Very poor

I impulsively bought a dictaphone in order to record my university lectures. Seeing as it cost around £50 (not on Amazon, in a high street shop) and was by a"reputable" make, I thought it would be fine for my purposes. I was wrong - the sound quality is absolutely abysmal. Listening back to the lectures I had recorded on the first day was barely tolerable. Admittedly, I was recording in an auditorium, but I directly compared the quality to my friends built in mic on his Creative MP4 player, and it was way, way superior. The actualy layout of the buttons/menus on the player is also incredibly counter-intuitive and inaccessible, making it a headache to actually record anything. I have subsequently bought a Logic 3 Microphone for my Ipod, which is infinitely better quality and easier to use, and I would recommend over the Sony by FAR - its much cheaper too!

Good price Free delivery and a top notch product

Listed in a major high street catalogue i'm please to say Amazon were cheaper.

This Sony dictation unit really is so easy to use comes complete with battery and USB cable - so ready to use out of the box.

worth a look!!!

The new WS-320M appealed to me because of its 1GB of flash memory, small size, WMA codec, and built-in USB connector.

This DVR is much smaller than other DVRs. It is almost half the volume and weight of the DS-2200 (similar to the DM-20). The WS-320M is constructed mostly of plastic, but it is well made and assembled with screws. There is a mechanical hold switch. The USB port cover / battery holder slides off smoothly after pressing the release button. No significant force is required to slide off the port cover or to reassemble it. There is a groove you need to line up first to reassemble the port cover. The small AAA battery cover is not attached to the DVR and can get lost. There is a hand strap hole, but no hand strap is included. The buttons, switches, and d-pad are well-made and provide a small amount of tactile feedback. The smaller size of the DVR makes it very portable but it can cause problems operating the switches for those with larger hands. Anyone used to small music players should have no problem operating the WS-320M. However, someone who regularly uses a voice recorder for dictation should probably stick to the larger professional DVRs like the Olympus DS-2200 and Sony ICD-BM1.

I started testing the WS-320M without reading the manual. It was easy to use. Button and menu operation is very logical. The LCD screen is smaller and less bright than the DS-2200 / DS-2, presumably to save battery life. The screens displays a large amount of information including folder name, time elapsed, time remaining, battery, record mode, and more, though not necessarily at the same time. A press of the OK or STOP button will change the information displayed. While recording, the screen displays a horizontal bar sound level meter.

The WS-320M uses only the Windows Media audio format codec. Other Olympus DVRs use the proprietary DSS format. I prefer the WMA format over the DSS format because the audio sounds more life-like. DSS format in SP or LP mode sounds harsh and full of compression artifacts. Recording in STHQ mode on the WS-320M with the built-in microphone produces satisfactory recordings but even better sounding recordings can be made using a high quality external microphone like the Sony ECM-DS70P or the Olympus ME51S. Overall, I liked the recordings on the WS-320M more than the recordings from my DS-2200. The DS-2200 tends to clip high volume sounds. Using a stereo dubbing / attenuator cable, I"ripped" some songs from a CD player to the WS-320M in STHQ mode. The"ripped" music sounded like FM radio quality or better. All of the voice recordings are file date-time stamped appropriately and date-time stamped internally. You can see the internal date with the program DSS Player (not included).

When I plugged the WS-320M into PC, Windows XP recognized it and installed it. There appears to be no driver available for Windows 98. A new drive appeared in the My Computer window. I was able download the recordings to the PC at about 50 MB per minute. I then uploaded some WMA format audiobook tracks to the WS-320M voice folders. The transfer rate uploading is about 26 MB per minute. This is faster than USB 1 and is comparable to many small mp3 music players. I was able to play the audiobook tracks in voice mode.

In general, the voice mode operation of the WS-320M is very similar to the operation of the DS-2200 or DS-2.

As a music player, the WS-320M is comparable to a Creative Muvo Nano / N200. The sound quality is good with a strong low end and a very low level of background hiss (only noticeable with sensitive earbuds). The volume levels range from bedtime quiet to painful. Music is transferred to the WS-320M by copying music files to the music folder or to the root. The WS-320M can handle two levels of folders (artist and albums for example). Navigation on the player is by folder and not by tags. The player uses mp3 tag information only for the screen display. This player can only play bitrates from 5 kbps to 256 kbps. It will not play 320k mp3 files.

This player has most of the functions of dedicated mp3 flash memory players. There are settings for RANDOM, REPEAT, REPEAT ONE, Play One Folder, Play All Folders, ROCK, FLAT, JAZZ, POP, User 5 band EQ, SRS WOW (surround sound / trubass). You can change the order of music tracks and delete music tracks. There is no bookmarking function and no sleep timer.

More information can be gleaned from the WS-320M user manual available for download from the Olympus website.

The WS-320M is a good player / recorder for a student. You can fit a week's worth of lectures on the recorder and still have about 500 mb left over to fill with music. I would not recommend it for a business person needing a true dictation recorder because of its small size and small controls. But for someone who wants to record meetings and seminars and listen to music, it is a good choice.

Pros:

Small size, good price benefit ratio, long battery life for a voice recorder, good construction, built-in USB connector, informative display, good quality voice recordings, WMA codec, dictation capabilities, external microphone input, date-time stamped recordings, plug and play for file/music transfers, and MP3/WMA music player with DRM support.

Cons:

Tiny controls, separate battery door (risk of loss), lesser quality built-in stereo microphone (typical of consumer level recorders), no remote control capability, no included dictation software (DSS Player Lite is available for free download), no included carry case or strap.

A good quality Handy Recorder

The Edirol R09HR is a fantastic sounding recorder. It has a rubber feal to it which makes it very easy to hold. The screen is large and takes up most of the front face. The buttons are all large and make a nice sollid click when you press them. As far as the sound goes, it is wonderful. It gives a good clear realistic sound. It has eliminated more of the hissing that the preamps on the older model had which makes it sound really good especially for its price. It can record in both wave and mp3 and the mp3 sounds better then it did on the R09. I like the mics, it may not have the widest stereo seperation but the internal mics are good at handeling wind noise. Another big advantage it has is the little preview speaker at the back. You are not going to get the loudest sound out if it, it is quite week, but for what it is intended for it does the job fantasticly. I would like them to get rid of the sound of the preamps more because if they can do that it would be almost perfect. I would recommend this to any one who likes recording any thing from music rehearsals to podcasts and much more.

Simply the 1st class

I’ve been looking for the best voice recorder for a while and it’s not as simple as one my think. There is quite a good range of low and medium quality devices, but I really didn’t want to get frustrated when trying to make out what the lecturer said in my recordings. I also wanted it to have expansion slot, so that I could stick a memory card in and record almost unlimited amounts.

This Sony recorder has exceeded all my expectations, thought. It’s got excellent quality build - feels very firm and sturdy and it’s made of metal, not plastic. It’s definitely not going to break in the next couple of years. The voice quality is absolutely fantastic. I’ve use a lot of other voice recorderes and none of them come close to it. The stereo microphone really makes quite a lot of difference! This voice recorder is the best device that money can buy. It’s definitely worth every £ spent.

OK - Not Slim-line, & Quite Noisy

Firstly, this is NOT Slim-line, but to be fair to Sony they don't describe it as such, that's in the Amazon heading. It's actually wider than my old Walkman because of the speaker.

I chose this over the plastic-cased models as I thought it would be more robust, & it's certainly 'nicer' than the plastic model I tried. However, a lot of background noise from the unit's motor comes out on the recordings, which is a bit surprising as the motor doesn't sound loud when you are actually recording.

It's OK, I've kept it, but it's disappointing - I expected much better from Sony & for the price.

Oh, & it takes AAA batteries, not AAs as described in some write-ups.

Very good for the money - 256mb memory not 64mb

Well firstly I must point out that Amazon have incorrectly listed this item as only having 64mb of memory - In actual fact it has 256mb of memory.

The max recording times in LP mode is 130 hours & 25 minutes or 29 hours & 45 minutes in HQ mode. The voice recorder works perfectly and the desktop software supplied is more than up to the job.

You can convert voice recording to MP3 files at the touch of a button or automatically should wish to share the files with others which is a nice feature. The unit is also certified for use with Dragon Naturally Speaking, which is helpful.

FM Radio works very well, overall a nice set of features for the money, but the build quality isn't perfect, as the back feels a little tacky and cheap, but considering the price and capabilities it's well worth every penny.