Customer Reviews

Olympus DM-520 Digital Voice Recorder - DM520

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

 

 

I purchased this to download audio books from Audible, since I have not had any good experiences with iPod. This is one of the devices listed on Audible's site as audible ready. Unfortunately, I have been unable to download the audiobooks directly to the Olympus - could be me, my firewalls, I don't know. But I can transfer them from the Media Player very easily. It will play .aa files, which is what audible uses.

Sound quality is AMAZING. My Olympus came with the wrong memory card, but you do not needed it to download files to the device. It takes a MicroSD Card, which you can get at Best Buy for $30 for a 4GB card. Once you insert the card, Olympus will ask if you want to switch to the MicroSD Card or use the internal memory.

Very easy to set up. It will sync up the time and date with your computer. It does have to be turned off for the batteries to charge. I didn't realize this and I was pretty upset when my batteries didn't charge - thought I bought a dud. Turns out, I was the dud.

The instructions do say that alkaline batteries have a longer lifespan than the rechargeable, by about 10 hours. To recharge the rechargeable batteries that come with the device, you just have to plug the device into your computer via usb; make sure the power's off first.

Another nice thing about this is that you can listen to it without earphones. The sound quality is a lot better with the earphones though. It doesn't have a pause button, only play, stop, record, forward, back, volume and ok/menu. If you're listening and press the stop button, when you play again it will remember where it left off, which is great.

Do not throw out the literature and leaflets that come in the package. To install the software, you will be asked for the serial number which is listed on one of those leaflets. I had thrown mine out and was looking desperately for it, until I decided to check the trash, and there it was. It's printed on a square green leaftlet, which quite frankly just looks like "junk".

I have not used the podcast option and I do not listen to music on this. My computer did download all my music to it, and it sounded great, but like I said, I only use it for audiobooks. I've never been into listening to music on MP3s. I have not used the recorder either.

The manual is pretty useless with very limited information, but Google the manual for the DM520 and you'll find the online version is a lot more detailed.

All in all, a great buy.

My wife is a journalist and uses the Olympus DM-520 for work. It integrates well with her MacBook Air and my MacBook Pro. The controls are simple to use and understand, and the sound in the file is great when played through your computer (the speakers on the recorder itself are about what you'd expect).
Being able to record in mp3 is a real plus too.