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Digital Recorders for DictationElectronics have brought the world of dictation a long way from a secretary using shorthand, all the way to tiny digital electronic recorders that can pick up every word you say. If you need to record speeches, interviews, classes, or lectures, an electronic recording device is critical. For many years, micro cassette recorders dominated the market. Based around the small form factor of the micro cassette, the recorders were a little larger that a deck of cards, or about the width of two rulers, though only about 5 inches long. These devices weren't bad - just as we adapted to fast forwarding and rewinding tapes in our answering machines and VCRs, we could do it with out voice recorders, too, if we had to. But let's face it, no one likes juggling a bunch of tapes, trying to figure out how to copy, transfer, or save files from tapes, or all the rewinding involved with analog storage of data on tape.
Best Voice Recorders - Handheld RecordersThe digital voice recorder market is really dominated by Olympus, but Sony is a not too distant second. Panasonic, Memorex, and a few other players fill out the ranks, but we can't really find a reason to recommend a voice recorder made by someone other than Sony or Olympus. Olympus in fact invented micro cassette recorders in the late 1960s. They break up their voice recorder product line into a few segments. There is the professional dictation group, the digital recorder group, and the digital recorder with music player group. The Professional Dictation models include the Olympus DR-1000, Executive, DR-2000, DS-3300, DS-2200, and DS-4000. The Directrec DR-1000 Executive has a built in omni directional microphone, noise reduction, programmable buttons, and costs around $230. The DS-2200 will set you back about $290, and comes with 512MB of storage, which will hold 4 hours of SHQ stereo recording, and nearly 180 hours of monaural recording. Five folders allow you to organize and store up to 199 files each. It is powered by 2 AAA batteries, making it easy to swap out new batteries on the road or wherever you might be. The Olympus Digital Recorder family includes the VN-3100PC, the DS-2300, DS-2, WS-200, WS-100, VN-960PC, and VN2100. All except the VN-2100 are PC downloadable. The VN2100 comes with just 64MB of flash memory but costs only $39. It is a great, cheap solution for basic recording needs. Sound quality is good, recording time is up to 35 hours in lowest quality mode, and power comes from 2 AAA batteries. The Olympus DS-2 is an older model, one of the most popular made by Olympus. At around $129, you get excellent quality recording and playback. A built in stereo mic picks up incredible sound details and the large backlit LCD screen makes it easy to see even in darkened rooms. With only 64MB of memory though, you get only a little over one hour in SHQ mode.Digital Music Recorders - SonyIf you want music with your recordings, check out the Olympus WS-320M and WS-310M and DM-20. These handheld recorders are also designed to let you carry around and listen to your digital music collection. The WS-320M lets you store over 250 songs on its 1GB of internal flash memory. It can also record in WMA format, making it a breeze to capture audio and music files and play them back later on many devices. It is a USB direct device, meaning you can plug it right into your PC and transfer files back and forth. It can be set to be sound activated, so it will record automatically when needed. It runs for up to 15 hours on a single AAA battery. Priced at around $239, this was one of our favorite devices for its versatility. You can check out the line of Sony Voice Recorders at SonyStyle.com. Unfortunately, a lot of their voice recorder devices are built around their proprietary memory stick format - remember Beta tapes?? Sony would like you to use their expensive storage format for memory chips as well. Please Sony, stop with this stuff! They also make some normal flash recorders like the Sony Voice Plus All-In-One Digital Voice Recorder SolutionspacerICD-U70 for about $179. It comes with 1 GB of flash memory, and lets you listen to MP3 files or record your lectures or interviews. It also has built in USB connectivity, which is a big plus. If you want to spend $400 and get a built in digital camera with your dictation device, check out the Sony Visual Voice Recorder CD-CX50. Designed more for professionals in the insurance or inspection industry, this one seemed a little over the top for us, especially with the very simplistic 1.2MP camera - that's about the lowest resolution camera you could find these days, and it is not worth the price. Their memory stick based products include the Memory Stick Pro Duo Digital Voice Recorder CD-MX20VTP ($299) and Memory Stick Pro Duo Digital Voice Recorder CD-BM1AVTP2 ($349). The latter model comes with only 32MB of memory stick storage, but does has built in speaker, alarm and digital clock, 340 folders for storage, and large LCD screen. The Sony model we liked the best was the Sony ICDSX46 - 128MB Digital Voice Recorder w/ MP3 Playback, priced at just $120. It has a small, compact design and records great sound from its built in microphone. Playing back MP3 files required first converting them to Sony internal format, making it not great as a music player, but very good as a digital recording device.When buying a digital voice recorder, you'll want to look out for a few key features. If you want to be able to save or copy your recordings over to your computer to keep them, look out for low-end models that don't offer PC connectivity (no USB connection). For example if you are planning to record college lectures, the ability to download them to your computer and perhaps email to a friend or play back later is critical.
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