RCA RP5007 Digital Voice Recorder

The RCA RP5007 is a good little voice recorder, but it has its flaws. I give it four stars because, for certain applications (long dictations in a quiet room, or short interviews and speeches in louder situations), it's very handy indeed, and much better than a mini-cassette recorder.

Its major flaw is the lack of storage for high-quality recordings. The included 4MB SmartMedia card only holds 17 minutes of HQ sound -so I'd recommend buying at least an additional 8MB card. Unfortunately, that's as big as you can get, since the unit doesn't accept cards bigger than 8MB, or 34 minutes HQ. The SP (low quality) mode lasts a long time (nearly 1hr 40min with the stock 4MB card), but the sound is highly compressed and very hard to understand unless there is no background noise at all.

It is considerably less expensive than other digital voice recorders, so compromises have been made, but they detract little from its good basic features and usability.

Here are the pluses and minuses:

GOOD:

Small and light

Reasonably easy to use

Sound quality quite good in HQ mode

Every clip is time and date stamped

Button lock prevents accidental activation

Both manual and voice-activated record modes

Dictation (close) or Conference (distant) modes

Sound clips can be stored in folders

Sound clips can have annotations appended

Rudimentary editing (insert/delete segments) possible

Quick preview mode plays 3 sec of each clip

Uses standard AAA batteries, and lasts a long time with them

Standard SmartMedia card storage included (4 MB)

Standard mini microphone and headphone jacks

BAD:

Sound quality in SP (low quality) mode barely usable, especially if there is any background noise at all

17-minute limit on included 4MB card in HQ mode (1hr 40 mins in SP mode, but as I said, it's barely usable)

Cannot use SmartMedia cards bigger than 8MB (34 min in HQ mode, 3hr 20 min in SP)

Record button pauses, but does not stop recording a clip (which requires the separate Stop button) -can be confusing on the fly

Deleting clips is confusing at first -RCA even includes a separate addendum to the manual clarifying how it works -but once you get the hang of it, it's simple

Fast-forward and reverse features are choppy and rather slow

Plastic case seems a bit fragile

No included AC adapter (but there is a plug for one)

The RP5007 is about as portable as a voice recorder can get.

To me, its most useful feature is the ability to have different memos in individual files, so that a quick listen to the first few seconds of each is all I need in order to track down a particular piece of information that I know I have stored. An "append" feature lets you listen to the start of a memo and then add further notes, which will automatically appear at the end of the existing file. The total recording time is relatively long for recorders in its price range, and the number of different files (297, I think) seemed adequate for almost any purpose. I liked the capability to add my own microphone and headset, or to use the built-in mike and speaker. Press the "lock" button after you turn the unit off, and the unit won't start up accidentally (which could run down its batteries).

Limitations? * For me, the most serious problem is that I have not yet been able to get the Rp5007's SmartMedia card to read on either a PCMCIA reader or a Clik! (Pocket Zip) drive's reader, so my original hope to transfer voice files to my PC has not been possible. * RCA appears to have discontinued the unit, so availability may be limited.

Buy RCA RP5007 Digital Voice Recorder Now

I bought this player on clearance at a local... store, hoping to use it for notetaking in school. The Recorder works fine for this purpose, but with marginal audio quality, as it must be used in the low quality setting to record any more than 18 minutes. There is no built-in memory on this recorder, all memory is through SmartMedia cards, which would not be a problem if they could be over 8 MB. (This recorder will not accept any SmartMedia Cards over 8 MB), and comes with a 4 MB. 8 MB and below cannot be found anywhere that I have seen, and the recorder formats the cards for storage in such a way that they cannot be read by Card Readers and transferred to a PC. Therefore, this player is only good for someone looking to record once, listen, and delete. Nothing else can be done with the recorder that I have seen.

Read Best Reviews of RCA RP5007 Digital Voice Recorder Here

It is a great recorder with many revolutionizing functions, but with revolution comes mistakes. It is found that with many of the RCA DVR'S that there seems to be a short in the system and very often it will shut off when trying to use the DVR and makes it very unreliable to when it is actually going to work. So if you have patience then this is the product to use, if you don't then i would recomend a different DVR..

Want RCA RP5007 Digital Voice Recorder Discount?

I purchased this digital voice recorder about a week ago and I can say to this point I am impressed with its ease of operation. Compared to the old minitape recorders, it is less than half the weight and provides a superior quality of recording. The only thing my unit doesn't have is the backlit screen. Most of the promotional info indicates this unit is backlit, but the users manual for the 5007 makes no mention of this capability. Overall this recorder should prove to be a useful item.