Olympus WS-802 Voice Recorder

I just got this two days ago, so these are my first impressions. It is an amazingly small and lightweight gadget compared to my cell phones and pocket cameras, as well as any cassette recorder I've owned. The included rechargable AAA battery seems to last for more hours than I had time for so far, and in a pinch AAA batteries are easy to come by. I worry when my electronic gadgets need special expensive batteries and even worse when the batteries are not replaceable. This one is very nice in that it comes with a svelte little padded pouch to keep it in, stereo ear-buds, and a short USB cable to connect to computers for the rechargeable battery and transferring files (It has a slide-out USB connector as well and can be used as a flash drive as well.) and a printed basic manual. The detailed instructions in PDF format are available online. It will take me awhile to learn to appreciate all its many good features, and get used to its limitations too, I suppose. It is very feature rich, well made, and the control buttons, switches and menus are well designed overall.The only real negative for me is that the built-in stereo mics pick up any noise from the case. The hollow sounding plastic case seems to act like a soundboard amplifying the sound of fingers sliding on its surface and pushing the buttons while operating it. It is surprising to me how loud that noise can be on the recording -- sounds like someone is sandpapering the microphone.I guess I'm spoiled by the absence of noise on my cell phone and wondering why these voice recordings are spoiled by this unwanted noise. Is this typical of all handheld voice recorders or are some better than others I wonder? Or did I get a defective product? I wish there was a test comparison of these products somewhere, so I would know what to expect of them. Maybe I just have to accept it as a limitation of the technology in this tiny device, and maybe this is as good as it gets.An external microphone seems to help a little. I bought the TP8 telephone microphone and tried it a bit. I've downloaded the detailed instructions from olympusamerica.com and spent many hours becoming familiar with my new WS-803. I've tried setting the Low Cut Filter on, tried the Handheld Dictation scene mode, as well as the external microphone, but there seems to be no perfect solution if you want to use the recorder handheld or in your pocket without unwanted noise. Even placing it on a table while recording with the internal microphones picks up noises on the table surface. Updated March 10, 2013 -- A lapel microphone should solve this problem as advised by Olympus and experienced users of this recorder.The FM radio works well indoors in my house and recordings from radio are free of any of this noise I just described. Music recordings are good, not great, even with the highest setting of PCM 44.1 kHz/16bit, supposedly CD sound quality. The recordings do not sound quite as good as the FM broadcast they were recorded from, a bit tinny in sound like the bass is partly lost is my impression. Updated March 10, 2013 -- Music recordings are not just good, they are excellent. The problem I had was that I had the Low Cut Filter on, killing the low frequency sounds.So I gave it four stars for now, at least until I have more experience with it.

I highly recommend the Olympus WS-801 Voice Recorder because :(1)Very simple, easy to use compared to Sony etc. Press button labeled "REC" to record, button labeled "ERASE" to erase file, button labeled "STOP" to stop recording or playing. No "accidental" erasure.Red light is lit up and is solid when recording.(2) Good sound quality when recording cell or land line phone using the Olympus TP-8 Telephone Pick-up Microphone for $14 on Amazon. Background noise is minimal.Olympus microphones for other special applications, all sold on Amazon, include :......$16 ME-52W Noise Canceling Microphone with 3.3 feet cord......$48 ME-51S Stereo Microphone......$14 ME-12 Noise Canceling Microphone, good for transcription etcSearch by the model number, like ME-52W.(3) Comparable products like Sony ICDPX312 ($59.99) etc cost more.(4) Price charged by seller Amazon is lower than 6 sellers I have checked.(5)Record on the internal built-in 2 GB card. Or record on a microSD card (up to 32 GB, not supplied) inserted into the port of the recorder.(6) 3 ways to connect to computer :...(a)insert slide-out USB connector into USB port of a computer...(b)insert micro SD card into reader port of a computer....(c)insert micro SD card into a card reader which is then inserted into USB port of computer.(7)An user's manual in a pdf format, provides much more details than the printed booklet, is on the CD under directory PDF.(8)Screen has a 3-bar battery charge indicator. Press + or - to increase or decrease sound volume in increment as shown by bar graph on screen.(9)Very durable. I have dropped it about 4 feet high at least 30 times with no noticeable damages to outside or sound quality.(10)Small and light weight. Both WS-801 and TP-8 microphone easily fit inside shirt pocket horizontally or vertically.Notes :-------Uses one removable AAA battery.One alkaline AAA gives 20 to 27 hours recording depending on sound quality, or 19 to 24 hours playback.Time for Ni-MH AAA is about 4 hours less.A 2 GB card gives 508 hours in 8 kbps WMA format, or 32.5 hours of recording in 128 kbps WMA format, or 16.5 hours in 256 kbps MP3 mode, or 500 songs of 4 minutes each at 128 kbpsA 32 GB card has 16 times the capacity of a 2 GB card. 4 GB card has 2 times.It takes time to research all these information. Please click "Yes" if this review was helpful to you.

This is the best for playing learning tracks and recording your progress during rehearsal. Music playback is OK too.The A-B repeat is easy to use. Because all buttons are physical (not on a touch screen) I can operate it without looking down.1GB is a bit small so I had to add a 16GB micro-SD.I'm not sure if it's supposed to charge using USB, but it doesn't.Recording is great, playback is a bit weak.

Très efficace, simple de fonctionnement! La prise USB intégrée (que l'on a seulement à glisser pour la faire sortir) est très très pratique! Je me suis fait voler mon 1er et j'ai racheté le même!

This device could have better clarity, it seems to pick up a lot of background noise, however, it's still a very useful tool for recording university lectures.

It's really functional ....Registration time is ok for me I uses it for 1 or 2 hours/session, clear sound, easy files transfers and conversions, very handy ...I love it.......it satisfy my needs.

I use this recorder to record my voice for my choir. I must record my singing and send it to my tester by email. She then listens to it for accuracy.