Customer Reviews

Irock 64MB COMBO VOICE RECORDER/MP3 ( 150VM )

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This device has incredible reception capability. Put it in a large room with lots of people, and it picks up from across the room with ease. It stores many hours of interviewing. Is easy to transfer to laptop and listen there. Within the laptop, you can adjust where you want to start listening.

I found the features like bookmarks to be confusing, and can actually make it hard to find recordings. If you want to listen to a recording with the device, no fun as you cannot start in the middle or fast forward (but again, can when transferred to the laptop or PC). Software for this is solid.

I am a consultant who continually interviews and do not want to have to take too detailed of notes. This device is excellent for those who want high quality recordings. It would be easy to put in shirt pocket and record that way too.

For MP3, while it takes them, why bother.

It does have a speaker that works fairly well if 2 or more people wanted to listen to.

I really love my Irock combo voice recorder and MP3 player. The software is straightforward and easy to use. The features I love the most are: 1) its tiny size - fits in any pocket and you can carry it everywhere - it's about the size of a pack of gum; 2) the voice recorder - the sound quality is pretty good and I use it frequently. On the downside the erase function is a bit awkward to use. But this is a minor flaw in an overall excellent little gadget.

Nice little device with clear recording and heaps of recording time - some other things to be aware of though...

1. The recording level seems to be fairly low - unless you are speaking facing the microphone, you may need to download, convert to MP3 and amplify using a third party tool such as MP3Gain. This would be what I'd consider the main drawback of the device and lowered its rating from 5 to 4 stars.

2. Its very hungry on the battery usage, even with the backlight turned off - a single AAA battery doesn't seem to last more than about 2 hours recording time. Worth getting rechargeables. Forget about playing MP3s with it - you'll drain the batteries quicksmart.

In contrast to earlier reviews - I don't find the controls hard to use at all - I guess its just personal preference. Also I've found that holding down the < and > buttons allows fast forwarding, much like a tape recorder...

Irock 150VM is overall a good voice recorder -- compact size and decent recoder quality (much better than my now retired SONY recorder that uses small cassettes).

But here are the things that I don't like:

1. Be aware if you are going to use rechargable batteries: It is VERY HARD to put the rechargable battery (size AAA)into the battery chamber (only at a very very narrow angle.) The rechargable battery is just a little bit longer than the non-rechargable one -- but this makes HUGE difference because of the size of the battery chamber. This is obvously a design flaw. Even now I know how to do it, sometimes it still takes me more than 5 times to be successful which makes me feel very frustrated. It can be very bad, say, when you need to change the battery during recording an interview.

2. The design of control buttons is not convenient -- the buttons are on both sides, and if you hold the recorder with only one hand, it's easy to press the wrong buttons on the other side.

I had and used this little piece of plastic for a few months and put it in a drawer for another three. When it came out for the next use and a fresh battery installed, it was completely dead. Don't waste your time or money.