Customer Reviews:
 My search is over July 21, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I needed a recorder to grab lectures during school and after searching through many audio recorders i came across this little beauty. i have a mac so i wanted something that was mac compatible and this thing works amazingly. I also have flip for mac (freeware) which allows me to play the wma files straight though quicktime. so if you are using a mac i would download that because it makes things that much easier. otherwise you can convert them in iTunes.
the quality is great. both mic settings are awesome. on dictation, i set it right next to the instructor (being small and black makes it even more incognito) and 99% of the sound coming back is him. no background people. if recording in conference mode, i can hear everyone, including myself in the back row. so if you want to hear people asking questions, you can have that, if you want just the main person, you can have that too.
its easy to use, and i love the folder feature. i can record each class in a different folder so they never get confused. and its also very easy to use, within a minute of opening the package i was already recording people. i totally recommend this to anyone looking for a recorder that wants a decent sound quality and ease of use. especially if you are a mac user.
 small and full function, Good! July 21, 2007
It's very small and have all the function that i need. It's a recorder, a mp3 player and a usb driver. The only thing is that it can not rechage directly. It uses AAA battery.
Olympus WS-320M July 8, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Very compact and unintrusive. Records meetings fairly well but does not pick up all voices. I am considering purchasing the microphone as well. Hopefully that wil help to pick up sounds. Music player component is not that impressive.
Study Aid July 5, 2007
I use this for class. I tape the instructors and listen to it later. It's easy to use and works great.
Good audio quality, file format annoyances, micro size has pros and cons July 5, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Pros--Size, Sound quality, Handy USB design,
Cons--Size, Limited file type support, Battery life
I've used this product over a year, primarily to record group conversations, persona memos, meetings, and conference calls. On the whole, it is very useful, but it has a few quirks and weak points.
The WMA format is a minor inconvenience. I'm a Mac user and can translate the files easily enough--Quicktime reads them no problem and I edit them with more advanced software anyway--but I don't know how standard a format this is, even for Windows users, compared with MP3. The device recognizes and plays MP3 files, so it seems it ought to have the option to record in that format.
It recognizes few audio file formats. The ability to use the 1GB capacity to hold my own music audio files and use as a portable MP3 player is a nice secondary function. It doesn't recognize other typical music file formats though (of which my and most people's music libraries consist), and that's annoying. Also, its very short battery life limits its practical use as an iPod substitute. (You'd be lucky to get through a two hour flight on one battery. I keep a spare with the device at all times.) It has standard 1/8" mic and headphone jacks.
As mentioned in other reviews, the tiny size has pros and cons. I love that I can slip it in a front shirt pocket to record a conversation. It is so lightweight and small, i hardly know it's there. And that's also one of the negatives: I can forget when I left the thing in a pocket or easily forget it on a cluttered table. Another issue also typical of increasingly tiny electronics is the point of diminishing returns with usable controls: the buttons are so tiny, I can see how they'd be difficult to manipulate. I am a tall man with large hands and manage without difficulty, but I am also young enough still to have fine dexterity and not require reading glasses. Folks a little older and less accustomed to wee gadgets might not fare as well.
The break-apart USB design is cool and convenient. It's great for transfer--no cable required--and can function as an alternate flashdrive for file storage. The negative here is that it is reeeally s-l-o-w.
If pocket size and convenient file transfer are your primary requirements, buying this is a no-brainer. If you require even better sound quality and have to have MP3 recording, you might look at something like the Edirol R-09.
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