Good audio quality in a light package

I had been using an Optimus Micro-37 portable tape recorder for over 5 years and needed an upgrade. There wasn't anything wrong with it, besides a broken microphone jack. Although there are plenty of digital recorders on the market now, I still feel audio cassettes are more robust and less likely to crash on me...so I bought the Sony M-670V when I saw it in a pawn shop display case...total cost: $13.00.


Voice clarity is excellent. This recorder definitely sounds better than my old one. Even recording music sounds okay. Since the thing didn't come with a manual, I hoped it would be easy to use, and it was. Most of the buttons are clearly labeled as to their functions, and the ones that aren't...you can figure out on your own. Your standard controls are all there, play, record, stop, fast-forward and rewind. In addition, you have a double-speed option which helps in quickly going through notes. There is also a pause button...although I rarely use it because the stop button serves the same purpose.

On the opposite side of these controls are VOR, which I guess stands for Voice Operated Recording. Anytime someone speaks and you have record pressed in, it turns on. When there is no speech, it turns itself off. This works really well when you want to hide the tape recorder somewhere and catch someone saying something...or lectures...yeah...lectures. Seriously though, it's a good feature.

There is also a tape speed slide control which works better than my old recorder. I would tend to hit the slider accidentally with the old one and always wonder why during playback I sounded like a chipmunk all of a sudden. With the slower tape speed, you get longer tape recordings but at the expense of a more of a walkie-talky, staticky, duller sound. Sound is still intelligible at this setting, but there is definitely a difference between the modes. There is also 3 volt DC input jack next to this switch.

On top of the recorder is 1/8" inputs (hooray!) My old recorder used 1/16" inputs that I never bothered with because they weren't "standard." Plus, the microphone jack on it never worked, and I had no use for headphones. Well...with the Sony both inputs work and they work well. Outputting directly from the headphone jack to my audio mixer (running to my computer) I can get virtually no loss in quality...which is what I often use my recorder for (I run an Internet show and sometimes interview people on the street.) As a matter of fact, the audio sounds BETTER because I'm no longer at the mercy of the quality of the speaker. Don't get me wrong, the speaker on this recorder is good...but putting a pair of headphones on while listening to this thing gets you the "real deal." And, I no longer have to set up a microphone right up against the speaker grille and keep quiet while dubbing!

All is not good for this recorder though. I'm not sure if my unit is defective (it was bought used, after all) but the battery low indicator lights up WAY too soon. I'm glad that such an indicator exists, but it's useless when it lights up just a few days after fresh batteries are installed and then lasts for another month or so until the batteries finally really do die!

The only other thing I don't like about this recorder is that it doesn't seem to record distant sound very well. I used to take my Optimus to college lectures and it made good with the professor being about 15-20 feet away. This one...the volume is just too low.

This recorder is definitely worth the money. My old recorder was $50.00 brand new and I believe this one can be had for $33.00. It's lighter, clearer, and it has a modern silver finish. I compared the quality of this to the digital ones...I'm sticking with tape at this price point.