Olympus - WS-Series Digital Voice Recorder - Gray

I had an Olympus recorder years ago and the power switch was two positions, on and hold. Turn it on and it's ready for use. Turn it to hold when you're not doing anything and it turns off, otherwise it goes into hold mode so you don't accidentally press a button and stop it. This worked very well. Then I got a Sony recorder, and it had a 3-position power switch. It rests in the middle, but to turn it on you pull it down and release and it pops back to the middle, and the same to turn it off. Then you push it up to put it in hold mode. The problem was the switch broke, I think from having to hold it down so much instead of just sliding it into position. So I went back to Olympus because I liked their power switch on the old one, but unfortunately they have changed theirs to be like the Sony one! So far it hasn't broken, but I'm just waiting for that to happen. Additionally, the original Olympus I had a decade ago would turn on immediately. The new one has a boot time of 5 seconds or so. This is sort of annoying. I guess they're making them more complex these days, and like everything else that used to come on instantly (TVs, video recorders, music players, phones, etc.) they now have to go through some semi-complicated boot process. I find this general trend in electronics manufacturing annoying.

We thought we had a great recording device when we purchased a Sony recorder, but found that it was really difficult to get the recordings onto our computer and transferred to the MP3 audio format because of the Sony proprietary recording format. The Olympus recorder that we purchased as Best Buy does not have this issue and it is has better sound quality than the Sony recorder. I would recommend the Olympus recorder if you are looking for high quality recording and ease of use. We also chose the battery operated version of the Olympus recorder because it takes too much time to recharge the batteries versus just changing them in the device.

I purchased an Olympus DM 420 about 5 years ago that proved it's worth over and over in my work as a vocal music coach, director and teacher. I first used it for some brush up voice lessons with a retired singer from Indiana University Music School faculty. He was greatly impressed with the sound quality from the recorder when I connected it to his Audio system for a quick playback. When it stopped working completely about a month ago, I felt like I'd lost an old friend. I went looking for a replacement and was presented with a number of larger devices with external mics that had higher price tags. I didn't find an Olympus at first, and asked specifically for one in the store. In putting several devices sid by side, I realized quickly that I could add a micro SD card for more recording space, and that the case which protected my old DM420 was still a perfect fit for this WS-822 model. The cost was better than some of the pricier models, and I couldn't see myself switching to an unknown brand when Olympus had already proved its worth for half a decade of near constant use. Buy Olympus!

I own several tape recorders which I use in lieu of taking lots of notes at lectures, training programs and tours I take. This tape recorder while not the most expensive one that I own does a very nice job of recording in all kinds of noisy conditions and then it allows me to download the audio files to my comuter without too much effort. I am happy to recommend it to anyone looking for a simple work horse of a tape recorder that is also user friendly.

The purpose for the use of this device was to record conversation undetected. It was in my shirt pocket, and properly recorded conversation with some noise. The playback is better through the earphone. The microphone is quite powerful and its use may be expanded to all sorts of purposes and saves the trouble writing thins down.

I didnt expect much when I picked this up in store, having worked with professional video production teams and more sophisticated equipment. But I needed a quick and dirty recorder for an industry conference of back-to-back training labs. This little gadget allowed me to record several days of audio and adjust the built-in microphone frequency for different sized rooms or speaker systems. I withheld a star for the battery drain, which caught me off guard the first day and forced me to use my smartphone for the second half of the days program. Bummer! Highly suggest packing LOTS of extra AAAs for all day audio requirements.

This little recorder is not bad! It isn't as great a voice quality as I was hoping for, but I am still learning to use it, and maybe I'll figure out how to make things clearer and less screechy. It is a little more complex than I like learning about but if I can do it, anyone can! I have grown quite attached to it, and it is very convenient to carry around and makes notes as I go about my day.

Exceptional quality both recording and on playback. Since it has a music folder, you can easily drag your MP3s to the folder and have your music library with you too. It has all of the bells and whistles I could desire - AAA battery and/or AAA rechargeable. SD Micro slot for adding to the already 4GB on-board memory. Variable playback speed and pitch. USB connection for easy transfer of files - which can be created as mp3, wma, or PCM (Note that the wma is only mono with a low bit rate strictly for voice, while mp3 is 128 or 256kbps). It is a fine device, as one would expect from a product bearing the Olympus name.