Olympus DS-30 Digital Voice Recorder

I bought an Olympus W-10 a few years ago. Not a bad device, but when I tried to install software on my new Vista laptop, Olympus told me "Too bad. Your device is just outdated." And, "No, we don't have any plans of supporting your device on Windows Vista". I think that says it all. Unless you want to buy one of these every few years.

This tiny digital recorder packs a lot of recording into a small package. I use it for recording church services (just place it on the pew next to me or in a corner) and everything comes out clearly, including the music. (Don't put it next to you if you don't like to listen to your own singing.) I've also used it to record a band rehearsal (along with my comments that the director asked me to add). That sounded surprisingly good also.

So what I'm saying is that you get a lot for the price. It's not a top-of-the line recorder, and the software is about useless, but I'm really pleased with this product.

Product performs well. The only con so far is not being able to turn up the recording volume and maybe a more expensive version of this product would have that particular feature. Being a poor graduate student, this is what I could afford, so I'm making it work for me!

I haven't really used it yet, but the times I used it, it worked pretty good.

I'd like to add more to this once I get to better grips with other features offered, but for now, I need to leave a review purely for the following reason:

I bought this the night before a major presentation and had no time to get to grips with it. Despite this and knowing how complex some new devices can be today, I was astonished at how easy it was to come to grips with. Simply unbelievable. I congratulate Olympus on that. In under ten minutes, I had it figured out inside out. Recording in different styles (conference, lecture, stereo XQ,HQ etc.) were all available at the flick of a button. Accessing folders was stupidly easy. The quality of 'stereo' playback was immense.

Uploading to specific folders on my computer doesn't need the software, which is even better since I don't need to cram my computer with any more junk.

I won't be using this for music playback, but for voice recording, it does exactly that at premium quality. Additionally, the device fulfills its use by being sleek, small and portable and looks great.

This is one user friendly piece of kit. In my opinion, this is the 'iPod' of voice recorders and hopefully soon the gold-standard.

PROMISED UPDATE: A certain customer wrote in his review that you can't stop, rewind and redictate over a small portion and is therefore not a true dictaphone. I agree with that and think thats the only flaw of this product. I use it for conference recording mostly thought and so it works great for my needs. Recording and ease of use are outstanding.

Overall: Delighted. 5 stars still.