Anybody on the forum with DVR experience or suggestions…I have read about some of them and Olympus looks good as well as the Korean M-Bird’s.
Looking for some information on hands on experiences.
thanks
I’ve been using Samsung Yepps for about 5 years now. They’re sturdy and the sound quality is great. Battery life is good, and it’s easy to transfer files to the computer. They do record in a proprietary format but it’s easy enough to use their software to transform it to a .wav file (or, I think now, .mp3 on the newer version; can’t recall for sure.)
I got both of mine (consecutive – got the second while in Taiwan after the first one finally died of unknown causes after several years) in what used to be Dai-ichi (I know they changed the name, but i can’t remember what the new name is; anyway, the Japanese store on the corner of Hoping and Roosevelt that sells electronics and appliances. The name is English now I believe.) They’re not the cheapest of the recorders but I’ve been very satisfied with them.
I recently bought a cheaper Sony in the States intending to give it to my dad and I’m not even going to give it to him. I’m not happy with the quality or performance. Plus (my bad on this one) there’s no USB cable on it. Do yourself a favor and get one with a USB cable, you’ll be happy you did in the long run.
Oh yeah, FYI i record mostly voice/conferences and then classical music concerts with the orchestra I play with. I put the recorder out around row 18 of the house and it picks up the orchestra very well. In fact I’d say the qualty is just about as good (nearly) as the recordings they used to make officially with multiple microphones, etc. etc. (which they now no longer make, so this is it.) Three recording quality levels available and plenty of record time even on the highest one (and of course you can always just download the files and start again with more space.)
I use an Olympus DS-2 and find it to be very good. Sound quality is excellent and there is very little handling or wind noise. I found getting it from the States (BH Photo I think) cheaper than buying it in Taiwan, even with the 40 USD freight charge.
It’s fairly basic but I only use it for dictation and recording lying bastards on the phone or at telephone companies or government departments. Ahem. The mere production of it (it looks unmistakably like a voice recorder) often does the trick.
It’s not much use for live music.
Thanks to both of you for the info it helps. I am using it mostly for vocals possible the occasional ambient sound.