Olympus WS-311M Digital Voice Recorder and WMA Music Player

Olympus WS-311M Digital Voice Recorder and WMA Music Player Features:

• Record up to 138 hours of quality stearo voice recordings
• Doubles as a USB storage device
• Listen to up to 120 MP3 and WMA music files while WOW XT Technology provides rich bass and three-dimensional sound during playback.
• From personal notes to school lectures to business-related meetings and music galore, everything sounds great in clear stereo sound from the built-in stereo microphone.

Customer Reviews:

• Excellent tool for the aspiring songwriter in you: I find this little gizmo indispensable when I want to record something in a flash. There are so many features but the fat instruction book covers them all and makes it easy to use. It's great that you can just detach the bottom and stick it into a computer, but on my laptop the recorder juts out beyond the base of the laptop so in effect I have to hold the laptop up so as not to put all the weight on the unit. Luckily they enclose a short USB to USB cable that fixes that problem.
  
  It can play mp3s as promised, and the slow-down speed-up feature works for those as well. I especially like that you can set track markers and play certain parts over and over again. Quality is excellent, though it doesn't sound too good coming through the internal speaker. Better to use headphones or transfer to your computer, which is also a cinch.
  
  While I was hoping to pay less, I think the $80 is worth it if you plan to use it a lot. I have not used any of the lower-priced ones, but just by looking at the feature list, I am glad I spent a little more.
• It's great.: I love it. It works great in a classroom setting as well as a one-on-one interview. A little confusing to use, but I get confused by microwave operation...
• Nice try, but lousy service: I purchased this unit in March to record college lectures. Every third time I set it down, the recording mode shuts off temperamentally. When I tried to talk to Olympus today about my problem, I was told I'd have to send the unit into them for 4-6 weeks with no other option. Without purchasing a new unit, I would not be able to record the lectures--why I bought it in the first place. They were very uncooperative and were not willing to work with me to find any alternative with an attitude of "too bad it's your problem."
  
  Lesson learned...when you buy Olympus, you roll the dice. If the product works as advertised, you win. If not, "Too bad, it's your problem."
• slim, elegant: I like my WS-311. Very slim and elegant. Sound is great. Easy to use. No headache when transfering file to a PC with the USB. Once you connect it to your PC, the folders are already there, just do copy and paste or drag music/voice file to the folder, connect the battery hub and you are on the go. Reasonable price for a great product. I used to buy cheap stuff, they lasts only for months and I ended up buying other brands.
• Poor Variable Control Voice Actuator Function: I bought this product for the sole purpose of recording seminars. Poor Variable Control Voice Actuator (VCVA) function ruins this otherwise excellent digital recorder.
  
  VCVA records only when the device senses sound. Hence it helps trim out downtime and is an important time-saving function when listening to recorded material.
  
  What I've found is that the VCVA is not sensitive enough to work properly unless the lecturer speaks directly to the recorder within about 3 feet. So even when I am sitting in the front row, this device still misses out reocrding most part of a lecture when I set it at the VCVA mode.