About 2 weeks ago, I wrote a blog entry (old blog entry) about shopping. I bought a calculator and the Olympus WS-331M digital voice recorder with music player. I was trying to decide between this one and another Olympus but ended up choosing this one. My primary reasons was capacity (this one has 2 GB) and the fact that it also has a music player. I figure that I’ll keep 1 GB full of music to listen to and the other 1 GB will be to record lectures and stuff like that.
I bought it from amazon.com and it took them a long time to ship it. Well, it finally arrived yesterday and I was able to open it up today! This thing is pretty cool. It’s very small, easy to use, and it looks like it’ll easily get the job done.
Things I like so far:
1) The size is great. It’s slightly bigger than 1/2 the width of my iPod video. The thickness is about the same. The height is about the same (Olympus is slightly smaller).
2) It comes with the USB plug built in. There is no need to get extra cables, etc. As an added bonus, it fits in perfectly on the USB port on my monitor.
3) It has 2 GB of space. In the best quality recording, you can record 35 minutes. In the lowest quality, you can record over 555 hours!
4) It uses one standard AAA battery. One of the things I don’t like about the iPhone, iPod, etc. is that they all use built in proprieary batteries. So if you run out, you can’t simply stick in a new battery. I have rechargeable AAA batteries (I use Sanyo Eneloop).
5) It was easy to configure. The menu system is pretty straightforward and it only took me a few minutes to figure out how to set the date/time and MOST IMPORTANTLY, I was able to figure out how to disable the “beep” (I hate that).
6) It has a speaker! I love that you can just listen to it through the speakers or use headphones. I always hated music players (like the iPod) where you can only listen if you have headphones.
7) It has a built in mic! I may purchase a better mic that you plug in but I like that it has a built in mic that can be used.
But like most things in life, it’s not perfect. Here are some things that could be improved:
1) The quality control may not be the best. This was brand new and fresh out of the packaging, I noticed that the back is scratched up. It’s a little tough to see in the picture below but parallel to the battery compartment, there is a noticeable scratched up line.
2) I know in point #4 above, I wrote that I like the AAA battery but it would have been nice if it came with it’s own AAA rechargeable battery that will automatically recharge when you plug it into the USB port
3) It doesn’t come with a case. I really should come with a fairly cheap case to stick it in so that the LCD doesn’t get all scratched up, etc.
Overall, I think we have a winner here! More details can be found on the official Olympus website.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 John // Mar 13, 2008 at 12:40 am
Nicely done, Dan. Ron is pumping up your blog already. I have this recorder and worked really well. I usually scan the bulkpack using the copier at school and put the PDFs here to travel light. I have a shopping list at amazon if you want to look at it, under MBA Techno Study Aid.
Good luck with school.
John, Wharton West, Class 32
2 RVD // Mar 13, 2008 at 8:54 am
Great. It looks like I bought a nice one. Your shopping list is great…I’m not quite sure about the handheld scanner (the electronic highlighter) but the printer looks great.
3 John // Mar 13, 2008 at 10:54 am
Yes, I know. Not everyone has the need to use the handheld scanner. It will come in handy when you start getting into to groups and divide up creating cheat sheets from hardcopy readings and text books, etc. Tyson’s legal studies was like that. I did not buy it until my second year. Chairman P had it from the 1st year of course. BTW, I am the one that told Ron about your blog. It showed up on my Google search the other night. I can’t believe I am graduating soon.
Take care.
John
4 cio // Feb 24, 2009 at 9:06 am
I would like to use this product for creating audio books. Do you think the quality that one gets is worth it? I plan to use an external mic, if I buy this product. Thanks!
5 RVD // Feb 24, 2009 at 9:46 am
The short answer is that I don’t know if it’s good enough for an audio book. I would suspect that it’s probably not the quality that you need for an audio book.
However, with that said, there is a stereo microphone that you can get to plug into the mic port that may be ok. It seems to make the recording quality pretty good.
Anyway, sorry I can’t be more help here. I just use this thing to record lectures and it’s fine for that.
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