Customer Reviews

Olympus WS-210S Voice Recorder (141960) (Brown)

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Comparison to Olympus VN-3100PC

Pros:

WS-210S has a much greater frequency response (especially in Stereo XQ mode), which I find useful in being able to later understand what I whispered VERY softly while trying not to awaken my spouse when I had an idea in bed late at night. This is the major reason I upgraded, and I am quite happy with this feature.

When playing back a recording and stopping in the middle to transcribe what you just played back, then when you hit the play (>/OK) button to resume playback, it backs up just a little so you can hear what was being said just before the point where you hit the STOP button. This is exactly how a transcription player or software works, and it definitely is the right answer. I am overjoyed!

There is no need for a mini-USB cable to connect to a PC. This is probably a bigger feature for folks who travel a lot, who now no longer need to worry about taking and finding and not losing the #$%&* USB cable. I work at home, so it didn't matter that much to me.

To do transcription on the PC, you really want transcription software. Fortunately, there is Express Scribe, which is FREE on the Web. The only caveat is that when you load it on your PC, it also loads a whole bunch of "stubs" (icons of programs that will load if you try to use them) to perform lots of other audio-related tasks... of course these cost real money to buy, which is probably why you got the simple transcription program for free.

Playback speed changes are now semi-permanent. Hitting the OK button during playback still changes the playback speed as before, but now the speed stays that way until you change it again, even on new voice files. Though I found this initially irritating, I have grown to appreciate it.

The unit is smaller and lighter. It feels more dense, which is a "quality" that naturally inspires a perception of "quality" quite irrespective of the facts. The button actions are generally good, and the unit snaps apart and together again with reassuring solidity.

It takes only one AAA battery. (Caveat: there were some power-saving decisions made by the design team apparently as a consequence of this single-battery design. The display shuts off more quickly and the device does not power up as nicely. See below for details.) The battery door feels a little weak, so be careful out there.

There are 5 folders instead of 4, and each can hold 200 voice files instead of just 100.

It creates WMA files instead of WAV files. This can be seen as a feature or a flaw, depending...

Cons:

The good old dependable Olympus transcription software does not work with the new unit. For the old unit, all you had to do was plug the device into your PC, and the software would automatically start up. You clicked one button and all 4 folders would be downloaded into your PC, ready to transcribe. (On the plus side, Express Scribe has its own Sync capability, which I have not yet explored, and which may perform similarly.)

When paused during recording, the LED is off, so you have no visual que in the dark (late at night in bed again) that the device is paused. This is minor, because the recorder will automatically exit the paused state after awhile, preserving what you recorded if you forget and think that the recording is done. Of course if you hit REC before that expiration time and expect to get a completely new recording started, you will later discover that you have appended to the end of the previous paused recording.

The hole for attaching a neck strap is on the "wrong" end of the device. It's on the "right" end for not losing the valuable data (as opposed to the battery) if the device somehow came apart (which it won't: it's very well made that way), but Olympus really should have put holes on BOTH ends, to give the user a choice. It is going to be awhile before it will feel "natural" to me to pick up the device when it is hanging on its leash, if it ever does.

It just doesn't feel quite as natural in the hand. The back of the device is not flat. It has a flat bump for the speaker, and a long bump for the single battery. The plastic is quite smooth and satisfying to the touch, and does not feel cheap in any respect.

The function of the MENU button to allow individual recordings to be moved to different folders has been removed. So if you rely on putting recordings into the proper folder, you better know which folder is active, which is harder to do in the dark...

The LED no longer flashes the same number of times as the alphabetic number of the folder (1 flash for A, 2 flashes for the B folder, etc.) when using the FOLDER button to change folders. This makes it impossible to tell which folder you are in when you are in the dark (thus both literally and figuratively).

The buttons are placed quite closely together, which may be difficult for larger hands and fingers to use in the dark.

If the device is automatically powered down (which, as noted above, it does much more quickly than the old unit), it takes 2 seconds to wake up. This may not sound like much, but if you hit the REC button when it is powered down, and you expect to just start talking and have it be recorded (which happened in the old unit), you'll have a rude surprise when your recording cannot be found. In this new unit, you have to learn to notice that the LED has not lit up, and so to press the REC button again! Even if one lost the first 2 seconds of a recording in the process of the device waking up, that would be far preferable to losing the whole thing. Of course, in anger one quickly learns to hit any button, wait 2 seconds, and then hit REC and be sure to check that the LED is now lit.

The display showing how many seconds remain in playback of the present recording is now much smaller, and thus much harder for over-50 eyes to read. This is mitigated by the vast improvement in the playback pause behavior as noted above.

Verification of ERASE can now be done only with a click on the right arrow >>| button. The older unit allows either right or left to work. This is either a feature or a flaw, or immaterial, depending on your point of view.

The menu system is harder to understand and use. This is likely another consequence of single-battery power conservation: a smaller screen was used without room to display the whole menu at once. Certainly it is now nearly impossible to change to BEEP setting in the dark. (The input string is now: MENU |<< |<< OK >>| >>| OK >>| OK MENU.) Accessing File Lock is relatively easy but still involved: MENU |<< OK >>| OK MENU.

OVERALL:

I'm glad I got the new device, for the reasons stated at the top. I wish the designers had:
(*) allowed single-click wake-up-and-record, even if it lost 2 seconds at the start
(*) kept the ability to move recordings between folders
(*) kept the flash-folder-number feature when changing folders
(*) put leash holes on both ends

I bought this recorder for use during face to face interviews and recording press conferences. Works great in both quiet and noisier environments. The stereo recording capability of this recorder does give it an edge over the mono models as the recordings do come out a lot clearer. Even at the lowest recording quality (out of the 3 that are selectable), it still comes out very clear.

Battery life is quite good with alkaline batteries, I can probably get 20 hours or more of on/off use.

Works well with a Mac, just plug it into a free USB port and it shows up as a device on your Finder. The files are in WMA format so it does require a Quicktime plugin to read that format. I'd suggest something like VLC Player which is free and painless to use.

Highly recommended!

An accessory which you should consider if you want to record phone conversations, it works beautifully as a cheap phone recorder. Olympus TP-7 Telephone Recording Device

UPDATE: Following is a comparison between this unit and the ws-311m, but after only 2 months that unit broke. It's the second Olympus I've had that broke very easily, so now I'm switching to Sony.


I ordered this from Amazon, and then found a local deal on the WS-311M, which a teacher of mine uses. Being just a little type A, I played around with both of them to decide which to keep, and I've decided on the WS-311M.

Basically, the recorders seem to be identical in terms of ability and sound quality with few exceptions.

DIFFERENCES


--The WS-311M can also be used as a music player, though I don't really care about that.

--The WS-311M is a teeny-tiny bit larger and feels a little less plastic-y (though both are made of plastic). The bigger size and brighter color is actually a small plus for me, as I kept having a hard time finding the WS-210S in my bag.

--Most important for me, the WS-311M has a much more intuitive menu system. It presents menu options in a list and it's easy to move forward and backwards in your choices, while the WS-210S presents options at the bottom of the screen. It's easy to lose your place among choices because you only see one choice present at a time; also for the life of me I cannot figure out how to go backwards in the menu other than to press "stop" and start over. It's a pretty frustrating plan, and the deal breaker for me. Why they'd take something good and ruin it in a newer model is beyond me.

--It feels as if the screen on the WS-311M is brighter and has a little more orange to it, though that could be because it's surrounded by silver as opposed to black, or it could be a menu setting I haven't found yet.

These are all minor differences - this model is a little cheaper, so it really depends on what's most important to you.

But the sound quality and the options for controlling it seem pretty much the same.

I bought this item after much research - at this price range, this seemed to be the best recording device for my needs. I am starting to record stories from my older family members and this device picks up more than I have ever heard in the previous recording devices I have owned. It's extremely light, and much smaller than I thought was possible. And it has lots of recording time. I also use it now to record important "to do" notes for myself when I am on the go, so it's with me a lot. I recommend it.

This item is sleek and works well. Drawbacks--TINY buttons, slightly unclear instructions. After MUCH trial and error, I was able to transfer some recordings to Windows Media Player, etc. Overall, pretty decent for the price.

The WS-210S is sold as a stereo voice recorder, but it also does quite well with music. When recording in the UHQ stereo mode (8 hours), using the microphone jack, it is flat from 300 Hz to 15.5Khz, with a gradual rolloff to -12dB at 20 Hz. This can be corrected with a processing program such as Adobe Audition. The microphones are peaked for speech recording with a response from 500 Hz to 14Khz +/- 8dB, and would require extreme processing to make flat for music. Use an external mic if you want to record music.

The unit is very simple to use, simple to set up, and gets long life from a single AAA battery. The unit looks like a USB drive to the computer (Win 2K), and the WMA files can be read by Adobe Audition, or Windows Media Player, but not Audacity.

I recommend this unit for those who want a low cost digital audio recorder, and who have the software to process the WMA files.

I got this recorder for class lectures and it worked susprisingly well. The device is very small and plugs right into the computer without any drivers needed. I just drag and drop wma files to the computer for each of my recordings. The sound recordings was very clear even at around 10 feet away. It's also easy to use with basic controls and is not overly complicated. I only wish the format was in mp3 rather then wma. Other than that I highly recommend it.

I am VERY pleased with this purchase and would recommend it highly to those of us that are a little electronically challenged. My techno-guru friend recommended this one to me and I just could not be more pleased. I sing in a women's Barbershop quartet and it's so easy to use and records so clearly and beautifully. I no longer use my cassettee recorder at all!

I'm very happy with this little voice recorder. I was able to use it instantly without even opening the manual. It's simple and intuitive.

My main concern was the sound quality when the device was in a less than ideal position, so the first test was a keeping it in my pocket and record a conversation of 5 people in a normal sized room. I was sitting at a table so the recorder was not only in the pocket basically but also under the table. Listening to the sound file I am able to understand every word that was spoken! I was not even using the highest quality setting for that. That by far exceeds my expectations.

At the highest quality setting the capacity is aprox 9 hours. At the lowest quality setting it can hold almost 140 hours.

What I really like:

-small and light and uses only one replaceable AAA battery that lasts very long.

-normal sized USB connector so you can plug it in anywhere and it shows up as a mass storage device, meaning it does not need any drivers.

-very simple to use

-excellent quality stereo sound quality.

Highly recommended!

I read some reviews (here and elsewhere) saying this could be used to make decent recordings of live music, using the Ultra-High Quality mode and an external mic. Considering how expensive it is, I thought that might be true. Well, it's true only if your standards aren't too high, and you don't mind recordings that sound shallow and tinny. Otherwise, get one of the specialized music recorders.