Olympus VN721PC 2GB Digital Voice Recorder

This is the most impressive gadget I have ever bought.I bought this to use for making notes as i travel a lot and notebook/writing wasnt working out anymore. I also use this to draft/compose important business emails on the go as looking at cursor on the LCD screen doesnt invoke thoughts as walking around the room.Pros:Firstly it is less than 30 bucks. Even iPhone charger costs more these daysIt picks up sound for miles. Picked up sound of helicopter flying far away and of train passing by over half a mile away.Noise filter is very effective in fading out background sounds in the room such as sound of air conditioner or fan.Interface is very intuitive and screen is very clear and has beautiful contrast with the body color.ultra lightweightvery loud speakerCons:lack of mp3 support. Not that its a big problem as Vox player on macbook plays wma files easily but i dont intend to transfer files anyway.Under-branded. Olympus needs to do more marketing like American brands...Lot of great japanese brands like Seiko, Citizen, Shun knives are so under-marketed even though they are such high quality and functional.

This little gadget has been so helpful. Battery lasts forever, so no worries about having to constantly replace batteries. I've recorded well over 20 hours of lectures and haven't lost one bar of power. The quality is great no matter where I sit in the room, only had an issue once when the professor tried to use a mic he normally doesn't use, there was a clicking sound in the background, but otherwise I've never had any issues with quality or volume. I can't say the recording sounds 100% clear, but it does a great job catching the speakers voice in spite of other noises in the room.I didn't find the instructions very helpful, but it's pretty straight-forward on how to use it.The device shows the date and time of the recording, so it's easy to find the one you're looking for, and it has different folders to store them in, so you can keep different classes separated. The display is easy to read as well. It's so tiny it can easily be carried in your pocket.I just love it and am so glad I bought this one and it was a great price as well!

I only received this recorder about a half hour ago and so far as I can tell it works well and functions as advertised by the product description (which does say that it records in WMA format).However, for some reason, Amazon has included among the reviews of this item (the VN-721PC) reviews of the VN-722PC, which are very very similar except that the VN-722PC can record in MP3 format and the VN-721PC CANNOT. Since the reviewers of the VN-722PC talk about recording in MP3 format, and those reviews were posted here, I didn't read the product description carefully and assumed that this recorder could record in MP3. In reality it can only record in WMA, and WMA files can only be opened by Windows Media Player, which is not free for Macs. I think WMA files may also be able to be opened with some versions of QuickTime (not sure), but not the version that comes free on Macs.Therefore, Mac users, if you want to be able to upload files to your computer, make sure you know this doesn't record in MP3 before you buy! I will be exchanging this for a VN-722PC (similarly priced), the product that the reviews I read were actually talking about.

For the price this is a nice little recorder. Seems to work well and is easy to use. More recording hours than I would ever use at one sitting (about 64 hours at the highest quality setting). You can record from other devices by using a cable from the earphone output of the other device to the Mic input of this recorder. This is kind of a kludge in my opinion. I'd like to see a line in input in addition to the mic input, but then this is a $30 recorder! I was disappointed that this only records in WMA format, although it says so in the description. I just missed that. If you want to be able to record in MP3 format, get the VN-722PC. The only problem I see with the recorder is that if you are monitoring the recording from another device through the earphone jack with earphones, there is a white noise hiss in the background. This only seems to happen when recording from another device. All in all this is well worth the price.

This is an inexpensive voice recorder and it works fantastic! I have a lot of pro-audio equipment and I know and respect good sound. I'm really surprised at how well this records voice. Frequency response is from about 70 Hz to over 10 KHz. It is designed for voice recording but it captures a much wider range of audio. No, it is not a piece of pro audio equipment and is not meant to be. It works great recording phone calls without the phone microphone they offer as an accessory. I connect it to a telephone call monitor and the recordings come out well balanced in level recording both sides of the conversation. The USB connector makes it handy to transfer recordings to a PC or to an analogue device through the headphone jack.

Reliable, easy to use, with very good sound. I've used this to record several interviews, varying from two people sitting at a table to a room full of people. The recordings have always been reasonably clear and intelligible, given the conditions. It comes with a USB cable, which makes it easy to copy files from the recorder directly onto my PC. Battery life is fine so far... I've had it in use for 3-4 hours and it hasn't yet lost a bar off the battery charge indicator. Seems reasonably durable. I haven't knocked it around, but it doesn't feel cheaply made. All in all, I'm quite happy with it.

This is my 2nd VN721PC. Both have a buzzing sound when playing back a recording. I contacted Olympus and never got a response. It does not matter where the unit is the buzzing will occur in the recording 60% of the time. The buzzing is loud enough so that you can not understand what or who you are recording. I thought the first unit I receive may have had a defect but now that both units do the same thing I think it is a bad product.