Olympus VN-801PC Digital Voice Recorder

I use these digital voice recorders on a regular basis, having started with the 4200, then the 6200 and now this model. I bought this one after comparing it with the 8100, and didn't see how they differed except the 8100 comes with a cover. I haven't explored the extra features with the 801, but am impressed with it's recording capability, and the option to use either wma or mp3 formats. Some changes I like are: the speaker being on the front, the improved visibility on the screen, the wider body, controls, especially choosing what to erase and the additional memory, and adding the word 'power' to the hold control. It's a nice machine and well priced. We use it for basic language data recording.

Jim

The way I evaluate how easy to use a product is by looking (or in this case not looking at the manual, this product is sufficiently easy to use, I do not need to open its manual to start to use it right away.

First, the good points:

1. I find the microphone came with the recorder is very senstive and can pick up volume quite nicely from a distance, this is good for me as I bought this for recording my conference minutes.

2. It appears to be well made, I drop it once (already!) from 6 ft, and it did not appear to damage it.

Now, the not so good point:

The play back volume and speaker is not very good, in a quite room you certainly can hear it, but if you are in an outdoor environment or driving, forget it, the playback is not very good. you can crank up the volume but distortion will set in, I was thinking first, this may be the recording volume issue, but after I upload to my PC with better play back device, I know this is not the case, it is the recorder itself.

Update 3-5-2012

After several month use, I can tell you another not so good point about the recorder, it will eat battery (2x AAA) quickly, with a new set of battery, no recording but just playback, it will last 3 weeks in daily use for 40 minute a day, I consider this is not very efficient.

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Pros:

The sound of recordings is exceptionally clear. This unit replaced a Sony and the battery life of this unit is FAR FAR superior. This unit powers down after a few minutes of no use. It can also power down manually. That saves battery life. The Sony has no way to shut it off other than removing a battery. I use this to record hour long lectures and the batteries in the Sony would last four lectures over four days before really needing to be recharged. The initial alkaline batteries in the Olympus have recorded well over a dozen lectures and the batteries are still strong.

Cons:

To record in MP3, which I do since I am sending the recordings to others (and some want to play on devices that don't play WMA files and those recipients are not technologically astute), means large file sizes for a one hour lecture. The file size at the worst recording level is about 16 MB for almost one hour. That is too large for some email recipients. Drop Box is an easy workaround.

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I purchased this so that i could keep track of my random ideas throughout my day, and have now been using it to practice my interviewing skills. very easy to use, love that it records in chapters, impressed with how much it can store, and that I can save my digital files.

only thing that would improve this would be if it was rechargeable.

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I've been using this for about 1.5 years now, and I like it. The battery has yet to die and I've been able to intuit the instructions easily without needing to consult the manual constantly.

Actually, I went to turn it on while I was typing up this review and it's dead. So there you go. About 1.5 years from 2 AAA batteries.

It has a port for microphones, a port for earphones, and a usb port for downloading the audio files.

I've been using it to record myself instructing new hires with a throat mic and it has worked quite well.

My only complaints are:

The USB port is not covered and gets dirt and lint in it quite easily.

The "on" switch is a toggle, and it can get activated by accident if you aren't careful. I haven't had too much problem with this though.