I bought this dictaphone (sorry, digital voice recorder) last year as I needed to record a client session to use in a supervision session, i work part time as a therapist.
I had an old dictaphone which really was not that good at playing back anything legible, so I thought, hey ho, run it through my books (I am self employed) and I've got it for keeps, £30 did not seem cheap, but it does seem to be of good quality, good build and a reliable name in the business.
The digital voice recorder is silvery and plastic with a handy pen like catch to attach to clothes if needed, and also comes in the box with a clothes attachable microphone, and an ear piece. It weighs, with batteries, 2.4 oz, and is similar in size and shape to a mobile phone, 9.5 cm long, 3.5 wide and 2cm deep. The small screen digital display is easy to read, if a bit 'busy'.
Also in the box is the 'set up' CD, USB to device cable, and instruction booklet. The instruction booklet is easy to follow and in several languages. If for some reason the instruction booklet does not answer all your questions, such as technical specifications, there is a website with just about the most comprehensive set of FAQ I have ever seen, full technical specifications and it also has regular software updates: www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_support_product.asp?id=1175
The voice recorder uses 2 X AA batteries and lasts up to 18 hours, and recording time, depending on quality of recording (different modes), is as little as 2 hours 57, but can reach 8 hours and 13 minutes. As well as the three recording modes there is an alarm setting, timer function and two levels of recording sensitivity.
It is simplicity itself to use to record and playback, and in fact playback can be played back up to 20% slower, handy for taking notes.The recorder easily picks up any noise in the room so two people talking (which is what I use it for) is very easily recorded at a distance of a couple of metres and plays back really clearly. Everything is easily erasable and up to 3 recordings (each up to an hour) can be held in the recorder before transferring them to PC. The other functions and funtion buttons (alarm etc.) get rarely used and I wonder if they are all a bit uneccessary.
To transfer to PC is easy, to store and collate is easy, though they are not easily saved to a CD, special software (which comes with the system) has to be used, and it is all a bit faffy, it would have been much easier if they could have been saved as, say MP3 files.
This, in my opinion lets the thing down. It is great at recording, great at playing back, but just a little too clever for it's own good, the timer, the alarm, the different recording settings, the different playback settings and the faffy, incompatible saving formats to it's own dedicated software let it down somewhat, there are cheaper and easier to use models out there.
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(HP, SP, LP). Voice activation. Four folders for file management. Schedule function. Index setting. Requires two 1.5v AAA batteries (included). Includes earphones, ...
