Best Voice Recorders

Basic audio quality is fine for lectures, interviews, transcription

If you're a student recording classroom lectures, a journalist conducting interviews for an article or any professional who wants to transcribe speech to text, reviews say you can find what you need in a digital voice recorder costing no more than $200 -- and sometimes much less.

We consistently see good reviews for Olympus voice recorders. Reviews say that the Olympus VN-6200PC (*Est. $60) and the older Olympus VN-5200PC (*Est. $50) offer a good value and great performance for most basic uses. The key difference between the two models in the line is the size of the internal memory: 512 MB on the Olympus VN-5200PC and 1 GB for the Olympus VN-6200. Although the memory is not expandable, each recorder has three levels of mono recording quality and three levels of stereo recording quality. That translates to recording capacity (at the lowest quality mono setting) of more than 221 hours for the Olympus VN-5200PC and 444 hours for the Olympus VN-6200PC. At the highest quality stereo setting, recording time is a more modest -- but still very good -- 35 hours, 20 minutes and nearly 71 hours, respectively.

Aside from memory capacity, these Olympus digital voice recorders share many of the same features. Like many other digital voice recorders, these Olympus models can be set for voice activation, so you don't end up recording lots of silence. Both models give users the ability to index recordings for easy retrieval, and each features slow and fast playback modes. The Olympus models record in the common WMA format, which you can transfer to and edit with your PC or a Mac equipped with Windows Media Player software. Each recorder weighs 2.3 ounces (including two AAA batteries), measures 4 inches by 1.5 inches by 0.7 inches, and contains an internal speaker, microphone and jacks for an earphone or plug-in microphone. The recorders can also use nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries. Battery life is estimated at up to 37 hours with the alkaline and up to 25 hours with the rechargeables.

Several digital voice recorders can play MP3 files, and some MP3 players double as recorders, but it's difficult to find a device that excels at both. CNET's Donald Bell singles out a few winners in this category, including the Cowon S9 (*Est. $200), a touch-screen device that offers MP3 and video playback as well as voice recording. Bell likes its responsive screen, long battery life and excellent audio quality.

The less expensive 2 GB Olympus WS-500M (*Est. $100), which can sync with iTunes and Windows Media Player, is named an Editors' Choice at PCMag.com. Reviewers and users like the fact that the Olympus WS-500M can plug directly into a computer's USB drive without a separate USB cable. One downside to the MP3 functionality is that there is no support for playlists.

Olympus also has several new models, including the WS-600S, WS-700M and WS-710M, which replace the popular WS-300 series of digital voice recorders. While there are no expert reviews yet on these new recorders, the updated models promise removable microSD compatibility, multiple recording formats, FM radio, larger LCD screens and noise-cancelation technology.

If you own an iPod, you can purchase an add-on microphone kit that can transform the MP3 player into a digital voice recorder. The Griffin iTalk Pro (*Est. $80) is compatible with second-generation iPod nano and the video iPod classic. Belkin makes the TuneTalk Stereo (*Est. $70) for iPod which can be used with the second- and fifth-generation iPod nano. The iPod touch and iPhone have built-in mics and can also accept external mics.