Customer Reviews

Olympus VN-240 32 MB Digital Voice Recorder

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

 

 

I bought the "Olympus VN-240" thinking I could hook it up to my PC, but the model I really needed was the "Olympus VN-240 PC". I wish they made it more clear that the VN-240 was not pc compatible,I read a review for the VN-240 saying it was connectable to a pc so i went out and bought a VN-240 accidentally instead of "VN-240 PC". Just letting other people know so they don't make the same mistake thinking that all VN-240s are the same, THEYRE NOT!

This is an easy to use device, despite what another reviewer wrote. It takes about one hour to master all its features, and then it is simple to use. I use it to record the Art Bell show, by placing it near the radio speaker and letting it go the full four hours. There is a bigger memory model, the 480, which will turn itself on, as well. I use the 240 in the "vox" mode, and it starts recording when my clock radio turns on at 10pm. All I have to remember, however, is to turn the radio "on" within an hour, or the alarm will shut off the radio after an hour. It works fine, and I get a very nice four hour recording of the talk radio show and I can index it, and skip all the commercials and news breaks. It does, however, use a set of AAA's after being on for about 20 hours, so get a set of NiCads for it. It is the best cheapest way to record talk radio. As far as recording live people, that would be a piece of cake. It has all these folders and subfolders, which I don't need, but maybe you do. Bottom line, get one if you want to record voices. Not at all good for music, however. The freq response is not there. The LP mode is fine, it just has a very slight amount of noise in the badground. I don't use the HQ modes, but they are better. I love it, I got mine real real cheap.

I give this 3.5 stars.

This is a very innovative recording device, with many unexpected amenities. It has 3 main folders (A,B,C), with a 4th "calendar" (S) that has 10 subfolders for each month. Pefect for keeping business notes on A, grocery list on B, etc.

The record quality is terrific, playback is great, and the mic & earphone jacks are excellent. I have a voice record function on my MP3 player, but this works much better. And I believe the 32 meg unit will record over 40 hours of notes.

I like that it runs on common AAA batteries, and they last much longer than you'd think. All that being said, it does have several design problems. It's a light, small unit - but it could be smaller. I've read that the engineers intentionally make them larger than they need to be (a) so they don't seem brittle or fragile, and (b) so we feel better about our purchase.

I also agree with most of the complaints in these reviews, except that it really is easy to erase messages.

To answer Miss Mae: rewind to the beginning of the message by hitting the << arrow; rewind incrementally by holding it down (just like on most DVD players).

My question: How do you turn it off? A dumb question, which indicates another design problem. It turns off automatically after a certain amount of time, but there is no ON-OFF switch, and the instruction manual is no help.

I doubted it could be so difficult to delete a message as was claimed in the previous review, and so I looked up the user manual for this recorder. The manual says that the complicated procedure only applies when deleting messages in the "S" folder, which sorts messages by date. To delete messages in the ordinary "A" through "C" folders takes just one button press.

Replaced an older Panasonic micro-cassette tape recorder with this unit.

This records clearly, and at a good volume -- I'm just sorry it only has 1 hour and 28 minutes capability... I'm thinking of buying a second so I can swap them out to keep recording for longer.

Seems to have long battery life; and I only record on the highest quality level...

I very much appreciate the "hold" button that prevents it from turning on in my pocket; the buttons are all clear and easy to use.

The three "folders" seem odd to me as I only use it sequentially on one 'folder' -- to record for the length of its memory...

Nice looking.

I saw a friend taking voice notes on one of these while talking on his cellphone and remembered the hundreds of times I needed to make notes while driving or having ideas I needed to record to work on later. This little thing is too handy not to have especially for a businessman like me. I find an inexpensive Olympus VN 240 Digital Voice Recorder for only $10 more than the 120 version. It is fairly small, about twice the size of a cigarette lighter which is twice what I would have liked but no one else makes anything better unless it was $200. What I Liked: It has 4 hours of record time(once you change the settings to lowest quality and longest play but since it is notes who cares it still sounds good), It uses a AAA pair of batteries, it was only $50. Unfortunately this is yet another example of a device designed by an engineer on a computer with no idea what the product would be used for and that was NEVER tested in the real world. A bunch of guys passed the prototype around in a meeting and talked into it, looked at the spec sheet and gave the go ahead with no further evaluation. How do I know this? It is absolutely obvious from the design. What I didnt like: It is too big. From the weight I can easily say the size could have been cut in half, there is a lot of empty space in it. The display is way too big. Not a common complaint but they could have used half a watch display size lcd. Most of the icons on the screen are never needed except during setup so they are a waste. The record and erase and other buttons look nice but are things some engineer dreamed up on a computer and never tested as someone would use them. There are no 'record button setup' options. The user should be able to select how the record button is to operate. Common sense and the way my pen worked was: press record, talk, let go. But with this thing if you press record, record your message while driving then drop it in your pocket it keeps on and on recording for no reason. You have to press stop. Also the buttons have no feel. They are all smooth and you cannot feel the difference where one stops and the next starts. Try recording something at night while driving in a dark car. You have to fiddle with the unit to find the record button and if you dont just remember that the stop button is below it you will get your chip filled up with car noise for the rest of the trip. The erase button is another problem, it does not erase. You press it and it asks yes or no, it takes 2 other buttons to actually erase one message. You should be able to hold the button for 2 seconds to erase a message or this could have been another button setup option based on the preferencs of the user. Also they could have easily created an unerase function, I dont know the technical setup but it seems they could have setup 10 registers, stored the last 10 deleted messages, location,length, then someone could try to undelete a message, the unit checks the first byte of the location to see if it has been overwritten, if not then it can be restored, if it has been overwritten then too bad, remove if from the list. That is an ultra easy implementation that could have been programmed in an afternoon by an assistant. The unit has a bunch of features that I do not need and the manual was not clear if there was some limit on the number of messages/size per folder so I am not sure if I can get the full benefits or 4hr time using just one folder. I never thought I needed 4 hours but now that I have it I realize it will be nice and maybe even more time would be good for long weekends or for special projects where I need a lot of notes written later. Also it will be good for lectures, easily recording a 1 or 2 hr lecture. It also looks like a tiny cellphone so you are not as strange looking when talking into it although it does look like you are talking into the antenna end. Also when reading the online description it said it was pc compatible, it is not. You have to purchase a special version for the pc compatibility. No idea why they would make that claim and then offer a different version in the stores. If you need to get a file to pc you can use the ear jack out to your sound card to record. I will still use it but have learned enough to pick something different next time(if I can find anything that was actually tested before going to market).

It records voices very clearly. I haven't figured out how to use all the folders yet. It's easy to press record,stop and to rewind or fast forward right in the middle of listening to what you've recorded. It is small like a cellphone yet big enough to use it properly. If I had to buy another one, I would buy this exact one except I would buy the other model where you get many more hours of recording. I'm very happy with my purchase, except for the fact that I can't understand how to use all the features. It's too complicated for me.

Gotta love this...it is small like a cellphone, making it easy to carry around. It has a clip on it to make it easy to clip to the collar of your shirt, so you can easily record personal notes without have to hold it in your hand. It's playback quality is great, has excellent sound output. The down side to this tiny device is that it doesn't have a lot of recording time...(up to 4 hours and 5 minutes in LP mode...). This device is excellent if your an investigator, or employer. I used this for when I was getting help for an essay...I simply recorded it so I can play it back if I needed it instead of asking her to repeat what she had said.

In a sense this is good for high school students (saying that as a high school student you spend more time doing paper work than listening to a lecture like you do in college).

Not disappointed, but not impressed. The buttons are oddly arranged and it does take a couple of menu selections to delete a clip.

I seem to have a clip stored in it somewhere I can't find it, because the residual memory is now very limited.

I rcvd this late and when I finally did I was disappointed hardly ever used...ha! ha!...it never work....keep the money it was the principla aobut the the whole thing...if you are going to sale something make sure u provide what u say....