Sony ICD-MX20 Memory Stick Pro Duo Digital Voice Recorder | List Price: $299.95
Discount Price: $176.24
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Brand: Sony
Binding: Electronics
Features: - Compact, handheld digital recorder
- Memory uses high-capacity IC chip
- Hybrid media card storage with Memory Stick Duo or Pro Duo
- Features advanced digital voice operated recording (VOR)
- Measures 1.18 x 0.67 x 4.23 inches (W x D x H)
Unbelievably Difficult to Use [Posted on 2007-05-20]
Technical devices are usually easy for me to navigate. That is until I met the Sony ICD-MX20. It is unbelievable! I have now owned this device for 3 months, have made multiple efforts to read the incomprehensible instructions that came with the recorder, and am now looking for a replacement. It is hard to comment on all the great features every one comments upon when it is not possible to get to first base! This product is only for super techies. Normal people should look elsewhere.
Good recording quality, some flaws [Posted on 2007-05-29]
I bought this recorder to replace a previous Sony model that I'd been very happy with, but wanted longer recording capacity. The ICD-MX20 works very well in terms of recording quality, but it has a few design flaws I didn't notice mentioned in other reviews.
First, the main control is a very fiddly little joystick in the middle of the unit, and it's very easy to press the wrong direction (the main problem is that the main play/pause button is controlled by pressing it into the unit, whilst skip etc are up/down/left/right and it often fires off these by accident). The other thing (which is really quite a bit problem for me) is that even when the 'hold' button is on, the unit powers up when any of the buttons are pressed to tell you that the hold button is on. This means that you can't keep it in your pocket (which I did for my old Sony). You can put new batteries in the unit (I'm using 850mAH NiMH) and 2 days later the battery will be flat, even if you didn't use it and the hold button was on the whole time.
That said, I'm fairly happy with the unit. I keep it in my bag, and that fixes the 'hold' issue, but I wish Sony would fix the design issues. It's good, but could so easily be great.
Transcribing we will go... [Posted on 2007-07-16]
This is one of a number of electronic devices designed for all human beings with toothpick fingers. The little teeny toggle switch on this device is insane -- the operation is difficult and the operating instructions are convoluted -- so why five stars!? Because when used with the headphone mike that comes with Dragon Naturally Speaking -- nothing works better with that software -- I'm up to about 88% accuracy in just two days. This is a most powerful tool for all kinds of writing.
Good "Mid-range" Consumer-Grade Recorder For Voice Recognition [Posted on 2007-10-30]
If you're interested in dictation and voice-recognition, the Sony ICD-MX20 is an excellent "midrange" consumer-grade recorder. It's expensive, but nowhere near as expensive as the high-end professional-grade Olympus or Philips recorders, and I've been getting good results with it. The Sony's joystick and other controls are small, but not that difficult to use once you get used to them, and I didn't think the enclosed instructions were hard to follow at all. I'm not a real heavy user yet, so I can't say anything definite about the battery life, but personally I don't have to change batteries that often as long as I remember to put the recorder on Hold when I'm not using it. My only complaint with Sony recorders in general is that they don't come with a decent carrying pouch. The one provided with the recorder is useless and I ended up having to search around until I found a cell-phone belt-pouch I could use.
I use the MX20 strictly for dictation, so I have no idea how good it is for recording lectures or music and the like. I do most of my dictation while driving around in my car and I always use a high-end noise-canceling headset mike (the Knowbrainer Hand's Free mike which is basically the same as the more expensive Sennheiser ME3 which I use for dictating at my laptop). With this setup, I've been getting around 98 percent accuracy with my transcriptions (using Dragon Naturally Speaking v9.5 and the recorder settings specified by Nuance). Personally, I think you almost have to use a good noise-canceling mike if you want to get decent results from transcribing dictation, so if this is what you're interested in, you should count on spending another $50 to $100 or so in addition to the price of the recorder. All in all, the MX20 is probably not the best recorder for speech-recognition, but it works pretty well and it's a reasonable compromise if you can't afford $500 for a Philips 9600 or an Olympus DS-4000.
Editor [Posted on 2008-05-03]
I would like to share my view for this product between [1 - 10 it is a 7]
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