Sony ICD-B17 Digital Voice Recorder

by Sony

Product Details

Product Manual [634kb PDF]

• Item Weight: 1 pounds
• 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: B00009W8XF
• Item model number: ICD-B17
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,368 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 28, 2003

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Digital Voice Recorder Enjoy up to 300 minutes of recording time with Sony's ICD-B17 Digital Voice Recorder. This recorder's Slim Style Design at one half inch thick will fit perfectly into your shirt pocket and enables easy operation with Pause controls located on the side of the unit. Featuring 16MB Built-in Flash Memory which may recorded over itself and reused with distortion-free clarity, this recorder is great for business or personal use. Additional features include 2 File Folders, Up to 99 Messages per file, a Built-in Microphone, a Full Function LCD display, and a Built-in Playback Speaker. Utilize the convenience of the Playback-Pause Function, Record Plus Function, and One Button Play from Record. Versatile and convenient recording in one - the ICD-B17.

Product Description

Sony Camcorder/ ICDB17 xSony Voice Recorder

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, December 31, 2003

By 

pambos "kk8864" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony ICD-B17 Digital Voice Recorder (Office Product)

This is a very disappointing product. I only bought this because I thought it would be an improvement on my ICD-B15, but in fact this is a downgrade: it only has 2 folders(the B15 had five)and it only records in Long Play mode(though of course it does not state this anywhere in the manual) which means sound quality is half that of the B15's. Also there is no display light now. Goes without saying that the price is higher than that of the ICD-B15.
Thanks a lot SONY.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Disappointing, January 31, 2004

By 

C. Bartlett (Western NY, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony ICD-B17 Digital Voice Recorder (Office Product)

On the surface, this appeared to be a great little recorder. I wanted to give it to a blind person. However, I couldn't get it to record in HQ mode. It only recorded in LP mode which is not mentioned in the manual, making T and P hard to tell apart or Z and V. I have been using recorders all my life and found the mic also not to be adequate. Holding it a reasonable distance from your mouth distorted the sound, just a little farther away and the sound wasn't audible. High mic sensitivity distorted and low mic sensitivity made the recordings muffled. You can record with it, but if the date isn't set, it keeps flashing and drains the batteries. It is very difficult for a blind person to set the date. Not only that, the battery indicator would register "low" when the batteries were on a full charge. I returned the product. Yes, it did fancy things like allowing you to insert comments into messages that were already recorded, but when you would go to play your message a day later, the batteries, which worked in other equipment, wouldn't operate the recorder. Okay, maybe it was defective, but a red flag goes up when I see something like that. Besides, the blind person I purchased it for couldn't use it because of that draining and flashing indicator. I didn't like being lied to. The fact that the speed isn't mentioned in the manual, to me, constitutes a lie. Even if it had recorded in SP it would have been an improvement.

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad Customer Service, March 8, 2009

By 

Giovanna Toscano (Forest Hills, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony ICD-B17 Digital Voice Recorder (Office Product)

I have many Sony products in my home and never had any issues until recently. I purchase a Sony MP3 player for my wife and the headphone that came with it was absolutely horrible. I followed their procedure and wrote to the Review Committee without any resolve. I decided to get a little tougher, and wrote to the CEO, Sir Howard Stringer only to have both letters forwarded to the twinkes in the Review Committee. This is very bad customer service and with all the energy and the time you spend on dealing with a problem, the product ends up costing you double its original cost.