Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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154 of 154 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It does the job, but it could have been a lot better for the price, 16 Jul 2006
I bought this digital voice recorder for my MA fieldwork, with the intention of using it during my PhD fieldwork next year. Here is what I think is good and what I think is bad about it..
Pros:
-Excellent recording quality, the recordings are very clear (even at lower quality settings) and you have the capacity to turn off the recording of background noises, which gives you much clarity over the recording.
-It looks good. This is not as superficial as it sounds. The recorder is small and looks a bit like a mobile phone, which is good, especially if you are interviewing people who feel nervous about being recorded (they will soon forget the "little" machine) or if you are using it in public places (it will avoid people looking at you).
-You can transfer your files onto your computer or laptop and save them in a CD or USB stick for future reference.
-It has long battery life. I completed 10 interviews of around 1 hour each as well as completing the transcripts whilst playing the files on the recorder and I haven't had to change the little battery yet.
Cons:
-If you intend to use it whilst travelling do remember to download the software CD onto your laptop, I forgot, and whilst away I was unable to download it from the Olympus website, although they say you can all you can download is a very old and very basic software that will not recognise this recorder.
-The instructions do not tell you how to switch the recorder off. However, if you press hold, after a few seconds it turns itself off. It would have been nice to be told by the manual.
-The software will not let you play the recording at a slower pace, making it very difficult to complete transcripts using the software. I've found it easier to listen to the interviews from the recorder.
-The recorder and software are not compatible with Mac computers, which is a shame.
Overall, it isn't a bad recorder at all, however for the price tag it could have provided better instructions, better software and better online support.
It's good if you need a large amount of space for recording, good quality and you don't want to carry a huge amount of technology around.
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72 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
VN960PC Digital Voice Recorder - does what is says on the box, 13 Jul 2006
Found it very easy to use, recording quality in HQ mode is superb. Also, the recording time of 355 minutes in High Quality is very convenient, that is about 3 hours of superior quality recording. Used it for my MSc experiment and was not dissapointed. Interface is very simple to use, almost intuitive. Once you download the contents of the CD attached with the recorder, you can easily download files and folders onto your PC. Recommended, 5 stars.
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5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Waste of Money, Don't Buy, 17 Jan 2008
This is the worst product I have ever used. I used it once and it has not worked since. Olympus will not do anything about it. The one time it did work, the sound quality was terrible, I could not understand a word of what i had said and I was holding the damn thing. Batteries last a whole 10 mins before being completely used up. The old mechanical ones with a little cassette work much better and are a lot cheaper.
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