Home > Consumer Reviews > Olympus DS-50 - Digital voice recorder - flash 1 GB - WMA, MP3

I bought this recorder to replace my aging portable cassette recorder. I was astounded by the compact size of the unit. It's smaller and lighter in weight than even my microcassette recorder, but there is a whole range of recording quality settings, both monaural and stereo. There is a monaural microphone build right into the recorder, and this gives quite nice sound. The included external stereo microphone can be mounted right to the top of the recorder or connected at a distance using the included extension cable with built-in recording on/off switch and pocket clip. The stereo microphone is a bit heavy on the treble and lacking on the bass, but it's sensitive and works fine for a variety of purposes.

I am totally blind, so nonvisual access to the recorder is important to me. The recorder has no build-in tex-to-speech, so the only information it can speak is "canned" speech such as menu options and pre-existing folder names. Even so, the machine is way ahead of most devices for nonvisual access. The menus have selectable speech rates and volume settings and can be silenced if you don't want to hear them at all.

Recording is a snap. Just choose from one of the five available "dictation" folders and hit the Record button. Pressing Record repeatedly toggles between record and pause on the same audio file. Each time you hit the Stop button and begin a new recording with the Record button, a new file is created.

The recorder comes with a software CD that lets you easily move files between the recorder and your PC. You can subscribe to podcasts in this software and have those podcasts automatically grabbed from the Internet and loaded to your recorder when you attach the recorder to your PC via the USB port. There is also compatibility with audible.com though I have not tried that feature.

Windows Media Player recognizes the Olympus DS-50 as a media device, so you can load even protected audio content to the recorder.

This little recorder is a remarkably flexible device, and I do not have time here to describe all the nicities that contribute to its overall value. If I have one concern with my particular unit, it would be that I don't seem to get a whole lot of usage time out of a set of NiMH batteries, and I find that when the batteries go low, I get a beep and the unit immediately shuts off. I am hoping that the firmware update I retrieved from www.startstop.com may address this issue, but I have not seen how low battery conditions work out since loading the update. I can say that, if the recorder dies while recording, it tends to do a good job of closing the file that was being recorded so that you don't lose your existing data.

You can't brag too much about this recorder-it should get an award. I took it to the jungle to record background jungle sounds, waterfalls, and frogs. The quality of sound was amazing. And it is easy to use. The battery seems to last forever.

I cannot say enough about the DS-50. As a reporter, it's always dangerous to rely on recorder of any kind. Even if the recording comes out, often you are seated in the audience of a meeting where people are not speaking through microphones and soft speakers just aren't recordable. With this device, if you set it on HQ Stereo and switch the microphone to Lecture, you can hear even the softest speakers across the room and playback through headphones is extraordinary.
The controls are simple and easy to learn and the backlit screen is easy to read. Overall, the design of the recorder is great, with the button placement very easy to learn.
The remote attachment is also a wonderful feature. For meetings I have to take notes and I can safely place the recorder in my pocket and run the stereo microphone on the remote wire to my lapel and control the starts and stops from there.
The control on the remote overrides the Hold button on the recorder, so you don't have to worry about accidentally mashing buttons while it's in your pocket.
One piece of advice, don't clip the mic to a leather jacket. Every time I moved the creaking leather sounded like a waterfall in the playback.
The recorder comes with the remote, the removable stereo mic, a pair of earbuds and a suede case with a magnet closure. I have one gripe about the case. It allows access to most of the control buttons when the flap is opened, but not to the power switch. This isn't often an issue, because the recorder will wake up when any button is pushed if it turns off due to power save. The case doesn't have any pouches or pockets to store attachments, but it isn't really made for that.
All in all, this product has endless applications, and a phone conversation recording attachment can be purchased for less than $20 and that works equally as well. The design is very simple, effective and reliable.
So far, it's been very good on battery life, running on two AAA batteries.
It's tiny, it's light and the recording quality is remarkable for such a small device. This is a must for anyone who regularly conducts interviews or records meetings, lectures or phone conversations.
By the way, the Olympus Web site recommends a retail price of $300 for this model. At this price, the thing is a steal.

I bought this digital voice recorder to use for voice transcription in conjunction with Dragon Naturally Speaking.

When I received the recorder I was surprised at how small it was. It fits into my purse pocket and coat pocket just fine. I use it while I am driving to and from work to record thoughts for a website I am developing. Later in the evening I then plug it in to my computer and transcribe the recording. It works really well for that.

The manual is easy to use and complete. I had the unit figured out in about 15 minutes. There is plenty of room for file storage on it and also plenty of room to store music files.

Some notes: When recording in the car it does a great job of blocking out background noise. If you just want playback you should be happy with the recording. I did find I needed to hold on to the unit and speak into it to get a better transcription with the Dragon software.

I purchased Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred and am running it on Windows XP. It installed fine and has no compatibility issues.

Overall I am very satisfied with the product. I know it has the capabilities to do a lot more than I am using it for.

You can pick up a rat's whisper with this kit. The case could be better, but we're not reviewing that.