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 enlarge | Brand: Olympus
Category: CE
Buy New: $299.95
New (8) from $299.95
Rating:  29 reviews
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 5 x 3 x 8
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: DS2300
Model: DS2300
UPC: 050332153530
EAN: 0050332153530
ASIN: B0009XTDHO
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 29
 Avoid It March 6, 2007
. (San Francisco, CA)
28 out of 30 found this review helpful
The quality of sound and manufacture of this unit is unacceptable. It was made in China. Although it has an attractive design, the outside is made from the same inexpensive plastic that my $29 Panasonic DVR is made from. The recorder has two modes, SP and EP. SP is the highest quality, but playback still sounds cheap at the highest quality. There also are two microphone settings, Dictation and Conference. In Dictation mode, the microphone can only pick up what is said within about 12 - 18 inches. The quality is audible, but not great. Conference mode only works when one person is speaking in a completely quiet room, something that is not realistic with people shuffling about. Any background noise will render the recording inaudible. Even in a quiet room, the quality is muffled and unacceptable. The high price for this unit definitely is not indicative of its quality, which appears to be low. I have other, less expensive units, that are better built and have a higher audio quality. I do not understand the other reviews, other than to believe someone with less experience using DVRs would have a different expectation. Perhaps it works better with an external microphone or when used solely in a closed environment (such as a quiet, closed interrogation room), which I believe defeats the purpose of a small pocket-sized unit meant to be carried around.
A 1 MB XD card gives 168 hours in SP mode or 358 hours in EP, which would be great if the product worked. Similar to other brands, the controls are not intuitive, but can be learned easily and are not a drawback.
 Another California Investigator March 2, 2007
A. Tassin (Sacramento, CA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I made the investment in this recorder and have been very pleased. I use the Olympus 2300 for witness and subject interviews in closed enviroments (interview rooms, offices, etc). The sound quality is great. The ability to add memory sold me. I installed a 256 MB chip and on standard play I now have over 42 hours of recording time! No more worry about fliping tapes. And no more booking tapes. My interviews could go all day and the logistics involved in standard tapes is not a consideration anymore. I upload everything to my agency's server and skip the evidence room. I like the folders option that allows for the division of recodings by file...A to E. On road trips, each letter is a day. Each interview is a number. On my paper notes and just note A1, B3, E5 for quick reference. After the recordings are uploaded to my server (or laptop) I then re-name the files to the names of the persons who were interviewed. The larger screen is easy to see and the recording time counts down so I know how long the recoding has been going. I can then make notes on paper with a reference to time into the recording allowing for quick play back later. The only problem I had are batteries. I carry extra AAA batteries and repalce them if the battery level falls below half. I recently got 20 plus hours of record time on a set of two batteries...but always be ready to switch them out if things could go long. Overall, great tool and easy to learn and use.
Excellent audio recorder February 20, 2007
George G. McDonald (Mesquite, TX)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
It took me a little while to get used to the controls. The utility of index marks was not apparent until I recorded longer sessions. Index marks let you move to a section of the recording as rapidly as moving from one file to the next. Similarly, I did not fully understand the fast forward and rev operations until I worked on some longer recordings. After a few days, I've found the controls had become intuitive and easy to use. The automatic volume control works well: I find that at a meeting in a large room I can clearly hear all of the speakers. This control also works well for recording phone conversations (using a Radio Shack phone recording controller. The automatic recording control (it stops recording during silence) works very well. There is no clipping associated with a tape transport starting up. Gaps in conversation are reduced to minimal and on playback, the conversations sound quite normal.The included 16 MB XD card has room for about 2 hours of recording at standard quality. I bought a 1GB XD (the smallest available) from a local big box store. This gives about 200 hours of continuous recording which is 5 times the battery life. There is no fast play back as seen with some machines but fast-forward during playback alternates 1 second jumps with 1 second of playback. The jumps get larger as you continue to FF. This works well and provides almost the same utility as the fast playback. Sound output from the speaker is only fair (volume and quality). Output to earphones is excellent. The included software let's you edit the files, archive them, listen to them on your computer and convert them from the proprietary DSS to .wma and .wav files. I'm very pleased with the machine. I would rate it excellent.
Olympus DS-2300 Digital Voice Recorder February 10, 2007
Mark (Los Angeles, CA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I used it at a recent large homeowners meeting that did not use microphones and it picked up everything, even comments from the audience. Replaying and downloading to a computer worked flawlessly.
Great recorder January 17, 2007
xlamp (New YOrk, NY)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I bought this to record interviews done primarily on the phone and it's worked beautifully. Clear and easy to use. Once downloaded onto my computer I used the Olympus transcription package to transcribe the interviews. This allowed me to listen on headphones, control the progression (and backtracking)of the interview with a foot pedal and keep both hands on the keyboard to type quickly. This voice recorder plus the transcription package dramatically cut the amount of time I had to take trascribing the interviews. Well worth the price. I'd recommend this combo highly, especially to other journalists.
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