Olympus Pearlcorder J300

Pros: VCVA Activated recording, FFW, REV, free tape, different recording settings, built-in mic

Cons: Analog, not digital.

The Bottom Line: Recommended as a play-around toy, but not as a serious business recording tool.

Review: I don't understand the three one-star reviews on this product. I remember purchasing this recorder in probably Sep, Oct, or Nov, 2001 and have been pretty happy with it. I've played around with it a few times here and there, and overall it's not too...

Pros: Small, good microphone

Cons: Recording feature doesn't work after 15 hours of total use.

Review: I bought this a couple years ago, but have rarely used it except to record/play occasional speech practice sessions. I liked it at first. Now it won't record because the tape stops after 3 seconds. It has been sitting on my desk--never dropped,...

Pros: Compact, easy for kids to use, fair recording quality.

Cons: Battery compartment and cassette door malfunctioned in less than a year.

The Bottom Line: If you're not letting kids use this it could be OK. We thought it was a bit overpriced considering it didn't last a year without problems

Review: We bought this little recorder for our son who's 9 to use in school as he has problems with hand writing. He used it daily to record book reports or other written assignments, then I scribe them out for him. His teacher had control of it so it...

Pros: Good sound pickup, Good features, Light and compact.

Cons: None yet.

Review: I haven't owned any other such units, but even so, I still feel comfortable to say that this is a pretty good recorder.

I used it to tape some conversations, among other things. Using simply a cheap cell-phone earbud/in-line-mic set, even...

Pros: Compact

Cons: Not very durable

Review: Got the "silver" Olympus Pearlcoder S711 at Target. After using it for two days worth of dictation. It started falling apart with a thudding noise affecting the recording.