Olympus Reviews

First digital recorder for me and found this one to be excellent. It does everything it says in the standard play mode. For 180 minutes, you have to put up with quite a reduction in sound quality. But if you are recording your own voice and can be near the mike, it will easiy be recognizable. Doesn't do too well to pick up a discussion. For the one hour standard format, it is a winner with many good features. .... The weight is light and really easy to carry around. I had been using a good Lanier and will still use that for picking up groups of voices or speakers at a distance.

The VN90 is a cute device that looks like a cell phone but feels like a light plastic toy
i have mine for more than a year and it still works. Unlike tapes, digital is magic and seems it will last forever. I wish they were playing with these on the Titanic so we could listen to old conversations and notes from the past, provided they were left in air pockets, a posting says it does not survive washmachine :-(

i use it a lot! i also still use paper notes, it's a competition
voice notes are easier to take, like during a hike, and much safer while driving
taking a phone number or an address is so convienient
then at the end of day i can just review latest messages, add more when going to bed and have a more relaxed sleep (except when i come accross a rush note where I do not understand myself anymore)

i regret the ergonomy; all buttons feel the same so it is still necessary to look at the device quiclky to operate it and at night some dim light is necessary
the size is good (nice fit in hand) but i wish a mini version existed that i can attach to my keychain along with my car alarm, always
the device is easy to use, sturdy, and the 2 batteries last almost forever
note that at replacement messages are NOT lost
i like the 3 folders A,B,C capability and the fact that folder C has date-month compartiments is great, though it takes forever to review messages in these 365 boxes the sound is of pretty good quality (i wish my answ machine had such a sound, so i can record music in my greeting) An when it's not clear it's because there was noise around. Unfortunately there's no feature 'record my voice but not the background noise of the street or restaurant'
the device has no computer link capability. Too bad, it would
be nice to put some 'voicessages' on hard disk.

now a few tips if you have one:
tip1: write your phone number on it on the back. This way i lost and recovered mine one day. Think that the recorder with messages of sentimental value on it is then worth much more than the original cost.
other tip: deposit some wax glue dots on the buttons (eg 1 blop on play and 2 blops on stop, imitating braille) so you can operate the device without looking at it
tip3: the microphone is not on the front but on the back! still talk as if it was on the front. However when recording on a phone handset (for example i am in Paris in a phone booth remotely reading an important message and need a copy on my olympus) please apply the back (the tiny area with 2 grooves above the word battery) on the speaker of the handset, and your ear on top of this like a sandwich. You can then hangup and replay at no cost. Works great.

Again, Olympus has succeeded in making a quality product. This model in particular served me quite well. I have had it for only half a year and it is in top shape. The features that this model contains are amazing. I recommend this to anyone who is looking for a serious device to record and store your thoughts.

I bought the Olympus VN1800 and used it for about a week, and found my biggest frustration is that you can't edit any voice files that you record. In other words, if you wanted to add on to an existing file, you can't. You have to create a new file to record more information. In addition, you can't edit any portion of the file, for example, if you had a long list of items to do for a given day, you can't edit the file to remove those that you took care of, and don't want on the recorder anymore. Are there any recorders with this capability, and if so, which are they? Thanks much.

I wonder whether there's any PC interface, such as USB port available in this recorder??

I ordered this product new from a third party seller on amazon, and I was more than pleased with the product once it arrived. As is always the case, the LP setting isn't the greatest, though in a pinch one could use it for, say, a personal interview in a quiet room, if one needed more than the 2.5 hours afforded by the SP setting, which sounds fine in most lecture/interview/meeting situations.

The folders are a tool I didn't think would be useful to me, but have since come to love. I can file interviews for several articles I'm working on at a time, and when I'm done with one, simply erase the whole file.

When I was shopping for one of these things, I almost went with a mini-cassette recorder. Don't make that mistake. Digital gives much better sound quality simply because you don't get the hiss of the tape in the recorder. It is also incredibly small and light. Batteries last longer since there isn't a motor.

Some reviewers have asked about getting files onto your computer. The only way to do that with this unit is to plug the earphone output into an audio input and record the audio in realtime. I haven't found any need to archive old interviews so this hasn't been an issue. If you will need to archive, either go for a mini-cassette recorder or pay through the nose for USB connectivity.

There isn't a jog-dial as the description says. There is a four-way circular button. I don't know of any personal voice recorders with a jog-dial. Searching through audio is incredibly easy and fast, though.

I used to carry a notebook around everywhere, now I have my mini-recorder in my pocket at all times. I use it as a journalism student as I don't know shorthand, and as a music student to record my private lessons and review them later. The sound quality is fine, and the amount of audio that this little thing holds is simply staggering.

Olympus really blew it this time!
On their previous digital recorder, you pressed the delete button, to delete a message, during or after it played. Now, you can only delete it AFTER it plays, and it requires pressing THREE DIFFERENT BUTTONS to delete one message.
I often record and/or review and delete messages while I'm driving. This new deleting method makes it impossible, without taking your eyes off the road. I hope Olympus realizes this was a REALLY BAD IDEA!

I doubted it could be so difficult to delete a message as was claimed in the previous review, and so I looked up the user manual for this recorder. The manual says that the complicated procedure only applies when deleting messages in the "S" folder, which sorts messages by date. To delete messages in the ordinary "A" through "C" folders takes just one button press.

Although this digital voice recorder's (DVR) customer- and editorial reviews are accurate, they fail to identify one important flaw!

With a DVR, (unlike audio microcassette recorders) you can NOT rewind over an erroneous word and rerecord it. If you are using the DVR to dictate, you will not be able to back up and restate anything said in error.

This is a major drawback.

The new VN1800 from olympus is a very good product! I see it as a next generation compared to my older VN90. The most impressive differences to me are the smaller size and the better sound. There is also a fourth directory and buttons are more intuitive with the jogdial. The size is now about 3 inches versus 4 inches, allowing the VN1800 to hold in a pocket without deforming it or hurting. The sound quality in HQ mode is very crisp allowing to better recognize all kinds of sounds, even mixes of noises, voices and music. It is no longer a struggle to understand voicenotes I took in my car with ambiant city noise.

The consomation is low: i measured about 0.1mA standby, 40mA play (low volume) 30mA rec mode. So batteries must last a while
I also did a test of replacing the batteries within reasonable time (10sec) and thank god the messages were not lost.

The VN1800 will always be with me, attached to my keys with an extendable cord.
Note: sometimes under harsch frictions and pressure the tiny 'hold' button accidentally shifts and the unit starts recording. For this I simply cut off the 3 grooves of the button

This has good, crisp sound at the HQ setting. The full range of the mic shows on a larger speaker if you dub it from the headphone jack. The mic is very sensitive (on high) and is able to pick up sounds near and far without over-amplifying the nearer ones.

The sound quality is fair at the medium setting and almost unusable at the longest-play setting, so don't take the maximum rec time at face value with these units. I've yet to use all 45 minutes at HQ, so this is perfect for my mental note taking and to-do lists at home. People who record entire lectures or meetings might go with a pricier model and more memory unless they want to strain their hearing with the compressed modes.

There are no worries about losing data if batteries die (flash memory) and battery life appears to live up to the 33 hour rating. It's still on "full" after 4 months if that can be trusted. The ergonomics seem clever and they did their best to keep the unit tiny. I think critics of the jog-pad just need more practice!

One improvement might be a rougher gripping surface to prevent slippage. I dropped it once on a carpet from 3 feet but nothing happened. I also would like to see more than 100 messages allowed per folder (4 total folders) since I have no reason to use more than one at any given time.

This recorder is an excellent piece of electronics. It is easy to use, and has some handy features such as pause (while recording in the same message), fast playback, hold (to prevent inadvertant button operation), and forward or back skip. Holding in the stop key allows one to see how much recording time is left. The erase button is indented to avoid accidents, and the user is prompted to confirm any erasures with a second press.

Voice quality is great in 33 minute mode. I frequently use mine in the car with the radio on and get excellent results. In 90 min mode, however, a deep voice is hard to make out clearly (I agree with the reviewer below: a 60 min. mode would have been a good compromise).

I've used mine daily for 3 months to make brief notes. I had to change the AAA battery for the first time only recently. It gave a low battery signal and saved all my messages while I replaced the battery.

It is small enough (4.5") that I keep mine in my front pocket at all times, with the strap hanging out so I can whip it out quickly. It is very well designed and easy to operate. I have not used other digital recorders, but compared to the many microcassette recorders I've put up with, this thing is fantastic!

I would like to say that I received this product as a gift and was one of the best gifts ever. The V-90 is so compact and so easy to use, even a BLONDE could do it.

Without reading the manual, I was able to record messages, play them back, change clock setting, etc... So easy to operate that you can use it right away! As I read past reviews, they obviously need to read their manuals. They complained about the following (features they didn't know the V-90 had):

Some excellent features:

* "HOLD" button so you the recorder doesn't accidentally record, delete, or change messages

* While recording, you could press the "REC" button again for a pause or just use the voice activation feature

*While playback, press "PLAY" to pause and unpause message (very useful when used for dictation purposes)

The V-90 has 3 folders - two general and the "S" folder for scheduled messages. Good feature and not that hard to navigate if you have a brain. I use my recorder on a daily basis and delete messages very quickly to save space (not that I would use it all up anyway).

One overall complaint, if used in the LP-90 minute mode, voice is deep and hard to understand. Very easy to fix that problem, use the SP-33 minute mode. Excellent voice clarification. Even when used with voice activation, your messages don't get cut off.

Once again, I would HIGHLY recommend this product. The design and features are great for a basic user.

I've had mine for over a year and I absolutely love it! It's easy to use and the play back is crisp and clear. Very well made and thought out ... the unit sits neatly in the palm of your hand allowing finger tip control. A great value and high quality product!