Sony ICD-UX533BLK Digital Voice Recorder - Black

This recorder provides surprisingly good sound quality with good sensitivity for voice recordings. I have tried it with the Sony powered external microphone, but I find that the recorder itself provides a better recording without using any external mike. There are sensitivity levels you can play with. Dictation or personal notes will probably be a little better with low sensitivity, since you are speaking right into the microphone. High sensitivity works good for room recording, such as lectures, meetings, etc.In addition to sensitivity, you can choose the recording quality or resolution, up to LPCM 44/16. The tradeoff is that a lower quality recording uses less space on the chip and a bit less battery, but on a 8 gb chip at full LPCM 44/16 you can record about 12 hours, which is about the limit of a good rechargeable battery. I recommend the highest quality recording if strictly for your notes, but the highest quality recording will easily exceed 25mb for even a short recording, which can limit your ability to send it as an email attachment. If you want to keep the file smaller to be able to send it by email, you can have the recorder record in various resolutions of MP3. You can also have Windows media Player take a .WAV file and dumb it down to MP3 or .WMA, and the software that comes with the recorder will allow you to convert the original .WAV file to an MP3 file. I used to have an Olympus digital recorder, which recorded in a proprietary format. Although you could work with files and send them, you needed the proprietary software to play them. These recordings are in .WAV or MP3 format, so you can immediately copy them or send them by email, and they will play on any computer. This is a big advantage compared to a proprietary file system like Olympus.It has a speaker and earphone jack, so you can play back immediately. You can use a patch cord and play through your car's aux input to listen to recordings on the way home. Playback through a computer or sound system will be superior to what you hear through the recorder's own speaker. Since it is digital, you can simply jump to the next file. There is no need to move through a linear recording, as with a tape. You can use five folders for storing files, so this makes it easier to find what you want. For example, you can use a separate file folder for each subject. It comes with software that will let you split tracks, so you do not have to save an entire recording if you only want to keep a certain part. You can also combine tracks with the software.It has its own USB plug, so it connects directly to a computer USB port to import files. If you have rechargeable batteries, you can also use the USB port for the charging, but you have to tell the recorder that you want to have it charge batteries (and of course don't charge non-rechargeable batteries.) I recommend rechargeable batteries if you will use it a lot. You can get after market rechargeable batteries with a bit more capacity than the rechargeable battery that comes with the recorder, and a good rechargeable battery will last 10-12 hours at the highest resolution. It works well for telephone recordings if you get a patch cord that connects to your phone line and set the input to audio in. If set for voice activation, it will stop after about five seconds of silence. Voice activation recordings will be one continuous track without the blocks of silence. I would not recommend voice activation for anything important, as you may miss the first half second before it starts recording, and it may stop recording when the subject is at a very low level, even though you would still get a recording if set to constantly record. You have the option to turn off the LCD backlight and the red recording light, which will save the battery and also make it less conspicuous. You can format the chip directly from the recorder, you can use a low cut filter for noise reduction, and you can play at a variable speed if desired. The recorder is solid state (no moving parts) so it is completely silent when in use. However, be sure to keep the volume at zero and slide the hold switch up when recording, as handling it could stop the recording and start the play function. I am not reviewing or recommending this for music recording, as good quality music recordings are a different beast, but this is great for voice, including use by students, professionals, and investigators. This is a high quality, versatile and compact recorder for the price for any voice recording use. You might find it cheaper in a different color if you look around Amazon, but be careful of the ones sent directly from Japan as they may have Japanese menus (check the pictures).

I bought this to replace a similar older Sony voice recorder (model ICD-PX820). It has many of the same features and a similar user interface, which made it an attractive candidate for me. With the march of technology, there have been some significant and welcome improvements, chiefly much more storage space, better battery life, and better integration with my desktop computer for file storage and manipulation.I've had the device for only a couple of months, so my experience is somewhat limited, but I've used it for personal note-taking and for recording several two-hour lectures. I have not yet experimented with using the device to store (or record) music or podcasts. It has worked perfectly so far. The included NiMH AAA rechargeable battery is advertised as having a battery life of over 20 hours, which agrees with my experience.There is more functionality than I am ever likely to need, with many settings to adjust for different usage conditions. I was pleased to discover a "Scene Mode" that configures the device's various recording settings for common situations, like a lecture or meeting. I was also pleased to find a playback capability (called "Digital Pitch Control") that enables faster/slower playback without a change in the sound's pitch.The organization system for files on the device is fairly primitive but functional (and more user-friendly than on my former device). The software for extracting files to a computer and manipulating them there (called "Sound Organizer" – for Windows only) is full-featured, and the installer comes stored in the device's memory, so you can install it without downloading from the Web. For example, the device by itself has a limited ability to (re)name files and folders: basically, you choose from a predefined set of names like “Important” or “Task” and suffixes like “[2]” or “A”. But when you connect the device to the computer, you can more general file or folder renaming with the Sound Organizer application.The device comes with a minimal "quick start" guide. In order to learn more than the basics, you must read the Help Guide, which is a large collection of web pages that also comes stored on the device so that it can be readily installed on a computer. I found reading this documentation (also available online at the Sony support website – search by the device's model number) to be quite clear and comprehensive. (If you prefer to read offline, on paper, you’re pretty much out of luck. I know of no way to print the nearly 200 web pages conveniently.) In addition, there is a version of the Help Guide optimized for mobile devices (i.e., small screens), which is handy for reference when you’re on the go. However, it doesn’t appear to be possible to download the mobile guide, so Internet connectivity is necessary to use it. I found it handy to “bookmark” the page in my phone’s browser.If you are wondering if this device will fit your needs, I would suggest looking at the online version of the Help Guide), which is what I did before buying it.So far, I’ve encountered only minor negatives, all of them in the occasionally mysterious user interface. Probably these will become insignificant as I get used to them. It’s a rare for a product to pack a lot of functionality into a small space without a few infelicities.Bottom line: I'm very happy with this device, though I'm not a "power user". I was actually happy with my previous voice recorder, but had to replace it because Sony stopped supporting the Windows drivers, so it was no longer possible to extract files to my desktop computer under the current version of Windows. That was a little annoying, but the functionality improvements in the newer device have made the migration worthwhile.

I have owned this recorder for several years now, and I find it to be easy to use with consistently good sound quality. Here are the features I like most about it that I have a hard time finding all together in other recorders:- Back lighting: Even if it's dark, you'll be able to see the screen. (Note: Light only stays on for a few seconds so you don't drain the battery. Comes back on when you hit any button.)- Slide-out USB - It's super easy to transfer the files to my computer, without the need for cords or additional software.- It's stereo, not mono. I hate mono recorders where playback only happens through one side of my headphones!- It's easy to fast-forward or rewind.- It takes one AAA battery, which actually lasts a long time! I haven't timed it to see exactly how long it lasts, but I can go hours & hours with this thing. I'm also the kind of person who prefers an actual battery rather than something I have to charge. Devices that need to be charged eventually wear down and stop being able to hold a charge, making them unreliable. I need reliability.- Simple to use and fits easily in my hand. There aren't a lot of extra bells & whistles to this recorder. It's straight-forward and gets the job done well.I have been so happy with this recorder. I've owned a couple other brands in the past, and this one far surpasses them (for my needs, anyway).