Olympus DS-2 Digital Voice Recorder

List Price: $129.99 Discount Price: $132.75

Features:

• Compact digital voice recorder with 64 MB of internal memory and USB docking station
• Up to 22 hours of recording time in LP mode; 12 total speed levels (8 fast playback and 4 slow playback)
• Each of 5 file folders holds 199 files; includes DSS Player editing software
• USB dock connects to Mac or PC for file transfers; voice activation for hands-free recording
• 18 hours of operation on 2 AAA batteries (included); 1.48 by 4.8 by 0.69 inches (W x H x D)

Customer Reviews:

Not a bad little recorder [Posted on 2007-10-23]
Nice little recorder. I bought this one because it works with Mac. Software on the Mac is easy to use. My only complaint about the recorder is that the playback sound is not very good. After listening to it for 30 minutes it started to bother my ears. But if you import the recording to the Mac and listen to it from the Mac, it is fine. If you are a Mac user and you want to import your recordings to your computer, I would recommend this recorder.

Excellent compact recorder [Posted on 2007-11-01]
I purchased this unit for recording interviews of sources for books and magazine articles. It replaced a reliable Sony tape recorder. The DS-2 is FAR more compact than a tape recorder, so compact it's easy to lose. And sound quality is excellent, with lots of recording time available in five files. User interface can be slightly tricky, so take care you don't record over a track you need. But interface is generally intuitive, and it was easy to transfer files to a PC for transcription. Overall, I really, really, really am glad I bought this shiny device.

olympus and dragon naturally speaking 8 [Posted on 2007-12-05]
I bought it specifically to use with dragon naturally speaking 8. My initial thoughts:

Pros:
-Jaw Dropping accuracy. I mean there is nothing that will prepare you for the shock you will feel when you see your mumbled voice recording appearing on the screen into a neatly typed document. Its eerie.

-the ds-2 was the second highest rated recommended voice recorder on dragon's (nuance's) website. (the highest rated one is a sony model which is considerably more expensive than the ds-2).

-relatively inexpensive if you can pick it up on sale or used.

-Nice ergonomics, solid feel, a pleasure to use.


Cons:
-kludgie and non professional method of setting up the olympus to talk with DNS. As the other review here mentioned, the instructions are haphazard. Basically DS-2 comes with olympus' DSS player, a program to organize, play, and manage the voice notes on the ds-2. if you want to integrate with DNS 8, you need to upgrade to "DSS Plus". That costs 10 bucks extra, and involves navigating olympus's website until you come to the order page which looks like it was set up by a high school student. Amazingly, if you take the plunge and give them your credit card number, you eventually get a code that you go back into DSS Player and type in (look under one of the menu's, i think it was under the help menu), and that "upgrades" you to "plus". After that you have to launch dragon, create a new user, select olympus ds-2 as the source, then you have to train the new user account by reading into your ds-2 a VERY LONG PASSAGE (literally 30 minutes of reading) that dragon provides. The whole process is cumbersome, time consuming, and not well documented, though you CAN get thru it if you take a deep breath at each phase and 'just believe'. After the long training, dragon analyzes your voice recording (which takes a long time too - up to 30 minutes). but after that, you're done, and it does an eerily superb job of transcribing voice recordings rapidly and incredibly accurately, even when you mumble, and even with an air conditioner running in the background. Just stunning. I've never seen anything like it. I'm utterly delighted.

-wont work with dns 9, though there was a note on the website that an update might be available. May not work with vista either, though maybe the update will address that too.

-eats batteries - use one of the new "eneloop" rechargeable batteries and you'll be okay. The "eneloop" batteries can sit in the player for a long time and dont lose their charge when unused (unlike lithiums.)

Thats my first impression. Did mention that your jaw will drop?

crapy usb cable [Posted on 2008-02-04]
The DS2 it'sself is excellent for what I use it for the two problems I have is that since I have a mac the software for the computer is not what you would expect and the USB cable uses a propietery mini usb port but claims to use a normall one so I am having to buy a new cable because I lost the old one even though I have 3 mini usb cables sitting next to me.

Digital recorder extraordinaire [Posted on 2008-03-06]
I'm a freelance technology writer who lives or dies by the ability to record my interviews with chief technology officers and systems administrators of big companies. Having the accuracy of a quote or technical comment is critical. This is my third digital recorder by Olympus and they just keep getting better and better. The DS-20 model has plenty of room for recording multiple interviews before I'd need to download them. The quality and feature set are excellent. Wish I had one of these in graduate school!

Click here for more details and discount information...