Digital Voice Recorders

Types of digital video recorders

Prices for voice recorders cover a huge range, from about $50 to over $400. Experts say your recording needs should determine the type of model you choose. To record voices for personal notes or transcription, a basic digital voice recorder will probably do. On the other hand, if you're looking to create podcasts, you'll need a device that captures and recreates a wider frequency of sound with less background noise, especially if you want to record music. If you are interested mainly in dictation and transcribing, look for a recorder that uses some special compression formats (such as DSS), which record at a lower quality level, but make for smaller files which are easier to send to a transcription service.

In a December 2006 podcast discussion between O'Reilly Digital Media audio recording experts David Battino and Mark Nelson, Nelson uses the analogy of buying a wristwatch that's water-resistant to 100 meters when the most water it's likely to encounter is while you take a shower. If you are going to be talking directly into a device for your own notes, you won't need especially good fidelity and can likely get by with an inexpensive model.

Analog tape recorders are still being made and are an option if you need to archive recordings on tapes. Olympus and most top makers of digital voice recorders still sell these cassette recorders, which are inexpensive and sometimes easier to operate than digital models. Generally, however, people who do a lot of dictation or interviews find digital recorders better because they are able to edit and organize files on a computer, send them electronically to a transcriber or use voice-recognition software to convert audio into text. Some digital voice recorders let you use keywords to search the recording and find the part you want to hear again. Because they are designed specifically to record the spoken word, digital voice recorders make higher-quality recordings than you'll get from something that's integrated in an MP3 player or cell phone. In one review, O'Reilly Digital Media's David Battino says that recordings made using an MP3 player "sounded like they were made through a wall."

Most digital voice recorders give you the choice of recording at two or three (sometimes even six) levels of quality. Keep in mind that when a manufacturer says the model's memory can hold "up to 50 hours," that's when using the lowest level of quality. Compression and the sampling rate both factor into the equation. If you are just recording voice notes to yourself, you're not going to need a larger sampling rate because human voices operate within a fairly narrow frequency. However, if you're recording in a large room, are recording words for broadcast or you want to include music, you'll want to use a higher sampling rate (which will take up more of the unit's memory).

Sampling rate refers to the coding that reproduces sound – more codes allow a truer reproduction of the original sound. Compression is important for the speed with which you'll be able to transfer files -- it's faster to send a file by e-mail to a transcribing service in high-compression DSS (used by Olympus or Philips high-end models) or LPEC (used by Sony) file formats rather than WAV or MP3. An excellent, highly detailed explanation of compression and sampling is contained in a 16-page PDF file on the Novuscript website, a company that sells recording devices and transcribing services. You'll find a link to that report in our section on Best Research.

Boiled down to its essence, you'll be able to fit more on the recorder's memory if you record at lower quality (high compression and lower sampling rate) than if you want the very best and truest audio quality (low compression, high sampling rate). For instance, an Olympus WS-331M, which has an enormous 2GB of on-board memory, offers six recording modes. At the highest quality, you'd be able to fit about 35 hours on the recorder, while recording on the lower settings nets about 500 hours. Some recorders have on-board memory. Others have memory card slots, letting you add memory as needed. Some models combine the two, offering some on-board memory plus card slots.

All digital voice recorders let you download your recordings to a computer, where you can manipulate the voice files, transcribe them, upload them to a website or simply archive them for future use.

Basic digital voice recorders

If you're a student recording classroom lectures, a journalist conducting interviews for print stories (as opposed to needing higher-quality samples for podcasting) or even a physician or lawyer who isn't going to make heavy use of professional transcribing services, reviews say you can find what you need in a digital voice recorder for no more than $150 -- and sometimes much less.

While reviews offer little consensus on a specific model, many reviewers favor recorders in the Olympus 300 series, which although primarily designed as voice recorders can also double as MP3 players. The most recent reviews say the newest models in this series -- the Olympus WS-311M (*est. $80) , the Olympus WS-321M (*est. $100) and the Olympus WS-331M (*est. $145) -- offer a better value than the older but still available WS-300M , WS-310M and WS-320M digital voice recorders. In general, the newer Olympus voice recorders cost less, and they have more memory and other improvements.

We didn't find much criticism of Olympus 300-series digital voice recorders. The difference between the three models in the line is the size of the internal memory: 512MB for the WS-311M, 1GB for the WS-321 and 2GB for the WS-331. There are six levels of recording quality on each model; on the 512MB WS-311M, the capacity would range from about 9 hours of best-quality recordings to 138 hours of low-fidelity audio. None of these models have a card slot for adding more memory. The Olympus 300 series recorders, like many others, have voice activation -- so you don't end up recording lots of silence. While there's no ability to keyword search audio files, you can bookmark passages. Reviews tend to note that they like the unusual ability of the 300 series recorders to plug right into your computer -- you don't need a USB cable. The Olympus models record in the common WMA format, and they are compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista. You can also use them on a Mac computer if you have Windows Media Player for Macintosh.

Thorsten Dresing and Thorsten Pehl, reviewers on the German retailer website AudioTranskription.de, indicate that in addition to a lower price and about double the memory of its comparable predecessors, the newer Olympus 300 models offer a larger display screen. Pehl and Dresing conclude that this series is "our price/performance favorite for simple interview situations, from one-on-one interviews to interviews with four persons." The Olympus 300 series digital voice recorders do not allow you to edit audio files, but you can transfer them to your PC (or to a Mac equipped with Windows Media Player software) and edit them there. For better sound quality, albeit with just 256MB of memory, Dresing and Pehl recommend the Olympus DS-30 (*est. $110) , which has 256MB of internal memory (from 4 hours to 66 hours recording time), but cannot playback MP3 music files.

Gearlog.com, a respected blog affiliated with PC Magazine, reviewed the Olympus WS-321 in November 2007, saying in the un-bylined report that if looking for an MP3 player, "audiophiles need not apply." However, this review does indicate that the voice recorder worked well on a busy street and in a conference room, and the noise filter did a good job of blocking ambient sounds.

A May 2006 review of the Olympus WS-321M's predecessor, the WS-320M, on the respected review website TomsGuide.com, calls the WS-320M "perhaps the ideal middle-of-the-road solution for most." Editor Aaron McKenna clearly likes the WS-320M, but he does note that he "can't see the stereo recording coming in too handy, as essentially the left and right microphones are on the same face of the recorder."

Laptop Magazine reviews the Olympus WS-331M and the older WS-310M, giving both four out of five stars; in her June 2007 review, Joanna Stern says the WS-331M is "absolutely at the head of the digital voice-recorder class." The Olympus WS-331 passed Stern's hands-on testing in two interview situations: Four feet from a speakerphone during a telephone chat and in a noisy restaurant. The restaurant recording did include some background noise. Stern agrees with other reviewers that the MP3 player feature is "mediocre." Ten months earlier, Laptop Magazine's Brian Heater briefly reviewed the older Olympus WS-310M; interestingly, he thought music playback had "good clarity."

The Olympus 300 series models each weigh 1.7 ounces (including one AAA battery) and measure 3.7 x 1.5 x 0.4 inches. They contain an internal speaker and microphone, as well as jacks for an earphone or plug-in microphone. The battery life is estimated at up to 21 hours. They plug directly into your computer's USB port, no cable needed.

While reviewers indicate that the newer Olympus 300 series digital voice recorders are an improvement over earlier iterations, we found mixed reviews for the Olympus WS-210S (*est. $100), which is an updated version of the still-available WS-200S (*est. $110). In a September 2007 review at AudioTranskription.de, the newer Olympus WS-210S isn't judged to be an improvement over the older version. Reviewers Thorsten Dresing and Thorsten Pehl say the WS-210S is better-looking, with better controls and quadruple the memory (512MB) at a cheaper price, but at a significant decrease in the quality of the recording: "Unfortunately, the recording quality can't keep up with the predecessor," they write. Background noise was more problematic, though it's said to be fine for personal note-taking and simple interviews. The 200-series Olympus recorders don't double as music players; otherwise they are roughly the same size with the same features as the 300 series, including six recording modes.

Much less expensive than the Olympus digital voice recorders is the Sony ICD-P520 (*est. $55) , an update of the older ICD-P320 with quadruple the memory (now 256MB). Andy Kaiser, a technology consultant and columnist, liked the older model enough to recommend it as his bargain choice: "great for those who want a quality, low-cost digital voice recorder, like students or casual users." The newer model gets a glowing review from Bridget Johnson, a writer based at the Los Angeles Daily News and also About.com's Guide to Journalism. She finds the Sony ICD-P520 perfect for recording simple interviews that will be used in print stories, but she notes that if you're looking for high-quality playback, this is not the recorder you want.

We found no professional reviewer who directly compares the Sony ICD-P520 with an Olympus model such as the Olympus WS-110 (*est. $70) , which like the Sony ICD-P520 offers 256MB of memory and three mono recording modes (compared with three stereo and three mono in the Olympus 300 series). The Sony ICD-P520 is 0.9 ounces heavier than the Olympus WS-110, and the 300 series models and runs on two AAA batteries instead of one. Worth noting, though, is that the Sony ICD-P520 offers audio editing capability (not found in the Olympus 300 series) and compatibility with Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice-recognition software (purchased separately), which reviews say can convert your spoken audio to text with a mixed degree of accuracy. Unlike the Olympus recorders, the Sony ICD-P520 can keyword search audio files, though it requires a cable (included) to interface with a PC, and it won't work with a Mac. And as mentioned above, the Sony recorder uses a proprietary file format rather than more common WMA or MP3 formats.

There is some buzz about the launch of Sanyo's expensive and expansive ICR-PS390RM (*est. $350) in Japan, which is being billed as the world's largest-capacity digital voice recorder so far -- 8GB or about 1,000 hours at its lowest quality and about 12 hours at its highest-quality stereo recording setting. As of this writing, it's not being sold in the United States, and so far there are no reviews (or even detailed specifications) available.

Best for dictation and transcribing

If you need a digital voice recorder for dictation, where you might be e-mailing audio files to a professional transcription service or transcribing in-house, reviewers say you should consider a device designed specifically for such heavy office use. As mentioned above, these machines can record in a more highly compressed format that's not of the best audio quality, but transfers more quickly to another computer. The best digital recorders of this type offer the ability to edit, organize and search files, and you can buy add-ons that aid with in-house transcribing, such as foot-pedal controls that leave hands free for typing. In addition, the construction is usually sturdier to withstand the more frequent use of an office. The consensus choice in reviews is the Olympus DS-4000 (*est. $450) , with some consideration given to the Philips Digital Pocket Memo 9600 (*est. $500) .

Technology consultant and columnist Andy Kaiser recommends the Olympus DS-4000 for "doctors, lawyers, reporters or anyone with massive amounts of voice recordings." Great Britain's respected PocketLink.co.uk website says simply, "It's the best in its field," and reviewer Dan Leonard adds, "Is it worth the outlay? We think so, but only for the hardened conference and dictation king."

The Olympus DS-4000 is as easy to use as a tape recorder, according to PocketLink.co.uk's Leonard, and that's not faint praise, since some digital voice recorders are initially baffling even to experienced gadget reviewers. This is the top model in the Olympus "professional" series (as opposed to the "consumer" models in the aforementioned 300 series), and it can hold nearly 180 hours of recording if you upgrade from the included 32MB card to the maximum 1GB card. It runs on its own rechargeable batteries or two AAA batteries, and its voice-activation function eliminates dead space when you listen to replay. You can also choose to later insert edits rather than recording over old material, another plus. The Olympus-4000 is both PC and Macintosh compatible.

In one very detailed comparison written by an Amazon.com contributor, the Olympus DS-4000 has a slight edge over the Philips Digital Pocket Memo 9600 because of the cheaper price, ease of use and solid reputation. The reviewer determines that the Phillips is better in ten specific categories (giving the nod to the Olympus in seven other categories) and likes the Philips' security option to encrypt and/or password protect files, options the Olympus DS-4000 doesn't have. You can buy a LAN docking station for about $300 that will allow you to send audio files to a transcriptionist (or anyone) without hooking up to your PC. The Pocket Memo is not compatible with Macintosh computers, however.

Professional reviewers offer both praise and criticism of the Philips Digital Pocket Memo. Wired magazine's Jose Fermoso likes the encryption option and notes that you can also hide the entire memory from snoops by activating a user-access code. He gives the Pocket Memo a 7 on a scale of 1-10 (liking the editing functions), but chuckles over the gadget's appearance -- "so retro, you'd swear it could be steam-powered." Fermoso notes that the Pocket Memo tends to run hot.

The Philips Pocket Memo gets a similar rating from Australia's GoodGearGuide.com.au, but the Aussie review disagrees that the Philips digital voice recorder is funny looking. Andrew Kliem writes that the Pocket Memo "offers every feature the recording aficionado could want" but that using it is "far from intuitive." Kliem especially likes the ability to search by keyword.

Although we found good coverage of both, we've included the Olympus DS-4000 in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers as the best choice for heavy dictation. It costs less than the Philips Pocket Memo, and reviews suggest it is easier to use.

Digital voice recorders for podcasting

Podcasters need a digital recorder capable of both capturing a wider range of frequency and producing clearer recreations of voices and music. While podcasting doesn't require recording-studio quality, you will want something that will deliver respectable playback. That means podcasters will want something better than a basic recorder, but won't want the heavy compression and dictation features of high-end voice recorders.

In this class, we found the best reviews for Samson's Zoom H2 (*est. $200) as the low-priced option, and for the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96, which has since been replaced by the slightly upgraded MicroTrack II (*est. $300), as the higher-end choice.

A September 2007 review by Germany's AudioTranskription.de indicates that the Zoom H2 offers the best recording quality in its price class. Reviewers Thorsten Dresing and Thorsten Pehl say the plastic casing looks a bit cheesy, but it's a better choice than the Olympus DS-30 (*est. $110) for "broadcast-recording quality, pleasing journalists as well as researchers and musicians."

David Strom's October 2007 review in TomsGuide.com says that the Zoom's recording quality is "superb" and that the four built-in microphones performed well "even in cavernous hotel conference rooms." He does note some negatives, however. First, the "user interface is a bit quirky," although Strom points out that the instruction manual is well-done. Strom says the type size on the controls is too small, which makes it more challenging to control recording levels on the fly. He notes that recordings are done in the WAV format. The Zoom can convert WAV recordings to MP3s, but "it is is so slow that you are better off doing the compressing and processing on your PC -- a 10-minute, 100MB file took close to 45 minutes to convert."

Experts say the four tiny microphones are unique, at least at this price range. However, while the speakers in front and back of the Zoom allow you to put it in the middle of a table surrounded by people (or in the middle of a band playing on a stage) to get 360-degree coverage, it's not quite the "surround sound" that you've experienced in a movie theater.

The included 512MB SD card (you can upgrade up to 4GB) holds WMA, MP3 or VBR recordings at several quality settings. The Zoom H2 doesn't include a speaker, but there is a headphone jack (with basic earbuds included). You can also connect it to speakers with a stereo cable. The Zoom H2 is compatible with PCs and Mac systems. A 4GB SD card can hold up to two hours at its highest quality recording level and 138 hours at its lowest. Expected battery life is about four hours on two AA batteries.

The pricier M-Audio MicroTrack II also is compatible with PC and Mac computers. Like the Zoom H2, it has no speaker (stereo cable but no earbuds included), and also has no internal memory, recording to CompactFlash or Microdrive cards. M-Audio says a 1GB card will hold about 100 minutes of best-quality recordings or about 25 hours of basic, spoken-word files. A major difference between the Zoom and the MicroTrack is that the microphone is not contained in the MicroTrack's body -- it's an included plug-in mic. Unlike most other digital voice recorders, the MicroTrack has 48 volts of phantom power, which can drive some (but not all) higher-quality external microphones. (Recorders without phantom power need another power source to drive such upgraded microphones.) However, the MicroTrack II has an expected battery life of four to five hours between recharges, and using the phantom power cuts this to about three hours.

The older MicroTrack 24/96 gets an Editor's Choice rating at PC Magazine, with experienced gadget evaluator Mike Kobrin conducting the March 2006 review. He says navigation can be "a pain" and that you can accidentally delete files if you aren't careful, but the sound quality is very good. Kobrin prefers the MicroTrack to its main competitor, the Roland Edirol R-09 (*est. $360) . Kobrin concludes that the MicroTrack is "versatile enough to satisfy both recording enthusiasts and podcasters."

O'Reilly Digital Media's Mark Nelson concurs in picking the MicroTrack over the Edirol in his November 2006 review. Unlike PC Magazine's Kobrin, Mark Nelson found the MicroTrack easy to use, and he likes the option of recording straight to MP3: "handy for e-mailing song ideas to bandmates or creating podcasts." The downside, he says, is that the integrated rechargeable battery can't be swapped out. Recharging takes at least two hours and "up to seven hours if you totally drain the battery!" Be aware that the updated model, the MicroTrack II, now allows you to use an optional USB battery pack to supplement the integrated battery. Another upgrade from the MicroTrack 24/96 is a wider frequency range.

O'Reilly's Nelson says it's not at all unusual for the review copy of a gadget to fail, and the MicroTrack needed to be sent back after a week. Nevertheless, he prefers it not only to the Edirol but also to the comparable Marantz PMD660 (*est. $400) , saying that with the cost savings, you could buy a premium microphone.

In a podcast-centric review for The New York Times, Larry Magid also contrasts the MicroTrack against the Edirol and the Marantz digital voice recorders, but he places the MicroTrack in the middle. Magid says he likes all three, but he picks the Edirol because it runs on AA batteries (unlike the older MicroTrack) and is smaller than the Marantz voice recorder.

Unfortunately, we did not find a reviewer who compares the Zoom H2 to the MicroTrack digital voice recorder. The Zoom is much less expensive, and by all accounts it is a good choice for podcasting and conference rooms. If you want to have the option of adding a high-quality external microphone, for recording music perhaps, the MicroTrack may be more suitable.

Important Features: Digital voice recorders

Reviewers say the following are important considerations when shopping for a digital voice recorder:

• Recording time: If you plan mainly on low-fidelity voice recording, all digital models will have sufficient memory for hours of recording. If you want to record at higher quality settings, you'll need to consider memory a bit more carefully. If you're not sure how much memory you'll need, choosing a model with memory card slots will give you the flexibility to upgrade.

• Connection to your computer: Some digital voice recorders connect via USB cable, while some plug directly into the USB port. All recorders work with Windows systems, though some do not yet work with Windows Vista. If you have a Mac, you'll need to verify compatibility. Not all recorders work with Mac computers.

• Some digital voice recorders work with voice-recognition software, which will convert your audio into text (with varying degrees of accuracy). If you are going to be e-mailing a lot of audio files to a professional transcriber, you may want to buy a recorder designed with this in mind, such as one that records in DSS, which would mostly mean an Olympus or Phillips model, or LPEC, which is a format proprietary to Sony.

• Most digital voice recorders, even lower-priced ones, offer voice activation. This will save you time and memory space by not recording wordless gaps in conversations.

• Editing features. If you are doing a lot of dictation, you'll want to be able to edit-in audio inserts without recording over already-recorded matter and losing it.

• Navigating files. Some digital voice recorders have the ability to bookmark key passages or, even better, offer keyword search for a specific word or phrase, so you won't have to listen to the entire file to find what you want.

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

# of picks	Model ( With Retailer Link)	Details from Amazon.com
3	Olympus 300 Series (*est. $80 to $145)	details
2	Olympus DS-4000 (*est. $450)	details
2	M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 (now MicroTrack II) (*est. $300)	details
2	Zoom H2 (*est. $200)	details
2	Sony ICD-PS320 (now IDC-PS520) (*est. $55)	details
1 each	Roland Edirol R-09 , Olympus WS-200S, Olympus DS-30

We found the best reviews for voice recorders in the Olympus 300 series, with prices varying according to the amount of onboard memory each model offers. If you need better quality for podcasting, the Zoom H2 is the best value, with four integrated microphones. If you want to use a high-fidelity external microphone, the pricey MicroTrack II can power some compatible high-quality mics. The Olympus DS-4000 is expensive, but it’s generally considered the top choice if you need a digital voice recorder for heavy business use and transcribing.

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