Olympus WS-500 Digital Voice Recorder (Pink)

I bought this as a backup to my other Olympus recorder (which I frequently lend out). My other recorder is an Olympus WS-100 which I bought 4 years ago. It was one of the first digital voice recorders ever made. It has served me well.

This unit contains a number of improvements over the WS-100 and the WS-400.

When I bought this, I was afraid I would have to carry around a USB cable with me. However, this unit has a little slide button on the side which extends a built-in USB connector. Plugging this into a USB port is a snap.

This unit is a little more compact than the WS-100. It also seems to solve the record delay which was a time vampire on the WS-400. This unit starts to record almost immediately on pressing the record button.

I would give this unit five stars except except the menu is almost indecipherable without spending an entire day memorizing and studying it. This means that you pretty much have to have the manual available for the first months you use this or you will not be able to use most of the features (unfortunately, this seems normal for most digital personal devices nowadays (except for Apple products)).

The arcane menu arrangement does not lend itself to quick and easy use of the unit if there are constant changes to your recording requirements unless you memorize the manual or have it available.

Other than that the plusses are that it supports Vista 64 bit, and, contains all of the features of the WS-400. The unit is easy to snap record conversations and other items.

It is a good buy at the price and easier to use, with all of the features, than any of the other small personal recorders I've looked at over the years by other manufacturers.

Specifications:

Recording Format: WMA

Input level: -70dBv

Maximum working output: 60mW (8 ohm speaker)

NAND FLASH memory 2GB this unit works excellently as a flash drive with VISTA 64 or 32.

MIC Jack: 3.5mm mini-jack; impedance 2k ohms

EAR jack: 3.5mm mini-jack; impedance 8 ohms or more

RECORDING TIMES:

STXQ mode 34 h 30 min.

STHQ mode 69 h 40 min.

STSP mode 139 h 25 min.

HQ mode 139 h 25 min.

SP mode 247 h 10 min.

LP mode 544 h. 55 min.

I bought this after seeing classmates using their voice recorders. Most had purchased an olympus but a less expensive one and they eat batteries. The WS-500 is rechargeable by you USB outlet on your computer. There are approx. 200 files for keeping this organized and you can even record music. Not a feature I will be using but it's on their. Also I can hook it up to my outlet for my ipod in my car and listen to my notes while I am driving. Awesome in a long commute. Hope you find this helpful.

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BY JENNIFER OURADA: OK, so I admit up front that I only bought this recorder (I have two other WS-100 recorders already) because it's pink... Sick but true.... It was just so cute and I couldn't resist it. It was also about $80 cheaper than buying another WS-100 which makes zero sense at all as this one has double the memory of the WS-100 and a retractable USB plug instead of pulling the WS-100 apart to plug it in or using a cord that a lot of the other Olympuses have. It also has a rechargeable battery via USB port so I can recharge instead of throwing away batteries every week, so it's eco friendly.

Anyway, the fact is the sound quality is awesome. I'm a court reporter and I just got back from recording an examination under oath with a witness who mumbled all the time. I didn't even use an external mic today; I made do with the internal mics of the Olympus which are one on either side of the top of the recorder. AWESOME is all I can rate this. It picked up ALL of the witness' "under her breath" mumblings that she thought wouldn't make it on the record -hahahaha!!! I actually did three separate recordings today to see which would be the best, and this pink recorder beats all my external mics by miles. They are hissy and this one is the proverbial clear as a bell. I would recommend this to court reporters both freelance and official. It's awesome. All these mumbling attorneys and judges have no chance against this. And probably all those fumbling mumbling professors if you're a student. :) It also records in wmv format which is about 10 times smaller than wav so it's great and easily uploadable to yousendit and the like.

This is the deal.... Literally.....

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Although playing the recorded audio file on it might not sound so great, but once the file is transferred to a computer, the sound quality is actually fairly decent.

The product does what it suppose to do, but the user interface definitely could use a lot of work; its entire user interface feels like it was designed by someone who never used a computer. Another minor flaw is that once connect to the computer, you can not change the folder structure in it, therefore instead of organizing your files in a folder with clear understandable name, you will have to place it in "Folder A, B, C, D, or E".

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Pros: compact, lightweight, seems sensitive to hear fainter sounds

Cons: operation is not intuitive. For example, holding the stop button while plugging in the USB to charge it. If you don't hold the button, it won't start to charge. Also, no explicit "on/off" button...well, there is one but it's not labeled "on/off". Very odd.

Records in WMA, instead of MP3. Had to get a plug-in for QuickTime to play it on a Mac (which is what the recipient of this device uses).

Overall a good recorder, but you will need to read the manual (which is a pdf file stored in the device...which we found by accident) because it isn't very intuitive.