Olympus WS-300M 256 MB Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player by Olympus
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Digital camera reviews of Olympus WS-300M 256 MB Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player
Digital camera Review: A great little recorder
Summary: 5 Stars
I upgraded from the WS-100 (which I still use occasionally), and this is a great improvement. Being able to record in stereo is nice, though I don't normally use this feature (when I do, it makes great stereo recordings). The display is very informative (and backlit - a nice feature) and having a separate front-panel navigation circle makes it so much more convenient for menus and things. I mostly use it to record an audio diary - frequently while in my car. Being able to set the noise threshold for the voice activated recording is a real help here.
It records in WMA format. I'd have preferred mp3, but the recordings are amazingly good quality for their size.
Only nit-picky issue is the battery level meter. It can suddenly go from "full" to "not enough battery" with no intermediete steps. Another missing features - no date/time display (except through the setup menu, and this is several items deep). Although the date doesn't drift as much as on the ws100, it would be nice to be able to quickly check this, since I organize recordings by date.
Digital camera Review: A lot of performance in a small package
Summary: 4 Stars
The music (mp3, wma) sound quality through headphones or external amp is really great. It's easy to plug in to the computer to exchange files and works well with Windows Media Player. The recording quality is pretty good as is, but the addition of an external microphone makes considerable improvement.
I use this recorder to get samples of live music sessions at pubs and clubs. Used up close (20 ft circle) with an active stereo (ME51S) microphone in it's own mini stand, I get really good samples. If it performs well in that environment with all of it's uncontrolled background noise, I can only imagine how well it would perform at meetings or lectures.
The only issue I have is the small and blocky display text. You have to become familiar with the selections and not rely on reading the options from the screen... especially in low light.
Bottom line... I'm very happy with the performance, love the sound, love the size, like the price even with the stereo microphone.
Digital camera Review: A very impressive little machine
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought my WS-300M about one month ago and use it practically every day for a few hours. I love it. It's beautifully designed, expertly documented in the instruction manual, easy to use, versatile, and interfaces flawlessly with my computer.
I mainly use it for on-the-fly recording of original songs I sing and play on my acoustic guitar. I use the built-in stereo mics. I have found the sound quality surprisingly good.
I've dropped it a few times, and it survived without damage.
Digital camera Review: Almost perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
This little machine is almost perfect. I've recorded conversations in very noisy environments (including once at a café, close to a blender that was driving me crazy) and, much to my surprise, the recording was absolutely clear. Very impressive. Transferring the files to the computer is as easy as plugging and copying.
I have two small problems with this Olympus model: First of all, it has no pause button, so if you need to take a break in your recording (as I often do, when I'm recording lectures) you have no choice but start a new recording file. It's no big deal, but it would be nice to be able to pause and continue recording in the same file. Second, the batteries get drained really, really quickly. It's a shame that you can plug the Olympus to your computer just as easily as you can plug an iPod, but you can't recharge the voice recorder in the computer (as you can with the iPod).
I hope the Olympus people will consider solving these two flaws. If so, they would make what is already a very good voice recorder absolutely perfect.
Digital camera Review: Amazon is great
Summary: 3 Stars
the first one I received burned through batteries at the rate of 3 per hour. I wrote amazon and the sent me a new one - received it three days later! it is ok for recording lectures, but my friend (sits next to me) has the old model and it produces much higher quality recording.