An extraordinary product worth it's weight in gold!

This was my first foray into voice recorders.  I needed one to record my daughters' singing lessons so that they could practice at home.

I paid $40 for it on Amazon.com.  The recorder comes with a USB cord (mini-USB port on one end to plug into the recorder, and a standard USB port at the other end to plug into the computer), a software CD for the drivers needed to transfer recordings to the computer, and a soft leather pouch for carrying the recorder in.

The recorder provides several recording qualities to choose from.  The highest quality gives you about eleven and a half hours of recording time while the lowest quality gives you almost 150 hours.  Since, I transfer the recordings to the computer immediately after they are made and the recordings do not last more than a couple of hours at most, I have set the recorder to record at the highest quality level.  This review talks about the quality of the recording at this level and not the other recording qualities.

And the fact is that, the recording quality is exceptional.  It is very clear (I have also recorded some brain-storming sessions at work on this recorder and even the voice of the person farthest from the recorder is captured quite clearly even though this person might be 20 to 25 feet away) for speech as well as music.  It is easy to distinguish between the notes when the recording is of music.  There is no noise or hiss and the playback is good both on the recorder as well as on the computer.  Note that none of my recordings have been made using an external microphone.  The microphone built into the recorder has been more than adequate for producing excellent recordings on this machine.

As the specifications mention, the recorder has four folders into which you can put recordings.  Inside each folder you can put up to 255 separate recordings, so you get over 1000 separate recordings with this recorder if you choose.  Also, when you need to pause a recording, instead of hitting stop, you should hit record and then hit record again to continue if you want the whole thing in one recording instead of multiple separate recordings (this is mentioned in the user manual clearly, but who reads the manuals nowadays?).  This seems to cause lots of confusion and I see a lot of reviews saying that it allows only 4 recordings (confusion between folders and recordings, etc.) or that everytime they take a break, the audio gets recorded into a different file, and so on.  You can set up an option to make the recorder voice-activated so that the recorder pauses automatically if there is absolute silence during a recording session.

Once you install the software that comes with the recorder on your computer, it creates a driver that is required for this recorder to interface with the computer over USB.  Why the recorder could not be designed to be recognized as a mass storage device is a mystery to me.  But overall, the software has been quite reliable.  It recognizes the recorder as soon as I attach it to the computer and an interface pops up that allows you to transfer the recordings from the recorder to the computer.  The interface also allows you to play back the recording even though you can do that in any media player you choose since the recordings are in the standard WAV format (the recorder does not record in MP3 format and if you prefer your recordings in that format, you have to use stand-alone software like audacity to convert the recordings to MP3).  The interface also allows you to delete the recordings off the recorder, if you choose, after the transfer.  You can not transfer anything from the computer onto the recorder through this software.

Note that the recorder itself can be used stand-alone with no transfer to the computer if you so choose.  The recorder can play back the recordings clearly and at 3 different speeds.  You can also delete recordings off the recorder using just the recorder controls.  All this is explained clearly in the manual.

The recorder came with a set of batteries which I installed in the recorder as soon as I set it up.  It has been about 6 months since then and the batteries are still going strong even though the recorder is used in recording mode at least an hour each week and then a few more minutes in transfer mode, attached to my computer.

The recorder has only a black and white screen that shows basic information such as time left, time of recording, what folder you are recording to, etc.  It is not a full-featured LCD screen with graphical capabilities, etc., but it serves the purpose fine.

You can purchase external accessories for the recorder including microphones, head phones etc., but I have not felt the need for that.  About the only complaint I have about the recorder is the need for a special driver/software to transfer recordings from the recorder to a computer.  Otherwise, it is wonderful.