Sony ICD-U70 All-In-One MP3 and Digital voice recorder 1GB

I bought it mainly for speech (not music) recording.

It is a pretty good recording device. However, you can only

listen to the recordings using the recorder or play back on PC

using the software plugins for Windows media player.

The plugins comes with the player on a CD and I had no problem

installing it.

The recoding is in a proprietary SONY format called "dvf" or

"digital voice file". The software that comes with the recorder

can not convert dvf to any other format such as mp3 or wav.

It does not have a conversion feature.

As far as I can tell, you need to buy either a SONY digital vocie

transcript kit that comes wth SONY "digital voice editor" or some

3rd party software to do the conversion. I called SONY support asking

to buy a copy of "digital voice editor" and they sold and sent me

a CD for about $38.00. This CD is the same as the one that came

with the recorder; it is scratched and has no vocie editor on it.

I alled SONY again and was told this CD is the only one they support.

I bought this recorder to do one-on-one interviews. I can't listen to the recordings on the actual player though, I have to transfer them to the computer and play them with an audio playerthe volume of the recordings is too quiet on the recorder itself. The quality of the recordings is fine once you get them transfered. The folders and the amount of storage on the recorder are great, but if I would have known that you can not listen to the files on the recorder I would have never purchased this.

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I got this device for voice recording, specifically notes to myself.The device records well even at 2-3 feet way. The playback volume is pitiful, however, even at the highest setting. Calling support was no help as they just directed me to do what I had already done and then told me it was recommended that one should always listen to the recording through the headphones. That is inconvenient for my purposes and I don't see any place on the package or on the insert which states that.

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It's a great bargain; I use it for its voice recording feature, at which it far surpasses any other brand. Every other mp3 voice recorder I've gotten records in a compressed wav format which is totally unreliable and I've lost messages that are unrecoverable, at random times. This records on its proprietary format, which produces wonderfully small files which can easily be converted to any other format in the world with one click on your PC if you get a 3rd-party program called Switch. I highly recommend it.

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I bought this puppy when it was first available through Sony in September of 2006 for the sole intention of recording all my thoughts while on a 7,000 mile bicycle ride around the country. I made an armband holder for it and away I went. The voice recorder held up beautifully against five months of weather and extensive use every single day. I was able to record and ride at the same time without significant wind being recorded. The AAA battery seemed to last forever, that is until I started using the MP3 playback option -using music, it probably lasts 5 hours or so.

Anyhoo, I was very happy with the voice recorder. It's very simple to operate without having to look down at it. The USB interface worked flawlessly. The hold button serves as the units off button and I must've turned it on and off a million times without any problems. There are multiple settings for recording quality and I always kept it on the highest quality. Even on this setting, you can record hours and hours and hours... I don't know exactly how long, but I never ran out of time.

What else? Hmm... It's real small and light. This is a good thing. I noticed that other reviews are saying that its playback volume is pretty weak. This is true. However, I never used the external playback option so it wasn't an issue for me. Whenever I wanted to listen to the voice recordings, I just put on a set of small headphones I had with me. With the headphones on, the playback is plenty loud.

The one thing that I don't fancy so much about this model is that it's difficult to convert from the recorder's file format to something more common. It records files that end in .DVF and while I can play them on my computer and on the voice recorder just fine, I have struggled with trying to convert them to .WAV or something else for editing purposes. There is minimal resources available to help with this situation though I don't think it's impossible to do if you're a computer nerd. Oh -I just noticed that someone else on these reviews said that you can "easily convert" the files with a program called "Switch"... I'll have to check that out.

This unit served my purposes perfectly. Never broke down. Recorded everything I wanted. Never had any lost of corrupted files despite the elements giving it a daily punishing. It worked out very well.

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