Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder by Olympus
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Our Price: $304.95 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder
Digital camera Review: Almost perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
I have the older model, with a built in USB connector, and I have to say, this one is terrific but I really miss that part. With all the electronics we cart around these days, less is always more. I wish Olympus hadn't traded off the built-in USB for some of these bells and whistles, which are probably great if you use this machine every day for a thousand different things, but don't really matter much to someone like me.
Still, sound quality is terrific - everything works, it's pretty easy to do basic recording with, and now that my old one is misbehaving, I'm very happy to have this one on hand.
Digital camera Review: Amazing!
Summary: 5 Stars
I LOVE it! Whenever I play back my recordings on the stereo, my wife says it's like having two of me in the room because the sound is so amazingly clear! I can't imagine how this product could have been made any better.Digital camera Review: An excellent unit
Summary: 5 Stars
I agree with Jeffery Kissinger's review below, but there are a few points he passed over. My previous recorder was an Olympus WS-310, and the DS-40 is superior in every way.
The DS-40 has great battery life, and ergonomically it has a much better design because button operation is much more positive, and since the screen is very clear, it is easy to see at a glance what is happening.There is never a doubt whether you are recording or not. Another improvement is the ability to play recorded books from audible.com. This works flawlessly, and because the battery life is so long, a real pleasure. The only area I would prefer the WS-310 is USB downloading. The DS-40 requires a cable that you might misplace, while the WS-310 has a built in USB plug. They are both good digital recorders, but the DS-40 is better.
Finally a note for shoppers new to digital voice recorders. Note that a bottom level unit, like the Olympus VN-1000, which I once owned, works well for short audio notes, but has a huge short-coming, compared to the units I mention above. The VN-1000 records in a form that cannot be downloaded to a computer. To save a recording, you must play it real time and record with your computer. Both the WS-310 and DS-40, on the other hand, record standard WMA files that you can rapidly download via USB to your computer, and then edit with Adobe Audition, or a similar program.
Digital camera Review: Big benefits, small shortcomings
Summary: 4 Stars
I wasn't sure what to expect with this thing but I've been pleased thus far.
SOUND: Great quality, amazingly crystal clear sound in STXQ mode (highest setting). Stock stereo mic is actually pretty nice as well; I expected to have to buy another mic, but I don't know quite yet if that's necessary.
INTERFACE: Controls are a bit clumsy but a small price to pay for this quality, and given the extremely limited real estate on this tiny thing, I suppose they did a great job with design. It's plug and play so it's easy to use. It acts just like a jump drive for storage as well. Not to mention that I've been wearing this thing out and the batteries are still fully charged.
APPLICATION: I use it for lectures, business meetings, reminders, all the usual stuff. **HOWEVER, I actually bought it to try it out as a field recorder. I'm a musician and experimenting with sampling, and I've found that this is perfect for that. It was after all designed for podcasting. The specified field recorders out right now (Zoom H4, Edirol R9, etc.) have gotten tons of bad press; loud, clunky, low quality, etc., and there's no way I was going to buy an MD recorder. For less than half of the price of one of those, I bought this and the quality difference is unreal.
SHORTCOMINGS: Not many of these, but the big ones are the inability to rename files on the fly and the inability to resume a recording once stopped (you can do this if you simply pause the recording however but I'd like to be able to resume from a stopped or even powered `off' recording); it may do both of these, but I haven't figured it out yet. Also a problem is the fact that it doesn't come with a case of some sort. It's silver, metal and has a glass screen so I always feel like maybe it's going to get all scratched up. I'd also like removable memory option. For these small issues I've knocked it down to a 4 star rating; if there were a 4.5, I would have gone with that. If they came out with another that resolved all these small issues it would be worth another 25-40 bucks to me.
BOTTOM LINE: Truly outstanding bang for the buck. All in all, unbelievable sound (CD quality 44.1kz) and pretty easy to use. Good enough for a field recorder and no `tape' or hard drive ambient sounds.
Digital camera Review: Clear speech
Summary: 5 Stars
I really like my new Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder. No more tape, beautiful and clear speech reproduction to transcribe notes or speech samples for later review and transcription. It's easy to use and portable (fits into a shirt pocket or small haddbag.