Olympus WS-320M 1 GB Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player by Olympus
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Our Price: $139.99 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 WS-320M 1 GB Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player
Digital camera Review: Excellent compact recorder
Summary: 4 Stars
I sing in a chorus and several of the guys bought one of these mp3 recorders ahead of me. It is very light, very compact, and conveneint to carry. It works well enough on a lanyard, though there is some rushing noise picked up as the device moves across clothing.
The sound is more than acceptable for a novice singer who wants to record himself and others, then listen later with a critical ear. I've recorded sessions of the chorus and end up with a sound that holds up well on a stereo. The basic controls are straightforward, though it gets more cumbersome trying to do more than simple operations.
The AAA battery seems to last longer than I had feared.
If I break this one or lose it, I would not hesitate to buy another.
Digital camera Review: Excellent recorder
Summary: 5 Stars
Very good voice quality for a small recorder and easy to transfer on a laptop or desktop. Meets all my expectations from a good recorder.Digital camera Review: Excellent recorder
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best handheld recorder I've ever had. It's small & lightweight, but is a heavyweight in practicality.Digital camera Review: Fabulous but...
Summary: 4 Stars
I am knocked out by the capacity,audio quality and basic usability of this device...BUT there seems to be no way to fast forward in a fast way -- if you want to fast forward say one hour into an audiobook, you need to hold the forward button down for maybe 2 minutes. This is the only downside.Digital camera Review: Falls short of an iPod but nice recorder
Summary: 4 Stars
I'll begin by saying this recorder is rapidly becoming an invaluable tool for me. I have owned several of digital voice recorders and they have all found their way into the bottom of my junk drawer. The Olympus recorder is the first recorder which I have personally owned which has fine enough fidelity to make it useful. I am using the highest quality, stereo recording since 35 hours is more than ample, overkill really. On the lower quality settings, it can store many times more.
I have an Intel Mac running OS X. Although Olympus does not support Macintosh officially, the package says Mac compatible. Simply make your voice recordings, plug in the USB connector to your Mac, and open the wma files to hear the recording. I found several Mac shareware and freeware programs on Versiontracker to read wma files or convert them to mp3's so this wasn't an issue for me. If you browse folders from the Mac, OS X will put ds store and other hidden files onto the player, but the player ignores them. It also ignores user files, so I can easily use it as a jump drive to transfer programs, photographs, etc.
No special software is needed to use it as an MP3 player, although Olympus suggests using Media Player for Apple. Not happening, as no Microsoft software will be installed on MY Mac. Simply drag and drop. But, the display always says unknown title / unknown artist. I'm pretty sure my ID3v1 tags are set properly and I'm still looking into this.
An iPod it's not. With a decent pair of headphones and playing around with the equalizer and wow settings, you will get quality good enough for background music. But, Olympus falls short of Apple's iPod quality. There is a newer model coming out soon, which I found on their website but was not available in stores yet. Perhaps they have addressed the sound quality issue, but you'll need to pay more for it. Wav files are best for playback if you have the space to store them.
No gripes with the built-in stereo microphones. The case does feel a bit cheap and the carrying case for it is another twenty bucks. Well, that's pretty typical for Olympus. There is a backlight, but it comes on for only a few seconds when a key is pressed. There is no way to remotely control the music player and the buttons are just a tad too small. I was impressed with the display, which shows a stereo recording level meter and headphones can be used to monitor what's being recorded. The mic is very sensitive, but there is a bit of hiss - I would consider it normal for a device of this type.
Don't pay full price for the WS-320M as the WS-331M has been announced. Then, decide if you want a bargain or if you want the latest technology. Myself, I'll probably use this in addition to an iPod since iPod does not have a voice recorder.