Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony ICDUX70RED Digital Voice Recorder MP3 Stereo Recording and Playback

I am pretty pleased with this purchase. My only criticism is that is does not pick up too much distance. I purchased this recorder through Amazon to record my college classes. Luckily, I am able to record without a microphone, but I have to sit close to the professor and can't hear students on the other side of the classroom. I listen to it through my computer so it is easier for me to hear. If you are going to record more than 15 feet away from the source, consider getting an external microphone.

Now for the things I like. 1.) It's small, light, and easy to carry around. 2.) It's very easy to use. 3.) You can plug earphones right into the recorder if you want to listen it to right away. 4.) The best thing is that you can plug it right into your computer and treats it like an MP3 file so you can do whatever you want with it on your computer. No software to download; it's instant. 5.) It's Mac compatible, which I have not tested yet. 6.) It's just cool looking.

Overall, if you don't have to recorder from more than 15-20 feet away, I would recommend this product.

It's interesting that some owners report good battery life, others report bad. The one I bought is BAD. It used up a battery in about 5 hours of use, which I thought was too short. So I put in a new battery and put the device in LOCK (it powered off, according to display). Four days later when I turned it on to record something, the battery was virtually flat. It ran about 10 minutes and shut down.

So I found Sony's tech help and emailed them. Seems there may be problems because they responded by sending me this link.

http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/documentLink.do?externalId=C390704

In summary it says battery life should be normal. If not, your unit needs repair.

Not putting a battery in until you need it is not a good option. I tried that and every time I turned it on, it required me to set the date before I could proceed. That's not acceptable, especially since it takes several seconds to boot up anyway. Forget starting a recording quickly.

Otherwise the recorder does its job well. I like the mp3 file format, and recording are decent quality. I like Sony products, but this is the third device that has murdered batteries (the other two are digital cameras). This one is going back, not to repair.

I really loved my Sony ICDUXRED recorder. I use past tense as I just lost it and am now shopping for a replacement. The recording quality using the built in stereo mics is excellent! I bought the external Sony stereo mic and that produces even better quality richer sound quality, but the built in mics are certainly acceptable. I used mine mostly as a MP3 player and I found the 1GB memory restrictive as I have about 800mb of music on it and leave about 200mb for podcasts I want to listen to and for recording my own podcasts. I think if I get another Sony (which I'm really leaning towards) I will buy the 2gb model. My 1st one only lasted about one week as the finger selector thingie spring broke but happily, I bought it at Fry's and they gave me a new replacement without hassle. It would really benefit if a case was included to protect this device from damage. It is not rugged enough to put in your jeans pocket, you will damage the selector switch.

I wish Sony would build this device that used micro SD flash cards as memory is now so cheap. The 2gb model is 50 bucks more than this 1gb model which is a ripoff! Today I can buy a micro SD card with 4gb for about 15 bucks or less!

Battery life is not so good. Acceptable. I use ni-mh rechargeable batteries with this device, otherwise I'd be going through a lot of batteries as I play poker and sometimes use this as a player to drown out the mindless chatter around the table. Maybe 8-12 hours of play using NiMh battery. I don't believe that the USB port recharges the NiMh battery when left plugged into my laptop, but I don't know for sure.

So, I really liked my 1gb model, but I will probably get the 2gb model now. I can wait a bit and maybe Sony or someone will produce a recorder/player device of this quality but one that accepts micro SD cards and then I'd give it 5 stars. Sony can sell it a lot cheaper and us consumers would not be limited to built in memory.

I'm looking to buy the 2gb or more model or better yet would rather purchase a device that accepts removable MicroSD cards that has the features and quality of this Sony device.

This recorder is perfect! My girlfriend spent about $30 less and got the basic Olympus recorder, and it's AWFUL compared to this Sony. I've also listened to other students' recordings using lower-end Sonys, Memorex, RCA, etc. None of them compare to this. I've been absolutely spoiled by the crystal clear stereo recording quality and direct USB drive functionality. Bottom line is, this is COMPLETELY worth the extra bit you pay over a basic recorder. It's one of the best investments to my education that I've made. The ability to easily understand recordings made anywhere in a lecture hall really can't be underestimated.

There have been conflicting reports of whether this can charge a battery through USB. I've just been using generic alkalines, so I'll report back when I buy rechargeables. I'm getting about 2 weeks of usage (approx 12-15 hours) out of each AAA. More inexpensive players tend to run through 2 AAA's at the same rate.

As a writer I needed the notetaker for recording ideas at various times of the day and night and the added bonus of a built-in Mp3 player motivated my purchase of this unit. Recorded sound is excellent as is Mp3 reproduction.

The unit is advertised as Mac compatible, this is true except for one issue, the fact that every Mp3 music file that is transferred to the Sony unit from my Mac G4 laptop or G4 desktop is accompanied by an `Unknown' file. Deleting these files on the notetaker is a tiresome and time-consuming exercise; they cannot be seen on the notetaker directory when the unit is plugged into the Mac. If the Unknown files are not deleted, playback of music files stops as soon as an Unknown file comes up in the playlist. There is usually an Unknown file between each song when a folder of songs is imported.

Presumably this issue does not occur when this unit is used with a Wintel PC. I've written to Sony but they have not replied re this problem. There are no patches or software/firmware updates on their site. If you use a Mac avoid this device particularly if you want to use it for Mp3 playback.