 Amazing little recorder |
| Review Date: June 22, 2009 |
| Reviewer: James Hebert, Topeka, KS United States |
This little recorder rocks. There's a lot to say about it.
For my recording needs, it replaced an aging but awesome iRiver H120 (20 GB recorder capable of recording 44/16 or MP3, plus playback of many audio file types. I found nothing that would do everything the iRiver did, so I split the job up. Bought an iPod for listening to music and the Sony for recording.
My recording needs are smaller than my recording ego. I'd love a Marantz PMD 661, but have no way to justify it or the price. I needed a recorder to handle 1- to 4-part vocal practices, with from 1-50 people, without having to pay a lot of attention to tweaking levels to get a quality recording. I wanted more than "recognizable," I wanted "listenable." The Sony got it right.
Sony did all that and surprised me with more flexibility than I expected. I had been debating between this and the Olympus LS-10. At the time I purchased, I was able to find the Sony online new for $70, versus the Olympus for $219. I downloaded the manuals, read a number of reviews, listened to sound samples, and even looked at some in audio editing software.
The real differences between this and the Olympus come from the product's target market: Sony aimed for digital voice recording, and Olympus aimed at music recording. But they overlap enough that comparisons are worth making:
(0) Both offer line-in or built-in mic recording; USB connection to a computer; 44/16 or MP3 recording (more later), high quality mics in stereo; battery operation; and tiny speakers useful for little more than basic monitoring. In each of these camps, one model or the other offers a little more versatility than the other. I believe it is these "little things" that make or break the choice over which is right for you.
(1) Sony's got 1 GB of RAM, which limits you to 90 minutes of CD quality (44.1/16) recording (if you choose one of the lossy formats like MP3 (192 or 128) or Sony's proprietary LPEC format, you'll get many hours more). There's no expansion option (c'mon, a MicroSD card slot would not have been out of the question). Olympus offers more high resolution, high bit rate formats, and comes with 2 GB built in with an SD card slot for more expansion. Score 1 for Olympus.
(2) If you use rechargeables, the Sony will recharge the AAA batteries via USB when connected, while the Olympus will not. The Oly's 12 hour on AA's mean you'll likely use an AC adaptor much of the time, like when transferring files to/from the PC. But the Olym does not include one. Worse, the Oly manual explicitly says DO NOT connect via USB while connected to AC power. WHAT? That's just goofy, and it sounds too easy to fry something important. Score 1 for Sony.
(3) Sony added a number of useful features geared toward "voice clarity" when recording, and when playing back, any combination of which can be turned on/off. Some are "recorded" with the signal, but others are playback-only. Voice boost, low cut, noise cut are very effective (particularly if what you want to hear is the voice range in a recording). The digital vari-speed playback is fair at best (always seems warbly to me), as is the voice-activated recording (it tends to cut off the first word). From reviews, and the manual, Olympus offers a low cut switch, and preset/manual recording level settings, but its playback adjustments are limited to some preset reverbs. Yuck. Sony's microphones are great, but I believe they are not on par with the Oly's. This is purely subjective, but again the "target market" means that one product requires quality voice reproduction while the other requires quality musical reproduction. I believe this purpose may drive the internal processing of the recorded signal just as it does the features offered by each product. I consider this one a tie.
Letdowns in both Camps
I am disappointed that the Olympus does not feature any better "listening adjustments" like equalization settings. This seems to be a natural fit for a musician's device. Every iPod's got it! On the Sony side, I am disappointed that "fast forwarding through" recordings is somewhat choppy, and for long recording of over 30 minutes it tends to take a while to get farther in. To be fair, it does speed up the longer you hold the scan function, but I miss the ability to set the scan speed the way I could with RockBox on my iRiver. Some devices do this, and scan MP3's smoothly.
Surprises Too
Some little bonuses haves surprised me. Both recorders come with 5 pre-made folders, labeled Folder01 through Folder05, for recording. The Sony manual led me to think that this was it, these 5 folders were what I had to work with. However, when connected to a PC the Sony allowed me to create more folders, change the names of existing ones, and generally treat the files and file system the way you want. I renamed the folders to more useful names, and created a few others, and it handled them all just fine when disconnected from the computer, never complaining. (Of course, if I reformat the entire drive, I'm sure it will go back to its defaults...which I will change again. But for a Sony product to give me this kind of leeway and freedom, pretty cool! I can't say how the Oly handles the 5 default folders, or whether more are allowed.
Sony's got convenience down with this one. The first menu item displayed is always the recording mode (44/16, MP3, LPEC, etc.) and, beside that, the recording level (with a Music preset, three voice presets Normal, High, SuperHigh, and Manual). Nice and clean, and well thought-out. Also, I can put MP3's on it, and it will play them back with a wonderful, warm, analog sound. So I can use it occasionally as a portable player, which it's pretty darn good at!
Overall
If you need more critical musical recording quality in an "all in one" box, the Olympus is closer to this goal provided you understand its limits and are mindful of them. I consider it more of a "very high quality capture device" for music when you are in more controlled recording environments. I don't think of it as a music player.
If you need more portability, ease of operation and convenience, and are willing to listen to a lesser (but still very high) audio quality, the Sony is worth a close look. Listen to the audio samples on the Sony Canada site (www.sony.ca). I consider it more of a "high quality capture and playback device" for all kinds of recording situations, indoors or out. |
Sony ICD-SX700 is a winner
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| Review Date: June 6, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Robert J. Nagy, |
I've spent a week with my new 700 and I give it two thumbs up. I'm very critical on gear, and this little unit is hard to find fault with. So, let's get down to it. As a voice note-taker , it has everything you need. Set at mono and on one of the lesser recording types, you have days of recording time. Organizing your recordings into files is easy. If you get the D model, you get the software to do automatic voice to text conversion. Where the fun begins is with using the 700 as a Field-recorder. It has 10 different recording modes. In CD quality 44.1Khz 16Bit linear, you get 1.5 hours of flawless recording. It is the same as if you used a rack-full of digital recording equipment. The on-board mics sound excellent. One note, they (the mics) have the bass lowered a bit to accommodate voice recording, so if you plan to to field to CD recording of live music, I would get a simple stereo hand mic. You can plug it right into the 700. Mode-wise, 44.1khz/16bit gives the best results for music. Second best is Sony's own Lpec stereo HQ. It gives 11 hours of stereo recording and the provided software converts it to any format you want afterwords.
If 44.1/16 is 100% quality, then Lpec STHQ is 85%. Number #3 is 192khz MP3. I would give it 75% on the quality scale. Lpec STHQ is a fine and efficient mode for music.
It would take an engineer like me to hear the difference.
Battery life is excellent. Pop a set of rechargables in there and the USB cable charges them. If I had one complaint, it would be that the level meter does not show on playback. Once you record it right, you don't need to see the meter on playback. Kick on the limiter to be sure you don't go over 100% when recording. That's it.
For $125, it does everything the $300 stereo hand-recorders do..and more. |
Great and amazing
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| Review Date: October 24, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Presto Photo, Oberlin, OH |
| I've tested this by recording lectures, cello recitals, loud drumming, high school marching bands, quiet sounds, loud sounds, nearby voices, far away voices, and more -- and this little device has captured them all beautifully! Bookmarking, dividing messages, repeat playback -- all work great. In addition, the Digital Voice Editing software is easy to use. I really debated which type of digital recorder to buy, but am totally happy with this one. |
Perfect Evidence Recorder
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| Review Date: November 6, 2009 |
| Reviewer: inspectorrgadget, California |
Elsewhere in these reviews, professional musicians rated these recorders for high-quality Music Dulication. However, I am interested in high-quality Voice Evidence. For my purposes, this unit is the best I have ever used.
I have owned about 5 digital recorders in the past. This one is the best. Be careful that if getting a Sony, you get this one that uses Sony's proprietary Digital Voice Editor format, like this one does. It is much easier to edit a recording with the Sony format, and then convert it to MP3, than the other way around. Editing is important for those times you forgot to turn off the recorder, which has happened a lot: I do not want conversations with my spouse inside the same MP3 recording as a professional contact. The Sony Digital Voice Editor software makes it a breeze to redact unintentional recordings. The date/time stamp makes it easy to hunt for certain voice contacts months or years later. The Sony format (with V-up) allows one to turn up voices over background noise, which greatly eases playback clarity.
This unit's record button is mounted on the SIDE, not the front. Side-mounted buttons are very very important. Those lesser units with front-mounted controls are much harder to operate discretely. I cannot stress enough how important side-mounted controls are. Do not get a recorder that has the record/play/erase buttons on the face of the unit if you ever want to use this recorder discretely.
Used discretely in my professional work, this voice recorder has disproven many instances of slander. Those who told lies about me were proven to be perjurers. But be sure to check your state's laws before making discrete recordings. Linda Tripp (of the Lewinsky affair) was criminally charged over illegal recordings; be sure of what you are doing is legal before making discrete recordings. If only that Cambridge Police Sergeant had used one of these digital recorders, we would not have seen the White House hosting its "beer summit" with a certain Harvard Professor:
[...]
I know from experience that Olympus makes some good recorders with side-mounted buttons. But Olympus software is not a free internet download, and Sony's is. Getting the Sony software (for free) loaded onto new computers has been a breeze; those with Olympus products who could not find their program/driver CD's were stuck.
In addition to being great for voice evidence, many musicians rate this unit as #2 for music! Singing Sergeants everywhere will rejoice when they buy this recorder.
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Great product
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| Review Date: September 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: M. Paulsen, Iowa |
| I just needed something to capture the spoken memories of an uncle and after reading Amazon reviews decided on this. It's simple to operate and performed beyond expectations. I'm not an expert on these things so won't try to get into details. Battery life appeared to meet or exceed what was listed. |
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