Olympus WS-320M 1 GB Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player by Olympus
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Digital camera reviews of Olympus WS-320M 1 GB Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player
Digital camera Review: A Little Disappointment...
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this recorder for dictation purposes. Works great. Simple to handle, quite handy, easily goes in my pocket and my wife's purse. Files can be easily moved to any computer as back up. Only problem I see with this device is that the play back volume is low even on the highest setting. Perhaps good with ear phones, but certainly a disspointment when played on the built in speakers. Then again, what can I expect in a device of this size?
I forgot to put the device on hold, but it should automatically go to hold and save battery, hmm... disappointed to see that the brand new copper top battery is completely run down after a week.
Digital camera Review: A bit dissapointed
Summary: 4 Stars
The product is exactly what I needed. Great battery life and works very well. My only problem was with Amazon. I live locally and opted for the free shipping. They scheduled me almost 2 weeks out for delivery! I waited a week and viewed my order and the time frame had changed to an additional two days. I complained to Amazon via email. I told them that I am a loyal customer and live locally and there is no reason to wait almost 3 weeks for a product that they have in stock, free shipping or not. They promptly sent my product the following day.Digital camera Review: A great music player / digital voice recorder combo
Summary: 4 Stars
My DVR (digital voice recorder) experience has included the Sony ICD-MS515, the Olympus DS-2200 and DS-2. My main use for DVRs is PC archival of lectures and sermons.
The new WS-320M appealed to me because of its 1GB of flash memory, small size, WMA codec, and built-in USB connector. My older DS-2 is disadvantaged with only 64mb of memory and a proprietary 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.
ADDENDUM (July 13, 2006)
Upon reading the comment that the reviewer's WS-320M had firmware 1.18 and kept date and time correctly at all times, I contacted Olympus customer service and was able to obtain a warranty repair to correct the problem where my WS-320M would not keep time with the battery compartment disconnected. About ten days after shipping the recorder to Olympus, the unit was returned repaired with a note that the circuit board was replaced. My recorder now keeps the correct time.
After seven months of use, the WS-320M has held up well. It has been protected by a sheet of clear vinyl wrapped around it and still looks new. I have been very satisfied with this recorder. The recorder will even play protected audiobooks downloaded from the public library. My Ipod will not play those audiobooks.
Digital camera Review: Absolutely horrible compared to WS-100
Summary: 1 Stars
I love my WS-100, the 64Mb predecessor of the 320M. I needed more recording time and therefore went for this 1Gb version. All I can say is WHAT HAS OLYMPUS DONE!!!!! This unit is flimsy, the hold and music/voice buttons rattle and worst of all when I tried to record an interview I could berely hear the other person even after I downloaded the file to my PC. Luckily I also recorded the interview with my WS-100, and the other person was loud and clear. During the recording the 320M was placed on a table about 4' away from my subject, and the hiss was appalling, it made it painful to listen during playback. I do not have an external mic and I really don't want to have to buy one just to record without hiss after all I have minimal hiss with the WS-100, even when I hold it in my hand. I have tried recording at different modes and SP/Dict seems to produce less hiss. Given others comments, I'm wondering if this model is broken because there is no way I could record a lecture with this. I am very very dissapointed in the quality of the 320M.
Update: The replacement unit was only marginally better than the original on recording voice. The hiss was only bearable in playback using the SP/Dict mode. This is good for interviews when you are in close proximity to the other, but it is unless in a classroom. The only use this unit has is as a player of the recordings I made with my WS-100. As a DVR -it is not!
Digital camera Review: Almost a great product
Summary: 3 Stars
The recorder is great - lots of memory and records well for a tiny device. Playback in both voice and music mode is a total pain. Quality is fine, but one's ability to navigate is terrible. For example, there's no true FF, just a quirky speedup feature that goes around 3X record speed. Should you accidently press FF or RW twice, which is easy, you're at the end or begining of the file and screwed. Also, the device doesn't work connected to your computer. For me, this is a big shortcoming when my only battery goes flat, say. When plugged in, it acts just like a flash drive. Lastly, the battery went down on me one time and I lost two interviews-not sure why, because other times I didn't looose files. Lastly, lastly, its kinda fragile and quite tiny - not for the clumsy. And, the ear phones aren't good for music-no low end unless you cram them into your ears.