Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder

Benefit to me: great productivity booster.

Salient features that deliver this benefit:

- Excellent microphone sensitivity makes it great for recording conferences and lectures. No more constant replaying, straining to hear what the speaker said.

- User-defined repeat playback loops and index ("go to")points speed transcription.

- Records about seven hours at high quality. Claims 5X that recording length on lowest quality but I've never tried it.

- Tiny drawback, not particularly important: the "record" button is high on the right side of the device. That's just where my thumb would be whether I want to record or not. Result: accidental recording. I'd like to see the double-button record feature used on Olympus microcasette recorders.

- This DVR replaced an Olympus microcassette recorder. Storing the analog contents of the recorder on my computer required replay through digitizing software (Audacity). With a DVR, just download.

Definitely recommend.

This is an excellent voice recorder, but don't get it if you wish to record live music or your practice sessions with a guitar or piano. I tried it and the resulting sound was just plain awful--just one mushy sound. I returned it to Amazon and bought the LS-10 which just arrived today. I've already tried it out and it's a hundred times better than the DS-40 for the purpose of recording live music.

I purchased this item on Feb 2008 and on May 2008 it started having problems with recording. I bought it from the States and I live in Greece so I went to local Olympus service to find out that I had to ship it back to US in order to get support otherwise I would have to pay about 70 USD in order to get it fixed. One way or another I contacted US Olympus support via email and after a week I still have no reply what to do. One more example on how excellent products are buried by companies who do not respect the consumer.
Get a Sony / Panasonic or something else. At least they reply to emails.

I LOVE it! Whenever I play back my recordings on the stereo, my wife says it's like having two of me in the room because the sound is so amazingly clear! I can't imagine how this product could have been made any better.

This recorder is a first rate choice. It is priced mid-range for products of its type, but its quality of performance is extremely high. It has different playback speeds so you can speed up or slow down what you have recorded. The sound on playback speed is not distorted. Battery life is very good.

The most impressive attribute of the Olympus DS-40 is the sound quality of what you are recording. I have had other digital recorders and this is by far the best.

It has three recording mode selections - dictation, lecture, or conference. Most frequently I use lecture and I can pick up voices with excellent clarity.

Given its weight and small inconspicuous size, the quality of the recordings is outstanding. If I had to repurchase another mobile recorder, this would be the one I would select.