Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder

I purchased an Olympus DS-40 from Fry's Electronics for $160.00. I got a box that contained the digital voice recorder, the software, a usb port cable, headphones, and an AC Adapter. I returned it thinking that I was going to get a better deal on Amazon.com. What I got was a digital recorder, the software, and two AAA batteries for $114.00. As far as I'm concerned I did NOT get a better deal. In thought I was going to get the same thing that I returned, but I learned that you get what you pay for. I DON'T EVEN HAVE A PHONE NUMBER TO CALL TO TALK TO SOMEONE. I look on Amazon.com to contact them by phone and all I get is a list of items that I can buy for customer service training. I will be returning this product to the fact it is not the complete product that I was paying for.

I wanted a something I could use to make recordings of our 45 minute Sunday school class to send to one of our class members serving in Iraq. Our classroom is the size of a regular conference room but with terrible acoustics. The last time I used a voice recorder was back when cassette tapes were popular, so I'm a total novice.

Here's what I found: a
1) Learning curve: 1 hour to read the whole manual, configure the device, and make some tests
2) Effort to record: easy (turn on, press the record button, press the stop button when done, turn off)
3) Download & conversion to mp3: 10 seconds for me, 2 or 3 minutes for the computer.
4) Sound quality: excellent - very clear with very little background noise.
5) Overall experience (usability, etc): excellent. The manual and interface were both easy to read and use.

This recorder is great for those who need to take voice notes and also want to record music at a decent quality. My only complaint is that there are only three microphone sensitivity levels, which is the only thing that makes this thing not all that ideal for music.

The Planning Office needed a reliable, quality unit to tape public meetings and hearings. The DS-40 replaced one that recorded well, but had tiny, multi-function, hard-to-operate buttons. The DS-40 has been a terrific unit. It records well, whether it is a small group meeting or a larger public hearing. Its operation is intuitive, which is a blessing when we're using temporary employees. It arrived at 4 p.m. in the afternoon, and it operated flawlessly for recording a meeting at 6:30 p.m. that same evening. For doing minutes, download the file and listen from the computer as it is easier to do the forward and reverse. I would recommend this unit to anyone who has to record meetings.

I bought DS-40 to record the sunday sermons on my church. It's a small church, so I figured a digital voice recorder will be enough and let me tell you that it is enough. Pastor wears the Olympus ME-15 Microphone (purchased separately) around his chest, then delievers the message as usual through another microphone which is connected directly to an amp.

After the service I get the recorder from the pastor, then copy the file to my computer, use Switch(ver 1.33) to convert the wma sermon file to mp3, and edit the file using Audacity to trim away any unwanted noise/beginning/end, adjust the volume. After that, my wife records the reading of the passages on the bible and the title of the sermon and I combine the two files and it's ready!

Recorded voice quality is very good!