Panasonic RR-XR800 Personal 4 GB IC Digital Voice Recorder (Black)

Although discontiuned, you can still find this GEM at various retailers. At the time I write this review, there are 9 left at Amazon.

When this product was first introduced a few years back it was priced at $349.95, which was arguably a bargain. At $65 bucks, it's the deal of year! I don' think of it as a "digital voice recorder" per se; it's a HIGH QUALITY AUDIO RECORDER. In the early 1980's, Panasonic was a leader in PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) recording technology used in the manufacture of CDs. Their lowest cost unit, about the size of two vcrs stacked on top of each other, was just south of TEN THOUSAND dollars. I mention this because this "tiny," lightweight unit IS a PCM recorder! The sound quality is SPECTACULAR when using the PCM mode. (There are FIVE recording modes.) You won't use PCM that often because it's overkill, and PCM uses a LOT more storage space than any of the other recording modes. I grabbed a cup of coffee a couple weeks back and walked out to my back porch. The bird feeders and ground were covered with birds; the "concert" was amazing. I got the RR-XR800, set it to PCM mode and let it record for about 5 minutes. I later connected it to my home audio system, and if you closed your eyes you'd SWEAR the birds were in the living room. It's THAT good.

In the every day world, a common use for these devices is recording meetings. The meeting room at my workplace seats 24 people that's a BIG table, and a big room. In even the lowest-quality mode it captures every sound, including one of our employees who speaks so softly that one has to lean forward at times and strain to hear her.

Although the screen is small, it's EASY TO READ. And like Tterb45 said in his review, the unit is HIGHLY intuitive. You don't need the manual to hit the ground running! (The manual is HIGHLY detailed / thorough for anyone wanting to understand every feature and believe me, there are a LOT of them!)

And one more thing... this little guy is just plain COOL. If I had a buck for every time someone said "hey... what's THAT?" I could buy dinner for four at the Dead Lobster.

If you need a digital recorder, JUMP on this one before they're gone!

The recorder is amazingly light, even with batteries in it, but it does seem to be good quality so far. Obviously lots of features that will require some reading to figure out, but basic operation is intuitive no need for a manual to get a recording.

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This device needs a larger screen with bigger fonts

Its other real weakness is that it has a very small speaker

which is a surprise being from panasonic who usually have

very good speakers on their audio recorders.

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The only reason I give this 4 stars, and not 5 is because the display is a little too small for my antiquated vision, and the onboard built-in speaker volume is limited. However, I don't consider these aspects to be design flaws, since if you want a small IC recorder, there have to be some compromises. This is an otherwise excellent product, captures the moment with speech or music, perfectly, and boasts stunning sound quality, when monitoring using decent headphones. So, if your eyesight is optimal, go for it!

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Although this unit appears to have been discontinued, you will probably find it at a lot of sellers. It's very small--much too small! I've been a huge Panasonic fan in the past for their quality, but this unit does not live up to the company's reputation. The audio, PCM, is, of course, outstanding. I only use it for voice, so that's not really even a consideration. The display is hard to read; since it's unlit, it's really hard to read! It probably would have cost Panasonic a dollar more to add a backlight. Had I known how bad the display was, I wouldn't have ordered it. The display alone is a deal breaker!

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