... The Sony ICD-P520.
I found after an entire year of use that there were several problems with this product. Without an external microphone, often the voices of lecturers not more than 3m away from my desk were drowned out by the noise of paper shuffling and murmered voices in the background. ... Read review
Advantages: Cheaper than others on market Disadvantages: Sound quality low, long distances barely picked up, battery life short
...And it was this. The Sony ICD-P520.
I found after an entire year of use that there were several problems with this product. Without an external microphone, often the voices of lecturers not more than 3m away from my desk were drowned out by the noise of paper shuffling and murmered voices in the background. These microphones cost about £20 and shouldn't have been a necessity.
Not only that, but the dictaphone ... ...software NOT provided by the Sony website to access recordings. You *cannot* lose the software and driver CD. But the advantages of this software is that it allows you to save these recordings as pretty much any file format you need to.
As well as this, the software is NOT mac compatible. That's right, the ever growing numbers of people opting to choose Mac OS are excluded in one swoop by Sony's lack of accessibility.
As a Fresher trying to cope with the deluge of information thrown at me by my lecturers I turned to the wonders of technology to aid me in my battle to not fail! Sadly I found my search provided nothing but disappointment. Modern dictaphones with all the features you expect as standard for all dictaphones seemed to be priced out of my budget of about £40, so I looked for the nearest best offer the market had to show me. And it was this. The Sony ICD-P520.
I found after an entire year of use that there were several problems with this product. Without an external microphone, often the voices of lecturers not more than 3m away from my desk were drowned out by the noise of paper shuffling and murmered voices in the background. These microphones cost about £20 and shouldn't have been a necessity.
Not only that, but the dictaphone was battery draining beyond expectation. Two AAA batteries rechargable get worn down after about 5 hours of recording, not acceptable for those with lectures all day. (using high performance Uniross rechargeables)
So, batteries need recharging every day, and you have to sit almost directly in front of the lecturer... It doesn't end there.
The dictaphone is NOT plug and play. It doesn't act as a memory storage device as you'd expect, but you need software NOT provided by the Sony website to access recordings. You *cannot* lose the software and driver CD. But the advantages of this software is that it allows you to save these recordings as pretty much any file format you need to.
As well as this, the software is NOT mac compatible. That's right, the ever growing numbers of people opting to choose Mac OS are excluded in one swoop by Sony's lack of accessibility.
Now that I've tackled the problems Ive experienced, on to the good points:
This is one of the cheaper digital dictaphones on the market. For students every penny counts, and the better quality digital dictaphones I'd found were almost double the price. If you can't afford that expense then that would mean that this is worth it's price, barely.
It is reliable. With charged batteries and windows installed to transfer it works relatively well. There have been occaisions where the software has crashed but this never affects the memory in the dictaphone so your recordings are safe.
The LED display is informative, letting you know how much recording space you have left, current recording length, date and time as well as folder choice. Leading me to...
The ability to start recordings in different folders labelled A-D automatically. A helpful tool for organising your recordings without having to listen to them and manually rename the files, the recordings are saved as the date and time of recording and the folder name.
It's lightweight and small, pocket sized it's never difficult to take it along with you anywhere you need to, with a microphone and headphone connection. A hold button to ensure you don't record accidentally and waste memory or battery.
Overall, I'd recommend you try out other products before buying this. And seriously consider forking out the extra money for the more technically advanced models for the higher sound quality. But mac users: It's a NO GO! Don't waste your time on this one.
