Olympus DS-30 Digital Voice Recorder

It is a best product in the DS- series of Olympics. The product is value for money and its completely stuffed with features. Though, the audio quality is not excellent, it can be good device for a audio based learner to have.
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Shreedhar

I am really blown away by the sound quality of these Olympus Digital Voice Recorders. This is my second one; I previously owned the VN2100 but decided to upgrade (see my review for the VN2100).

Pretty intuitive functions/buttons/menus, and my experience with the battery life has been good. Like all Olympus digital recorders, the SP and LP quality recording modes are pretty bad. (If it's a loud lecturer or close-to-mouth dictation, you don't have to worry much, just a bit gritty sounding.) To get a decent smooth-sounding recording you need to record in HQ or XHQ, which takes up a lot more memory, and thus leaves you with less room on the recorder time-wise. Would be annoying except with this model you can download your files to your computer and free up space on the device.

Another feature of this model is that is has a removable stereo microphone in case you don't want mono recording. It's really not necessary for lectures or dictation, but can provide a really nice, super-high quality stereo recording if you want.

I'm extremely pleased with my purchase. My only pseudo complaint/criticism is that it is not as attractive as the VN2100 or some of the other models. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic product that is well worth the money.

This is my first digital recorder and I'm really impressed with how much of an advance this is from my old tape dictaphone. Naturally, there's the added convenience of being able to record much more, but what I'm particularly appreciating is the sheer quality of the pick up, the ability to organize recordings into any of five folders, and a very neat on/off slide switch that eliminates the kind of problems I have with other gadgets of getting turned on accidentally in my bag and running low on battery.

My recorder has now had an extended workout at a three day conference, numerous interviews by phone and in person, and a couple of lectures and meetings. In every case, it has performed extremely well, picking up all of the sound that I wanted and eliminating much of what I didn't.

When I researched recorders, I was surprised to find that many either don't offer an easy import solution to PC or don't hold files in a common audio format; this recorder allows files to be pulled down in seconds (in Windows Media WMA format) - either via bundled software or by just acting as an additional hard drive. For me that was essential and led my choice.

This is a great product with great features, I only wish it could hold a lot more music, at least a couple of gigabytes.

Thank you.

As a PhD student I wanted something to take notes regardless of location or environment (significant thoughts often arise while I'm driving). This recorder makes it easy to register thoughts whenever they arise, and recording them is much faster than writing.
The five folders present an excellent method for categorizing notes from different sources, and the included software allows the folders to be named. I have three young children, so one of the folders is utilized for recording some of the things they say. One folder is used for dissertation ideas, another for general notes.
I have also been impressed with the recording capabilities of this unit. I speak regularly, and have found that the DS-30 makes it easy to preserve a recording of these presentations. The selectable microphone may be set for lecture, conference, or dictation, and these settings do make a difference in the recording (at least betweeen the conference and dictation settings).
The ability to save files to the computer was one of the primary reasons I selected this unit, and that capacity works quite well. When I connect the DS-30 to the USB cable, the software opens automatically and provides an intuitive interface for transferring files to the computer.

Additional miscellaneous notes:
The controls on the DS-30 are quite easy to navigate.
I have been using the device over a month and have not yet changed the battery.
A number of options are available, including how far the forward and reverse buttons move the recording. For example: In the default setting, during playback the forward and reverse buttons advance to the following recording or to the beginning of the current recording (as on a CD player). I changed the settings so that during playback, the forward button advances one minute and the reverse button moves ten seconds backward (I guess I've been conditioned my DVR). When playback is halted, the buttons still move to the previous and succeeding recording.
I have enjoyed the DS-30 very much, and would wholeheartedly recommend it to others seeking this type of device.