Customer Reviews

Sony ICD-B17 Digital Voice Recorder

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have both the Sony B-7 and B-16. Both are excellent recorders and especially if you are involved with EVP. I have received great results with both the B-7 and B-17. It is very easy to use and gives quality results. It's very clear and sensitive.
Looks great and performs well. This recorder is in a low and fair price range, I reccomend the B-17 to anyone looking for an inexpensive way to acheive better than average sound recordings. Remember, any recorder is only as good as the operator .....Harry Flagle / Sound engineer, CBS Studio Center.