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Olympus WS-500 Digital Voice Recorder (Blue)
 
 

Olympus WS-500 Digital Voice Recorder (Blue)

by Olympus
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.



Technical Details

  • 545 Hrs of Recording
  • Store and listen to up to 500 songs
  • Internal battery charged by computer or charger
  • Voice activation
  • Built in Stereo Mic

Product Details

  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 5 x 1.5 inches ; 7.2 ounces
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
  • ASIN: B00264RRRC
  • Item model number: WS-500MBLU
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,295 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • Date first available at Amazon.com: April 9, 2009

Product Description

Stay organized on the move with this high-class storage device and powerful music player. Transfer meetings or notes and even large documents to your PC with the easy-to-use USB input. The WS-500M is designed to be plugged directly into your computer for fast file transfer. With 2GB of internal memory, store up to 500 songs and listen to them in impressive stereo sound with track and artist name clearly displayed on the LCD.


 

Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent features and ease of operation, July 10, 2009
By 
This review is from: Olympus WS-500 Digital Voice Recorder (Blue) (Office Product)
I bought this as a backup to my other Olympus recorder (which I frequently lend out). My other recorder is an Olympus WS-100 which I bought 4 years ago. It was one of the first digital voice recorders ever made. It has served me well.

This unit contains a number of improvements over the WS-100 and the WS-400.

When I bought this, I was afraid I would have to carry around a USB cable with me. However, this unit has a little slide button on the side which extends a built-in USB connector. Plugging this into a USB port is a snap.

This unit is a little more compact than the WS-100. It also seems to solve the record delay which was a time vampire on the WS-400. This unit starts to record almost immediately on pressing the record button.

I would give this unit five stars except except the menu is almost indecipherable without spending an entire day memorizing and studying it. This means that you pretty much have to have the manual available for the first months you use this or you will not be able to use most of the features (unfortunately, this seems normal for most digital personal devices nowadays (except for Apple products)).

The arcane menu arrangement does not lend itself to quick and easy use of the unit if there are constant changes to your recording requirements unless you memorize the manual or have it available.

Other than that the plusses are that it supports Vista 64 bit, and, contains all of the features of the WS-400. The unit is easy to snap record conversations and other items.

It is a good buy at the price and easier to use, with all of the features, than any of the other small personal recorders I've looked at over the years by other manufacturers.

Specifications:

Recording Format: WMA
Input level: -70dBv

Maximum working output: 60mW (8 ohm speaker)

NAND FLASH memory 2GB - this unit works excellently as a flash drive with VISTA 64 or 32.

MIC Jack: 3.5mm mini-jack; impedance 2k ohms

EAR jack: 3.5mm mini-jack; impedance 8 ohms or more

RECORDING TIMES:

STXQ mode 34 h 30 min.
STHQ mode 69 h 40 min.
STSP mode 139 h 25 min.
HQ mode 139 h 25 min.
SP mode 247 h 10 min.
LP mode 544 h. 55 min.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars tiny, and lightweight high quality sound, March 16, 2010
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Olympus WS-500 Digital Voice Recorder (Blue) (Office Product)
This thing is tiny! the screen is an inch wide, and even though the buttons are small, they are not hard to use. A firmware update allows it to record in mp3 format. Sound quality is excellent, I spoke in a normal, close-conversation voice, from 30 feet away in large room - it was quiet, but very audible. Unlike the other reviewer said, it DOES display "full battery" when done charging.

It has stereo sound level indicators during recording. Built in speaker is paltry, listening on a headphone or external speaker gives the real quality. The menu system is totally fine, not confusing, thing are organized in a hierarchy format. The adjustable-level VOR (called VCVA) works VERY well. Recording in conf mode in either WMA ST XQ or MP3 128 makes crisp, highly sensitive recordings.

This recorder is full-featured and as an audio engineer, I'm impressed!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars This is a great little recorder at a great price!, January 10, 2010
By 
Carlene Weiss (St. Louis, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Olympus WS-500 Digital Voice Recorder (Blue) (Office Product)
First of all, I bought this for my husband who is a drummer and a vocalist. He wanted a recorder of some kind to do karaoke music recorded with his voice. I had no idea about any of these recorders, so I started doing research. The Olympus brand seemed to have the better reviews. But none of the recorder reviews were great. Well, I finally decided on this WS-500 DVR. Well, I'm glad that I did because my husband took this and figured everything out by himself. This astounded me becuse my husband is not a technology person. He doesn't even want to know anything about technology. He has never been on my computer, programmed any of our DVRs, VCR's, etc. But you get my meaning. But the biggest surprise was the sound of this recorder. He recorded 4 songs. I uploaded them onto my computer (Just slid the lever on the recorder and pushed it into the USB on my computer to upload) I ripped it on WMP and then burned the songs to a CD. I was able to adjust the sound with the equalizer and it sounded awesome!

The only con I have about this recorder is that the instructions are really hard to decipher. You have to guess a lot that you are doing the right thing. But this is just a minor con.
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