Sony - Digital Voice Recorder - Silver

The sound quality for this item is great. The fact that it records to Mp3 format is a huge bonus. The raw volume of voice that it can record is great. The menu is fairly intuitive for how minimalist it is. The only downside to the recorder is that the play button stopped working after two weeks. I am returning it soon. IF the new one breaks, then I will be swearing off Sony voice recorders.

Don't waste your time with this one. First and foremost, the sound quality is absolutely terrible, there is some kind of whiny reverb thing happening in the background (and I test recorded late at night at home in otherwise complete silence, so there wasn't anything on my end it could have picked up.) It does at lot less than the comparable Olympus versions, and has less memory, and worse sound quality. The one thing you would think the Sony has going for it is ease of use, but that isn't the case. The manual it comes with is unclear and seems to be missing large sections; I chatted with online Sony tech support who claimed you could drag and drop files from iTunes to the music recorder for playback, but it isn't true, so if they tell you this don't believe them, lol. The Olympus WS-500 was much easier to figure out, has much better sound quality and comes with 2GB rather than 1GB with the Sony, all for about $10 less. The display is easier to read (due to the white backlight). The only plus to the Sony versus the Olympus is that you can rename and add file folders to the menu, and organize the whole filing system however you want... but if that is important to you, I'd go with a different Sony model. This one isn't worth your time or money.

sound quality is great, plus provides extra storage for music and such. could use an FM tuner like other models.

Using this recorder in Toastmaster meetings has been advantageous for our club. The pickup is great and I am always suprised when I catch comments from across the room. It has been better than any recorder we had tried in the past. I would suggest this model to anyone with simular needs. As well as it's compatability with Dragon software for my personal speeches, making it the ideal recorder for all my needs.

Probably because of the small internal speaker, the playback directly from the recorder is difficulty to hear even I turned the volume to the highest. However, the quality of the sound when listen from headset or external speaker is excellent.

Every brush, or change in grip on this will make loud popping/brushing noises. The dragonspeak software is only good for your voice, so dont expect to record a lecture and have it transcribed to notes for you. I havent been able to get anything I would call great sound quality from this, its really only meant for voice - if you use the mic in from even a $150 shure condenser mic it sounds much worse than plugging the mic into a computer and recording. I bought a pack of little rubber feet for mine so I could it down on a desk and it not rattle so bad when I adjust the position or move it on my notebook. Im guessing all the recorders will be the same for this sensitivity issue when holding, but why not get a $30 one and save the money, this one doesn't even have a rechargeable battery!

Have recommended it to a friend. Small simple device for personal recording. Playback mode is OK.

I use the recorder for classes and meetings and have never been disappointed in my playback. Lectures sound great whether they're in auditoriums or classrooms. This has lots of cool sound quality options to customize and it's easy to organize files. I would recommend this to any student or professional!