Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder

List Price: $249.00 Discount Price: Too low to display

Features:

• Professional-grade digital voice recorder with high-sensitivity microphone
• Up to 136 hours of recording time; 30-hour battery life
• Connect to PC to transfer files or download podcasts
• Store and listen to favorite music anytime, anywhere
• Timer recording, alarm playback, slow/fast

Accessories:

Olympus WS-311M Digital Voice Recorder and WMA Music Player

Customer Reviews:

learn the basics first, then start recording to save hassles [Posted on 2008-04-15]
* good sound, but learn about various recording levels (ST XQ, ST HQ, HQ, SP, LP) first before recording. the long recording time they promise is actually LP-setting, which is a narrower width/lower quality of recording.

* advice: set the VCA as soon as you get it to prevent accidently shutting off mid-recording without you knowing it. familiarize yourself with mic levels early, as well as noise reduction, lowcut filter.

* stylish, thin, light, easy to navigate once you learn the basic ropes. I use it to teach workshops and lectures, myself speaking as well as participants across the room. I prop it up by a speaker, or keep it on me with a collar mic.

* REALLY needs more memory though, like 4 or 8gb, (I'm spoiled after using ipods for years, even a shuffle with more memory than the ds-30, 40, and 50 combined) but at a reasonable price. 512mb or 1GB doesn't allow you to "store" recordings in there and keep recording!! So, you have to be diligent about downloading the files onto your computer to avoid filling memory that prevents you from recording when you need to.

* MAC compatibility? YES>>> Download: Flip4Mac, switchmac, you don't need to buy QuickTime Pro. Open files in QuickTime and drag them onto your desktop of Music folder.

works as expected [Posted on 2008-04-23]
I bought this recorder to record lectures at school. So far it has functioned well. Sound quality is excellent, I use mono mode for voice. In HQ stereo mode the sound gets even better, but for my purposes it is not necessary. I use rechargeable batteries, I have recharged them every couple weeks. WMA files are easily worked with on any modern sound editor.
I have used the recorder as a microphone input for Skype, sound quality is very good too. The software that comes with recorder allows you to switch between Storage Device and Audio Device, and that determines how your computer uses USB attached recorder.
Overall, my complains are that you can not monitor sound conditions for voice (sound) activated recording setting without actually recording. So I just record a small clip, set the thresh hold value (mine usually is somewhere around 10), stop the recording, delete the clip, and then set it to record. The other complain is about the naming and numbering of files - the recorder restarts the numbering once you delete the file from it, so when later you are transferring files to the computer, you have to be careful not to overwrite the older files that can have the same names.

Oahuan [Posted on 2008-05-02]
I bought this little recorder and its the best thing I bought. The sound is great for such a little recorder and the sub files is very useful. Great product.

Olmpus DS-40 Digital Recorder [Posted on 2008-05-04]
This recorder is a first rate choice. It is priced mid-range for products of its type, but its quality of performance is extremely high. It has different playback speeds so you can speed up or slow down what you have recorded. The sound on playback speed is not distorted. Battery life is very good.

The most impressive attribute of the Olympus DS-40 is the sound quality of what you are recording. I have had other digital recorders and this is by far the best.

It has three recording mode selections - dictation, lecture, or conference. Most frequently I use lecture and I can pick up voices with excellent clarity.

Given its weight and small inconspicuous size, the quality of the recordings is outstanding. If I had to repurchase another mobile recorder, this would be the one I would select.

Amazing! [Posted on 2008-05-10]
I LOVE it! Whenever I play back my recordings on the stereo, my wife says it's like having two of me in the room because the sound is so amazingly clear! I can't imagine how this product could have been made any better.

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