I bought this specificaly to record individual conversations in a relatively noisy environment -- e.g. coffee shop, restaurant, with several people involved in the conversation. It worked very well for me by moving the device in front of the person talking -- in some cases the individual would pick it up and this of course worked even better. All in all, I am very pleased with the performance. I was able to produce a verbatum transcript at nearly 100% accuracy for all of the conversation I recorded over a 4 day period of time. I didn't test recording any musical performances.
With regard to construction and overall operation, I found it extremely easy to operate and to seamlessly download to my pc using the built in usb connector. I was able to playback all of the conversations directly on my computer and start and stop and replay at will to produce an accurate transcript. (You can of course play back directly from the device but I wanted to store it on my computer anyway).
The unit is very small, smaller than my LG Chocolate mobile phone, and is easy to carry around and use. I give it a 5 star rating for my purposes. Sony ICD-UX200 Digital Voice Recorder with Built-In Stereo Microphone (Silver)
I searched around many places for a recorder to record lectures in class. I am so glad that I bought this recorder. I normally put the recorder up front, by the professor's desk, so the sound quality is great and the volume goes up pretty high when replaying the files. I love the fact that I can transfer files straight to my computer and that it is mac compatible without having to download additional software. It's a nice looking, compact recorder and, personally, I think it is a great buy.
I bought this for my nursing lectures, as there was just too much information to write down for my tastes! This little recorder works great!
STORAGE: Even on the best quality setting, I was able to record at least a week's worth of lectures around 2 hours each.
BATTERY LIFE: The battery life is really great too, I only charge it maybe once a week. If you have a laptop, you can charge it in class with the USB port.
FORMAT: The recordings are in mp3 format already, so you don't have to worry about converting it for other purposes.
Be careful which setting you choose.. out of the box it is set for the highest quality and you can easily have huge file sizes over 100MB. I recently set my quality a little lower and it still sounds just fine for my purposes.
I sit in a large lecture hall that seats over 100 students. I am usually in the middle rows, and the instructors use a portable microphone to speak. It picks up their information just fine, although it is a little soft if they aren't using their microphone. You could easily ask to place it up near the front and it'd probably fix that problem.
I can upload the files to my computer to put on a CD or pop in my earbuds and listen to the lectures straight from the device! (This is GREAT for studying the book while replaying lecture notes to follow along with)
There's a pause feature for breaks without having to create a new file, and 10 folders so you can organize your files without having to replay each one trying to figure out which class it was. (I usually write the file name on my notes so I know which lecture is which)
Overall this was a great choice and invaluable for my classes!
I recently bought this device to record lectures in my medical classes. I was expecting a completely average quality device, even given the price, due to past experiences with these types of devices. What I got was far in excess of my expectations.
First of all, this unit is quite small and lightweight. It's about the size of a small candy bar, maybe 3/4 the size of a standard snickers bar or something, but thinner. It's build quality is slightly above average, but I would suggest you not expose it to any sort of trauma or it seems like it'd break pretty easily. The buttons are all sturdy enough though, and the screen has a back light, which is nice for accessing the device in those dimly lit lecture halls/auditoriums.
Now, the really important thing, and the main reason I am so happy with my purchase: the recording quality of this device is nothing short of superb. It's so good, that even if you scale it down to a lower setting to allow for more record time, the quality is still excellent. This unit has two microphones built into it that record audio in crisp high quality stereo sound. I was recording a lecture recently and was sitting in the rear of the room with this device on the table in front of me and was still able to record the professor's lecture as though I was sitting right in front of him. The device has some features that I believe aided in this as they are able to remove a little bit of the noise within the room that was outside of the normal vocal range, which cut down on some of the shuffling students tend to do as they take notes, etc. It's not a research quality sound, but for the sub $100 price tag, it's a very, very nice high quality sound you will get with this device.
The device includes a set of Sony headphones in the event that you'd like to monitor the recording as you're taking notes and/or review a lecture while reviewing notes at home, on the bus, in the library, etc. Of course, you can use any set of headphones though, and I'd recommend something a bit better than the ones included as they're a bit uncomfortable - but they're small and fit nicely in a backpack, so they're not a bad option in a pinch or as a backup.
The device also comes with many of the features you find on similar devices from other manufacturers (and some you don't), such as looped playback, equalizer options, an alarm, many different menu options, etc. As a college student I really appreciate that I can use this device as a USB thumbdrive (it's got it's USB plug built right in, but comes with a corded dongle in case you cannot attach it directly to a PC), it's also capable of replaying any music you download to it as it has a headphone port, you can also attach an external mic to the device (sony makes a few really nice ones), and it also records great audio, of course. So in my opinion it's really a multifunctional device that definitely belongs in the book bag of every college student.
If you're in the market for a high quality voice recorder, especially one that does well in a lecture situation, you owe it to yourself to seriously consider this little unit. - Digital Recorder - Mac Compatible - Digital Recorders - Digital Voice Recorders'
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