Panasonic RR-US380 Compact IC Digital Voice Recorder

by Panasonic

Product Details

• Item Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009EQGFK
• Item model number: RR-US380
• Batteries: 2 AAA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,566 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 1, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

With the Panasonic RR-US380 Compact IC Recorder, you can record up to 16.5 hours in SP-mode without sacrificing sound quality. In the past, LP-mode (long play) was necessary to maximize recording time, but with poor sound. With the RR-US380, you no longer have to choose between sound quality and recording time. The included USB cable connects your IC Recorder to a compatible PC for easy file transfers. And thanks to the Digital Voice Activated System, recording begins as soon as sound is detected. This helps eliminate wasted recording space and saves on valuable battery resources.

The RR-US380 allows you to record up to 99 files each in of five folders, for a total of 495 files. The recorder includes voice recognition and text-to-speech software (Voice Editing Version 1.0, Professional Edition). A built-in stereo microphone, external microphone jack, and stereo headphones are also included. With these options, and measuring less than five-inches tall and less than an inch deep, the RR-US380 is the perfect voice recorder to take with you anywhere you need to go.

What's in the Box
RR-US380 IC recorder, software/CD-ROM, and USB cable.

Product Description

Item #: PCERRUS380. Recorder provides long amounts of time in SP Mode and does not require Long Play Mode to record up to 16.5 hours. Save and edit up to 495 total files you record with the included software. Included USB Cable connects your IC Recorder to a compatible PC for easy file transfers. Digital Voice Activated System recording begins as soon as sound is detected and helps conserve tape space. Slim design is easy to carry and fits conveniently in just about any pocket. High quality, standard play, long play recording modes. Built-in high sensitivity condenser microphone. External earphone and microphone jacks.
Customers also search for: USB Cable;5 Folders Holds 99 Files;Dual Display;Panasonic,Dictation Machines,Tape Recorders,Voices,Dictatings,Digital IC,USB,PC Link,Dual Display

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars make sure you know what you're buying, July 7, 2005

By 

Caraculiambro (La Mancha and environs) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic RR-US380 Compact IC Digital Voice Recorder (Office Product)

If you're just looking for a device to replace a tape recorder so's you can record lectures or yourself, DON'T BUY THIS. It's way more than what you need.

You see, it's actually a VOICE EDITOR. So the instructions are quite complicated (the PDF file, for example, is 81 pages).

It comes with a software program that you set up on your computer, but which, in my estimation, is not user-friendly. I've had it for like a week and I'm still trying to figure it out.

Not that the product is a piece of junk or anything. It's a quite solidly-made little machine.

But if you're looking to simply record voices, this is WAY more complicated than you need, and you're gonna spend hours figuring out how to get it to do simple tasks.

Another complaint: the audio files you create can be played via the "in-house" software system or transformed into WAV files, after which they are portable. But you must have other software if you'd like to further convert the WAV files into Mp3's or WMA's.

UPDATE: After having used this thing all summer for a college course, I would like to add additional insights gleaned after having used the thing long after figuring it out.

First of all, the mike seems to be of really poor quality. I know this doesn't make a lot of sense, since presumably Panasonic is including the same mike as in the cassette-tape recorders. But no. The quality you'll get is markedly below what you can get with a cassette-tape recorder. And there's no "adjustment" level for the quality of the audio file you're making.

As a result of this, the thing will maybe go for 5 hours before it's "full." Since this is non-adjustable, this is a useful piece of information.

I used it, as I said, for recording a professor: though he moved around a bit, for the most part I was sitting under his nose for most of the lectures. For this situation, set the thing on "dictation," rather than "meeting." Counterintuitive, but you'll get better results.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Save a lot of typing, March 2, 2006

By 

no duces (Montana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic RR-US380 Compact IC Digital Voice Recorder (Office Product)

I bought this to replace my micro-cassette recorder for a series of 1 on 1 interviews not knowing the great software that comes with it. While on the road I loaded the software and as a previous reviewer states it is alot to get through. However, if you want to dictate your own papers this is a great system. The speech recognition software did not help much for the interviews, but my own work afterwards writing up the results was "greatly" reduced.

The intial setup of voice recognition is long, cumbersome and sometimes frustrating as the software tries to learn your speech patterns (and using the learning/training software multiple times helps accuracy ALOT), but it was no different with ViaVoice and MS voice recognition software. Once the software knows your voice prepare to type very little. I was writing a paper and decided to see what would happen. I talked (rambled) for about 65 minutes total. The system recognized about 97% of my speech. I transferred the translated speech file to my word processor and let it find the grammatical/structural errors and then I went through the paper while listening to the speech on my computer. I stopped and made corrections as needed. The freedom to just talk rather than stop to type up my thoughts as I went along was incredible.

If you are in a place where transcribing your own words takes up much of your time (graduate student, small business owner) this recorder and the included software is terrific. For the classroom, I use it as a backup to my notes. The microphone picks up everything so sometimes it can be frustrating. One interview picked up a wall clock ticking about 10 feet away.

Plan on spending a few minutes getting used to the buttons, menus and functions of the recorder itself, but most of it is reasonably intuitive. The multiple subdirectories makes working on different projects a real joy. You can be dictating/working on one topic, get a brainstorm, change to another directory say what you want and get back to your original work with almost no effort. Then when you hook up to your computer to transfer the files all your wit and wisdom is saved separately. It does take some mental gymnastics to work your way around the computer file transfer portion (just read the PDF file a couple times and pay attention to the direction arrows on the screen) but that gets eaiser with repetition.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Quality recorder with a few weaknesses, August 28, 2007

By 

Kevin Renn (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic RR-US380 Compact IC Digital Voice Recorder (Office Product)

I have used my Panasonic RR-US380 for about 2 years and have been happy with the performance of this product. The quality of the audio is above average ( I tried about 8 different models) and compression of the sound file is very efficient. If you plan on using it for personal use it would be a good choice.

If you want to use it in a business setting I would not recommend it. The problem is the proprietary file types that Panasonic uses cannot be played with anything other then their software. You can convert to .wav but it's an extra step that shouldn't be needed. They do offer a player you can give to someone with the files but I've never been able to get it to work.

The other big problem is the access rights the software requires. It can not be used by multiple users on a single PC running Windows XP. It must be run by someone with administrator rights who installed it. If I install it and run it, and you have administrator rights, it still will not run correctly for you. If you don't have admin rights forget about it. So essentially only one person can use the software (and thus the Panasonic RR-US380) on each computer which causes a problem if you have shared computers. The software is powerful and easy to use but my business had to get rid of the Panasonic recorders for theses 2 reasons.