Olympus WS-300M 256MB Digital Voice Recorder

high quality Japanese item with good sound quality.

Posted Aug 9, 2006 - Good - Hi res screen Stereo Mic Mic jack voice activation 4 recording modes descent speaker built in USB plug Good sound quality Slim and not very heavy. Bad The battery compartment and lid attaches to the electronics via a very weak mechanism. It is easy to detach the battery compartment. No memory card expandability. Only one battery and no rechargable lithium ion option. Does not come with a case. Case sold separately. It would have been better to charge $10 more and have the case or strap included. I would have preferred a neck or at least a wrist strap. No holes for attaching a strap. Does not come with any mics or any assessories at all. Would have preferred a way of renaming a file right on the unit. Would have preferred the ability to record in MP3 rather then WMA. You may want to convert the file to MP3 after downloading to the computer if you expect to share it with non windows media players. Better battery meter. I would have preferred a voltage meter or a percent meter. What I like to see in the next generation of digital voice recorders from Olympus besides fixing some of the above problems. Features - Ability to utilize a bluetooth mic. This way I can place the mic right next to the speaker. A package that comes with a bluetooth mic. More then five folders. A student can easily take up 5 folders for just the different classes. A still camera with zoom capabilty of atleast 8x and hi res of at least 1024x768 in 16 bits. I don't like having to carry both a camera and a digital voice recorder. In a class or meeting setting it is ideal if one can have the ability to record the board and the voice presentation. I recommend a twist top containing the lens and auto focus mechanism. The camera/voice recorder combos out in the market are flawed by low resolution, no zoom or low zoom, little memory and awkward controls.

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I read several reviews on competing products. Kno ...

Posted Nov 26, 2006 - I read several reviews on competing products. Knowing excatly what I was looking for helped me narrow my search. I was not looking for music storage (which this product offers) but rather for the capability of recording fine quality audio at conferences/lectures and then downloading it on a PC (and later sharing it on a FTP server). All I have to do is place it in front of the lecturer (at about 2-3 feet) and the quality comes excellent. Have not tried with a moving lecturer yet. So far, would definitely buy it again.

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A great all-around product

Posted May 4, 2006 - Big performance form a tiny recorder. I chose it partially because it had 250MB of built-in memory(the most among it's price range). The best part about this recorder is how easily it connects and works with my PC. It simply separates from the battery and plugs into my USB port like a flash drive(can also be used as one). No need for a pointless docking station (it would never sit there anyway), and I didn't need to install any program in order to use it. Transferring and organizing class lectures on my PC is a breeze. Another plus is that it doubles as an MP3 player. I tested out it's "music mode" and it worked very well. The EQ is adjustable and the "SRS/WOW" features really did enhance the sound. As for recording, it works quite well. I haven't had experience with other recorders, so I can't compare. The 2 built-in mics are sensitive and pick up well, almost too well. Ambient noise is sometimes heard, like the hum of an AC unit. Otherwise, the lecture recordings are quite clear. Unfortunately, I found some issues with the battery life. It uses only 1AAA, so you can't expect much life when using High Quality settings or playing MP3s. A big problem for me is the battery life meter. It flat out sucks (only indicates full or low, no between). It appeared full at the beginning of a lecture, however after 7 min, it began to flash and count down before finally cutting-off. I had no battery on me and so I was stuck with nothing. Besides the battery meter issue, the WS-300M has served me well. The great design, large memory and simplicity make this a great buy. I definitely recommend it.

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sony ws-300m digital recorder

Posted Nov 12, 2007 - it is a very good recorder. i can connect to my computer, name the different files, take out and mark them. it is a great recorder. i have had two others that never worked very well.

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