Sony ICDUX70 Digital Voice Recorder MP3 Stereo Recording and Playback

Too many steps to erase, find folders, fast forward/rewind, change view from lapsed time, record date, record time or remain time.
Too much time to boot up. Slow response.
Audio is much lower when using low mike sensitivity.
Should have gone with the Olympic version.

I bought this to record my piano classes at school, and the recordings I get are unlistenable. Whether I have the recorder sitting one or twelve feet away from the piano, every time that a note is hit with anything other than a pianissimo, it oversaturates the microphones on the recorder, causing static/distortion.

On top of that, the fact that the speakers are situated precisely on the left/right of the device means that you need to have it centered in relation to the source of sound, or one of the channels will be silent or annoyingly quiet.

The sensitive mic mode picks up more noise than anything. If I set this in a quiet room and try to record a normal conversation, the general static/ambient sound drowns out the voices. And the "dictation" mode is no good for anything other than speaking half an inch away from the mics. One extreme or the other; there's no in-between setting.

It's also ridiculous that the device takes about 10-15 seconds to boot up. Waiting a couple seconds when you hit Record is fine, but if you need to record something in a rush, you'll probably miss it by the time this thing turns on.

The main reason I bought this was because it recorded in MP3 format. I borrowed an Olympus WS-311M a short time ago, which recorded in WMA, and the results I got with it were amazing (for anything from lectures to live music shows), so I figured I'd get something comparable (or better) from a Sony recorder. Not even close.

Perhaps the device would work fine hooked up to an external mic. But then that's an additional thing to carry around and worry about setting up, and detracts from the ease of use. A $100 recorder should record perfectly with whatever components it brings out of the box.

I bought this digital recorder to record music lessons and Irish music sessions (with 6-14 instruments playing) to learn new tunes. The recordings are CD quality, and you can transfer files to your computer with the built in USB plug. If you spend a few bucks extra at radioshack, you can also record music cassettes or CDs directly from a cassette deck or portable CD player (you could also do this with a turntable if you still have them).

Battery life is low (it's only one AAA - so what else would you expect), so rechargable AAAs quickly pay for themselves.

Overall, I'm really pleased with this recorder.

Nothing to say, but its really a nice device.

if you looking for a quality you have to buy a external mic.

I received the sony icd-ux70 today with great expectations. I currently have a cheapo olympus voice recorder which I like, but its missing a rewind/backspace/review feature I really needed. I use the recorder primarily to do dictation, todo lists, brainstorming, auxillary brain storage, and record meetings. My short term memory has never been that good, so this thing has become part of my life. After reading the reviews here and shopping around, this sony fit the bill. Firstly, let me say that I read the entire manual online before I received this unit, so I knew exactly what it was capable of. I'm really disappointed in this product.

Cons:
1. As another commenter said, the internal speaker is lousy. I'll go one step further to say its totally unusable. It barely squeaks at max volume. You need the earphones.

2. Its a terrible voice recorder for dictation. The microphone cant filter out noise. Even my nose breathing was louder than my voice (at low or high mike sensitity). And if you rub the unit, that's even louder than my voice. I tried the different sensitivity settings (low and high) and tried adjusting how I spoke into the mike. No luck. After 50 recordings, I could not take it any more. I think I gave this unit the benefit of the doubt. I really wanted to make it work. So unless you use an external mike and headphones, this unit is useless for recording voice in a dictation manner.

3. To delete files, you have to use the menu. I prefer a "trash" key to quickly delete files I've already processed or transcribe.

Pros:
It looks and feels great. The specs are cool. Functionally (other than the delete function), it's superbly designed. And you'll even get use to the conrol that some folks complained as flimsy (unless you have a big thumb then you might as well forget it). If you put the unit down and record music or a meeting, it's probably fantastic although you cant hear it.

Anyway, I just want to warn folks that if you do dictation, this unit is not for you. Come on Sony, this is the first product of yours I have ever returned.