Olympus DP-10 Digital Voice Recorder 142640 (Silver)

Being in law enforcment (retired) I have owned a lot of voice recorders going back to the days of tape. Most of the ones I have bought in the past were in the Hundred dollar range. This time I was broke but still needed a voice recorder. At $35.00 bucks I wasn't expecting much. Here is the pros and cons:

1. Easy to use big buttons mean you know when you hit record and stop.

2. The on/off switch is a switch not a button. so it doesn't turn on in your pocket and run the battery down when you are not using it.

3. The built-in microphone works not good but great. While in my shirt pocket with a notebook in front of it I walked around the room while my wife talked on the phone. I even went into the next room. and when I played it back it sounded like I was siting in front of her the whole time.

4. big speaker means not only you can hear the playback but the people around you can hear without straining.

Cons: no way to connect to a PC to down load the files.but it is simple enough to hold up to a microphone and record that way.

Buy this by all means!!!

Pros:

great quality recording

large speaker

easy to navigate

large display

Cons:

no USB !! if you are buying this to record hours of lectures and then you want to transfer it to your PC, then do not buy this recorder because the only way to transfer the audio is to use a line in cable and rerecord-and trust me you do not want to do this because it is time consuming and annoying. I ended up purchasing a Olympus VN-8100 PC which had all the great features of this recorder but most importantly it had USB connectivity.

Overall: great recorder if you do not need USB connectivity!!

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It's hard to find a human-friendly product in this technological age, but this is one. Broad face gives you plenty of space for a big screen, big buttons, and a big speaker (it is as wide and as deep as an Olympus Pearlcorder tape recorder), although I wish it could have been thinner.

Design is really nice-looking, a rarity nowadays; the shape and the rounded corners are comfortable to hold, the width makes it stable in your hand. Button layout is wonderfully intuitive. Sound quality is very good for this kind of thing.

Every time you record something it gets saved as a "file", labelled by date then number. It works nicely, but I recommend you flush it out regularly because erasing recordings is a real project. They want to make sure that nothing gets erased accidentally and who can complain about that?

Some people want a computer port but that would ruin this device -it excellent being what it is and if you want something else, you want something else. The headphone jack is a standard size (thank you) so if you need to record into your computer you can do it with an audio cable.

Mine survived its first drop test just fine.

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First off, since there were only two reviews when I first ordered this from Amazon, I read all of the comments on the only negative review. Thanks to the comments from Fazal Majid on the need for simplicity, I chose to replace my 10-year-old RCA voice recorder that finally died with this Olympus model. Who needs a USB port and all of those extra buttons? Not me for sure! I have absolutely no need to upload my voice notes up to my computer, and this is one of the few models without that feature.

I will be using this mostly while driving at interstate speeds to jot down ideas. The one weak link with this model is that the designers wanted to make sure that no one accidentally deleted a file, so it takes five buttons pressed in quick succession just to delete one file: Erase, Rewind, Play, Rewind, Play. Well, it looks like I won't be deleting any of the bad ideas while driving. My old RCA was about half this size and even simpler to use. I do like the volume control and larger screen, as well as the larger Play, Stop, and Record buttons. I can't wait to test the microphone settings while driving with the windows down. And yes, I actually had to read the "book" to find out how to operate it. Don't even think of skipping the part to set the time and date, which the instructions are not that clear on how to do this later.

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Back in the 1990s, the simple 90 second, 2 and 3 minute VoiceIt recorders were a hit for quick note-taking or reminders. I evaluated today's selection of voice recorders. Most Olympus, Panasonic and Sony seem too small and complex for us older folks.

The DP-10 appears simple enough its large, high-contrast screen and big Record, Play, Stop, FW, REV buttons invite use. However there is an underlying complexity and clunkiness common to today's over-engineered products that drives me nuts!

In a recorder billed as simple, there are too many buttons inconveniently placed. The Volume thumbwheel should be moved from the top to the left side of the case. The left side "Mic Sens" and "Noise Cancel" sliders should be eliminated or these less-used functions folded into Menu options. On the right side, there is no need for a rocker switch displaying 4 playback speeds. In a simple machine, this function should be eliminated.

The operating system takes time to get used to. The worst software drawback is the clunky way of deleting files. Olympus won't let you easily delete files. You use up to 5 buttons Menu, Erase, Forward Arrow, Backward Arrow and Play. You have to delete by date or file. If you want to delete multiple files, you have to pick the date to delete first in the side button "Menu." Then you hit the side orange small "Erase" button, delete that date, then confirm delete. What happens if you have files in 50 dates? You have to delete one date at a time. That's time consuming. To delete a file, hold the orange "Delete" button, select a file, delete and confirm delete.

There are some real pluses though, chief of which is great sound. I love the confirmation tones for most actions. There is a friendly welcoming tone when powering up to a waiting screen followed by a cartoonish initial welcome screen. If you forget to shut off the DP-10, the screen goes blank to a power-saving state to preserve the life of the 2 x AAA batteries. The topside mic is handy if holding the unit but is non-directional if recording on a desktop. Olympus placed the earphone jack on top which is also best when holding the device. Many of the switches can be ignored once set. The DP-10 is small enough for a pants pocket or purse. The manual is a small-print flyer that's difficult to read, but a handy pdf is available from the Olympus website.

Though the Olympus DP-10 is bulkier than smaller voice recorders on the market, I recommend this for its large-print, high-contrast display, and large controls.

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