Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony ICDSX46 - 128MB Digital Voice Recorder w/ MP3 Playback

I recently needed a voice recorder for my job...so I did an extensive research and decided to buy either Olympus DS-2 or Sony ICD-SX25.

I went to Circuit City to check out the two recorders and found ICD-SX46! I did not know Sony just released the ICD-SX46 when I went to Circuit City. ICD-SX46 has more memory (128MB) than Olympus DS-2 and ICD-SX25 combined.

Olympus DS-2 was way too big (approximately same size and a flip phone that is opened) to be in your pocket and made mostly out of plastic while SX46 is made of aluminum and slimmer in design. I decided to buy the sx46 because of its design and memory capacity.

Well, so far I love this recorder. The recording is very clear and even clearer if you use a headphone to listen to your recordings. The small speaker is also good, but the volume has to be almost all the way up to hear the recordings that had been far away from the microphone.

The aluminum body of this recorder feels sturdy and well made. Even the battery covering of this recorder is attach to the body so that you would never loose it. The record button is on the side so you can easly push it without dropping the recorder.

The buttons are also made out of aluminum and they don't feel cheap. And did I mentioned? the recorder is really light even with the two AAA batteries.

The LCD screen is also big enough to read, but does not have any back lights...so if you use it at night..make sure you got enough lighting to see the lcd screen.

You can also turn off the "BEEP" sounds which you hear whenever you push a button. You can also turn of the LED lights on the top of the recorder that lights up whenever you record or play the machine...so that you can save more energy.

This machine says it plays MP3 files..so I tried it but the software that came with the recorder made me convert the MP3 into that sony file thing (I'm not sure what you call it). But the music sound pretty nice even with that little speaker. However I would not use this machine as a MP3 player because it is not meant for such task...it is all about recording.

There is fast/forward button on this recorder...if you push and hold the forward button..it would fast forward until you let go of the button.

The recorder does not have on/off button because according to the manual..it would not consume too much battery power even though lcd is on whole day....however you can use the "HOLD" switch on the back of the recorder as the off/on button...the lcd would go blank and no matter how much you push the record button, it would not record untill you toggle the hold button. I like this feature.

The software that comes with this recorder is pretty much basic...I didn't really get to use the editing tools so I have no idea how they work....sorry about that. However you can change your setting of the recorder with the software instead of doing it right on the recorder...I think that is pretty cool.

By the way, the product comes with a soft cloth case, USB cable, 2 AAA Alkaine batteries and a CD.

So far I am glad I got this recorder. Good job, SONY.

I had been searching the internet high and low for a digital voice recorder that would fulfill my needs -- a quality voice recorder AND a suitable device that would record instruments -- staying up late nights, spending hours on live chats comparing products, waiting weeks for e-mails back from companies about their recorders, and then I found this and took a gamble. And I won! This thing is amazing. The body is a little large to be an mp3 player, but, as another poster said, it's all about the recording. The piano recordings sound almost professional, and the internal microphone produces a better quality sound than my $150 external microphone that I plugged into it!!! My only qualm is that you must open a program in order to extract your recording and save it to your computer instead of the recorder simply opening like a drive, but after the first try this becomes a piece of cake. Regardless, this recorder packs many helpful features and is extremely flexible in different environments. There are many, many different voice recorders out there today, but this is one to get.

I have had this for a year now. The unit itself is pretty high quality. Many options. The problem is the software. The digital voice editor software that comes with it is very limited and never was great. But, what's worst of all is you need to keep the disk with you and not lose it, because if the software has a glitch (like mine just did) and you are on the road, and you don't have the disk, you cannot hope to find the software to re-download to reinstall. Sony only posts updates to it, as if the software itself here was some valuable product to protect. It's a little proprietary player that also happens to be the ONLY way you can transfer the files to your computer. So, if it stops working, and you don't have disk, you are screwed. This is unacceptable in this day and age. It's not like ANYONE in the world would want to download and use this software for anything other than if you were using one of these units. It's essentially barely more than the driver you need to transfer (and you need it to convert) the files. Typical proprietary Sony, overprotecting things to the hurt of the customers who want just to use their product. (This is how Beta lost to VHS, in so many ways).

I would NOT buy this unit again for this reason.

I got the Sony ICDSX46 -128 MD digital voice recorder to help me stay organized at work. I am constantly shifting between different clients/projects during the day and needed an easy way to accurately record the time I was spending on each. The Sony is small enough that I can keep it in my shirt or pants pocket without really noticing it. This means I actually bring it with me everywhere (one of the problems I had with other time-tacking methods).

The Sony has five folders that can be used to keep recordings separate. I use them for (a) time billing, (b) expenses, (c) to-do's, (4) drafting notes and (5) interviews. When I do playbacks of a particular folder - I get a full sequence of only the items I am looking for. The folders also make it easy for me to download things to my assistant's computer vis the built-in USB connection. Very cool.

There are many other features on the recorder that I have not used yet. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I do know that it was up-and-running as soon as I put the battery in and has been working perfectly since. One thing, make sure that you use the 'hold' switch on the back of the recorder. Otherwise, the recorder will fo on inadvertently in your pocket.

For someone that makes a living in six-minute increments -- the Sony is a godsend.

I should have read these reviews before purchasing. The stick is very small, the directions are extremely lengthy and not incredibly user-friendly. However, I could have made it work, EXCEPT for the huge fact that the hardware does not save files in an MP3 format or any format that is compressed and/or easily transferrable to CD. Also, it does not allow you to tag data once saved. It assigns its own tags, which work okay unless your have more than 2 or 3 files saved. No thanks, this is going back.