OM SYSTEMOlympus Olympus WS-821 Voice Recorders with 2 GB Built-In-Memory

This is a good device. Lost my previous one. Arrived exactly on time as stated.

As a newspaper reporter, I have to attend a large number of county government meetings. I also have to interview people. Problem: I'm a horrible note-taker.Solution: this voice recorder. This is an excellent recorder that works well for general-purpose recording. It's easy to use and effectively reproduces the subject's speech. It is compact, easily fitting inside a pocket and yet it is still obvious that it is well-made.Some things, though, I've had to learn over time. After going through a lot of AAA batteries, I discovered that I have to intentionally turn the recorder off if I don't want a 2-hour recording of me driving, having conversations, and eating all while the recorder is sitting in my pocket. Not only does it devour the battery if you do that, it gets a little irritating to have to go back and make sure the recording isn't something I needed. I've had some long recordings in meetings, after all.I've also learned that you need to get a good case for this recorder, because otherwise you wind up with sound coming from a "black hole" and feeling like an idiot when your pants are talking... Yeah, it started playing back while it was in my pocket and I couldn't figure out what was going on. Again, turn the recorder off!But those issues are MY issues, not the recorder's. It does its job just fine.Oh, and I've only used alkaline batteries thus far, and it has plenty of power on a good-quality alkaline AAA battery to record probably a dozen hours of audio.I would highly recommend this recorder to anyone who has to record someone speaking, whether a college professor or a politician bloviating.Pros:+Takes AAA batteries, so it's easy to feed.+Records audio faithfully.+Replay volume from the speaker is excellent, and a simple pair of headphones allows you to keep from annoying those around you.+Good battery life from alkaline batteries.+Plenty of accessories available. The telephone pickup, Olympus part # TP-8, is especially useful if you are having to conduct interviews over the phone.Cons-You REALLY need to read the manual.-You REALLY need to always turn it off manually, rather than waiting for it to shut itself off, since a button press turns it back on!-Does not come with a case, so you'll want to find a good quality case. A compact digital camera case should work well without costing a lot.

great purchase, I love it!!!

This is an excellent recorder for its purpose. It is very good for dictation, recording lectures, and other live events. The sound quality is good. It has a number of convenience features, such as a built in USB jack, micro SD slot, and flexible file formats. The controls are easy to operate.I purchased it for remote dictation using Dragon Dictate. Nuance gives it high reviews for compatibility and I found it to be nearly as accurate as a desktop mic when training is finished.It is not intended to be used as music field recorder -- other brands are better suited for that task. If you want to use it for dictation, you would be hard pressed to beat it and the price is very reasonable.

Really good