would be nice.) I’m using a Walkman as a source and plugging it into the Microphone port on my Acer Aspire with an RCA cable with male stereo jacks on each end. I’m running Windows 7.0 and Audacity 2.0.6. I’ve checked the manual and followed the instructions for recording settings using all the defaults. The sound quality I’m capturing is horrible. I’ve checked the Walkman and it’s sending good quality sound.

Can I capture sound acceptable with this setup? Would a different cable provide better sound? The Walkman is the only device a still have that reads cassette tapes.

BTW: I tried using the RCA jack, plugged into the Microphone and Headset ports, to see if I could capture sound from the internet. I get the same crappy quality.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/Line-Out_Mic-In.jpg

Most Laptop computers are missing the Stereo Line-In connection. Mic-In is profoundly mismatched and will almost always create a crunchy, dense, distorted recording.

Behringer makes some very nice Stereo to USB adapters. I have two UCA-202s and they work just fine.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/peaveyUCA202Lenovo.jpg
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UCA202

Other people make similar adapters, but be sure and read the instructions carefully. The StarTech ICUSBAUDIO for one example merely duplicates the connections you already have.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/olympus_TP7Blowup.jpg

Koz

Thanks, I’ll give this a try.