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Overall great. I use it to record thoughts and musical ideas. The size is perfect - nice and small and portable, but not so small you lose it. The sound is great, it has a built in stereo mic which is nice and sensitive. I set it to record at the very highest quality which gives me a an hour or two before it fills up, but it never gets there because I transfer to my PC pretty regularly. Also, there are many different levels of audio quality where the most basic takes a lot less space and you can record many hours without it filling up. The device has a built in USB plug that extends out and turns it into a thumb drive - brilliant feature! You just plug it into your PC and dan move over your files like from any thumb drive. Easier to transfer recordings to my computer than doing the same thing with the iPhone. The recorder has an easy to read backlit LCD display and the menus are easy to read and make sense of. There are plenty of options. The buttons are your basic up/down/left/right cursor, play/record, etc. and are responsive and function well. One thing people should be aware of is it records in Windows WMA format, which may put people off. However it is simple to convert the recordings to MP3 or WAV files using a free program like Audacity, and the sound quality stays exactly the same. Records in stereo, has an external stereo mic jack so I can plug in a couple condenser mics or my trusty pair of Radio Shack PZM mics for awesome stereo spread. For musicians, this is a huge advantage over the iPhone, which requires an unwieldy (and expensive) adapter to be able to plug stereo mics into (or else special bluetooth microphones - good luck finding PZM mics in bluetooth!) One of the best features and values of this recorder is it's powered by a standard AAA battery. Nowadays many such devices are powered by a permanently built in or non-standard rechargeable battery. If you're recording and the battery goes dead, you can just quickly pop in a fresh AAA battery, which is a life saver if you're recording your band or something that you don't want to miss. With a built in battery the only option is to wait for the thing to recharge. Also, with those permanent battery devices, what they don't tell you is, the batteries go bad after about 3-4 years, and you can't replace them without sending the device back to the factory or professional repair shop, or taking them apart yourself - very difficult or very expensive. So basically they are pretty much disposeable. I have been using this little recorder for 10 years, closer to 15, and it's still going strong with a standard rechargeable AAA battery I got at Target! If the battery goes bad, you can just get a new one. I can't say how much I appreciate this one feature, as the whole permanently built in battery thing is SUCH an insult to the buyer and the environment. This recorder was made to last, no "planned obsolescence"! So anyway I can'r recommend this little recorder enough!Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I attend several lengthy meetings and it is necessary to record what was said and what was not said. The Olympus WS-400S fits the bill. With about a 12 hour capacity, I don't have to fumble every 30 minutes switching micro casette tapes. It is compact and requires very little to set it up (you have to push two or three buttons). Plus there is an externtal audio input if you want to plug a microphone into it (I do). The range is pretty good - it can pick up everyone seated at a 15-seat boardroom table. The battery life is good. One AAA battery lasts about 12 hours of recording. The audio quality is mediocre - but then I not recording a concert. The feature that sold me is I can simply take the unit, plug it directly into my computer (no wires) where there is a retractable USB plug that I can directly download what I just recorded to my computer.Read full review
As a marketing research professional I do a lot of interviews. This recorder provides good quality sound, long battery life, and the wav files are relatively small so I can easily send them through an FTP program to my transcription service (I have another more expensive Olympus recorder with their proprietary file format and I never use it because that software is too cumbersome). The controls are intuitive and you have several file directories to manage files. Great value for the money. The only drawback is the USB connector does not fit easily into my super lightweight Toshiba Portege. I solved this by buying a USB extension cord.
It's small, it's light and does the job. USB connectivity is a snap for hooking up to a laptop. The tiny speaker is almost worthless, so have earbuds handy. Why can't Olympus be bothered to add an ON/OFF switch, c'mon you cheapskates--how much can it cost? Make sure you buy the recorder with a manual, or you'll be lost. I downloaded one, and it will take days for me to learn all of the nuannces of this recorder. One other note: I would spring for an external mic with a windscreen if you plan to use the recorder outside.
This is the second recorder I buy and I use it almost all day long. It uses one AAA battery and it lasts a long time. I study voice and use it for my voice lessons and rehearsals. It's easy to carry, easy to use and the digital sound is excellent. It has a USB connection so I plug it in the computer (Apple) when I want to back up all my recordings onto a cd and erase the info to start clean again. I open the files in my computer using Quicktime and export as Aiff, then I can drag this files to Itunes to load my lessons to my Ipod. I absolutely love this recorder.
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