Sony ICD-ST10 Digital Voice Recorder with Voice-To-Print Compatibility

I bought this unit refurbished for about $75. It did exactly what I wanted it to do. I can now dictate into the unit, then hook it up via usb to my computer and have Dragon Naturally Speaking Version7 Professional turn my voice into typed text.

A word of caution about Dragon Naturally speaking; it takes about 10 hours over two weeks to get productive with high accuracy in Dragon. I read books, went to talks, and took training for Dragon. Dragon Naturallyspeaking dosn't work right out of the box -you and Dragon need training to get along. I found the Dragon training cd's from Say I Can very helpful.

Once you've mastered the Dragon, you will only need to touch the keyboard and mouse a few times a day while using your computer -you'll be moving around and typing into most applications with your voice. I'm using Dragon with various versions of Windows, not sure how it works on the Mac.

After hours of research for buying a digital voice recorder with voice to print for my lectures at school, I found out only Sony offers so far. But beware, this IST10 doesn't come with Dragon Naturally Speaking software (as one reviewer mentioned as I've the same purpose as him) but compactable with it. You have to choose either ICD-ST10VTP ($50 more)or ICD-MS515VTP to get Dragon preferred 7 software,otherwise, purchase software seperately. Bundle package is cheaper than purchase software separately. Good luck for your research!

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While my recorder worked I loved it. My wife bought it for me as a gift since I was always jotting notes on paper and losing them. This recorder was great for clipping to my shirt pocket and pulling out when I wanted to make a note of something to do. That is right up until one day the record feature stopped working. I had only had it three months. When my wife called the company they said it would cost $[price] to just take a look at it. This did not include any additional labor cost or shipping. Parts were covered since it was less than a year, gee thanks. Why isn't labor covered? Is Sony contracting out so much to cheap labor that they are not doing the quality work? I have seen numerous complaints like mine that indicate they are not interested in customer service. For this price wouldn't you agree it should have a year labor warranty as well?

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I just wanted to add more stars for my use of this recorder. I intended to use it only for my lectures at first but I couldn't use Dragon software for the professors' voices. How can they give me sample voices to train that software??? I bought "bundle" to get that software. I usually have 3 classes per day so I could use only LP mode and found out that using external mic is much better than the built-in mic from recorder.

Later, I converted old songs from tapes (otherwise, they're going to die soon) by ST mode. I bought audio cable from RadioShack with ~$8 and connected between recorder and cassette player. I could listen with earphone or external speakers while recording (to cut off between songs). The sound quality was awsome even from old tapes! I even converted them into MP3 format but you'll need to save in high quality wav file format. Sometimes, I converted them into WMA format with MS Plus!. I could listen old songs from tapes with a MP3 player. It will be a nice gift for my father on Fathers' Day.

Of course, it took time and required a lot of hard drive space and CDs but for me, worth it! I wish Sony should have bigger memory size for longer ST and SP modes, not just LP.

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I've had my Sony ICD-ST10 for several years and it hasn't failed me. I used it to document my trip out west and do a day by day diary. It's amazing how much you forget after the trip is over. The recordings we a great refresher to help me with my scrapbook of the trip.

I like using it to capture the grandkids when they don't know I'm recording. making memories to last a lifetime. I'm somewhat a geek when it comes to technology I love new products and I loved this the day I got it. I uploaded the software into my Sony Laptop PCG-FR130 and plugged in the USB cable and opened the program and there were the recordings nice and neat in folders. I copied them to my hard drive by pick and place then converted them to wav files so I can use them in other programs that don't recognize the Sony files. Seems easy to me but could be difficult for some casual user that doesn't want to figure this stuff out. the time is short for recording in ST mode but I don't need 5 hours anyway just some short memories and then transfer them.

I realize the recorder is no longer in production and Sony doesn't appear to support it but, if you find it available somewhere at a good price I would recommend it.

Pros: Small, batteries last a long time, fits my hand, adjustable mic for directional use, has 5 folders for different recordings, date and time display so you know when you recorded it.

Cons: Yeah some buttons are not too clear as to there function. but, you have a manual to refresh your memory. Most you won't use anyway. Would have been nice to have a removable memory. an external mic plug would be nice but think of it as the external mic.

2009 add to review---

Vista adds a new problem to the recorder. I loaded my software into the laptop with Vista and it crashed the program. I went to the sony site and could not find a Vista upgrade. I emailed them and they responded right away. There is no Vista support for this recorder. it is no longer supported. Sad but true.