- 374 Hours of Maximum Recording Time
- 8 Hours of Maximum MP3 Recording Time
- New Stereo Microphone
- Multiple Recording Modes:STHQ / ST / STLP / SP / LP(LPEC) / Linear PCM / MP3
- Voice Operated Recording
Technical Details
Product Details
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Product Description
Operating System Compatibility : Microsoft Windows, 2000 Professional, XP Home, XP Professional, Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business Ultimate
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
156 of 157 people found the following review helpful
This little recorder rocks. There's a lot to say about it.
For my recording needs, it replaced an aging but awesome iRiver H120 (20 GB recorder capable of recording 44/16 or MP3, plus playback of many audio file types. I found nothing that would do everything the iRiver did, so I split the job up. Bought an iPod for listening to music and the Sony for recording.
My recording needs are smaller than my recording ego. I'd love a Marantz PMD 661, but have no way to justify it or the price. I needed a recorder to handle 1- to 4-part vocal practices, with from 1-50 people, without having to pay a lot of attention to tweaking levels to get a quality recording. I wanted more than "recognizable," I wanted "listenable." The Sony got it right.
Sony did all that and surprised me with more flexibility than I expected. I had been debating between this and the Olympus LS-10. At the time I purchased, I was able to find the Sony online new for $70, versus the Olympus for $219. I downloaded the manuals, read a number of reviews, listened to sound samples, and even looked at some in audio editing software.
The real differences between this and the Olympus come from the product's target market: Sony aimed for digital voice recording, and Olympus aimed at music recording. But they overlap enough that comparisons are worth making:
(0) Both offer line-in or built-in mic recording; USB connection to a computer; 44/16 or MP3 recording (more later), high quality mics in stereo; battery operation; and tiny speakers useful for little more than basic monitoring. In each of these camps, one model or the other offers a little more versatility than the other. I believe it is these "little things" that make or break the choice over which is right for you.
(1) Sony's got 1 GB of RAM, which limits you to 90 minutes of CD quality (44.1/16) recording (if you choose one of the lossy formats like MP3 (192 or 128) or Sony's proprietary LPEC format, you'll get many hours more). There's no expansion option (c'mon, a MicroSD card slot would not have been out of the question). Olympus offers more high resolution, high bit rate formats, and comes with 2 GB built in with an SD card slot for more expansion. Score 1 for Olympus.
(2) If you use rechargeables, the Sony will recharge the AAA batteries via USB when connected, while the Olympus will not. The Oly's 12 hour on AA's mean you'll likely use an AC adaptor much of the time, like when transferring files to/from the PC. But the Olym does not include one. Worse, the Oly manual explicitly says DO NOT connect via USB while connected to AC power. WHAT? That's just goofy, and it sounds too easy to fry something important. Score 1 for Sony.
(3) Sony added a number of useful features geared toward "voice clarity" when recording, and when playing back, any combination of which can be turned on/off. Some are "recorded" with the signal, but others are playback-only. Voice boost, low cut, noise cut are very effective (particularly if what you want to hear is the voice range in a recording). The digital vari-speed playback is fair at best (always seems warbly to me), as is the voice-activated recording (it tends to cut off the first word). From reviews, and the manual, Olympus offers a low cut switch, and preset/manual recording level settings, but its playback adjustments are limited to some preset reverbs. Yuck. Sony's microphones are great, but I believe they are not on par with the Oly's. This is purely subjective, but again the "target market" means that one product requires quality voice reproduction while the other requires quality musical reproduction. I believe this purpose may drive the internal processing of the recorded signal just as it does the features offered by each product. I consider this one a tie.
Letdowns in both Camps
I am disappointed that the Olympus does not feature any better "listening adjustments" like equalization settings. This seems to be a natural fit for a musician's device. Every iPod's got it! On the Sony side, I am disappointed that "fast forwarding through" recordings is somewhat choppy, and for long recording of over 30 minutes it tends to take a while to get farther in. To be fair, it does speed up the longer you hold the scan function, but I miss the ability to set the scan speed the way I could with RockBox on my iRiver. Some devices do this, and scan MP3's smoothly.
Surprises Too
Some little bonuses haves surprised me. Both recorders come with 5 pre-made folders, labeled Folder01 through Folder05, for recording. The Sony manual led me to think that this was it, these 5 folders were what I had to work with. However, when connected to a PC the Sony allowed me to create more folders, change the names of existing ones, and generally treat the files and file system the way you want. I renamed the folders to more useful names, and created a few others, and it handled them all just fine when disconnected from the computer, never complaining. (Of course, if I reformat the entire drive, I'm sure it will go back to its defaults...which I will change again. But for a Sony product to give me this kind of leeway and freedom, pretty cool! I can't say how the Oly handles the 5 default folders, or whether more are allowed.
Sony's got convenience down with this one. The first menu item displayed is always the recording mode (44/16, MP3, LPEC, etc.) and, beside that, the recording level (with a Music preset, three voice presets Normal, High, SuperHigh, and Manual). Nice and clean, and well thought-out. Also, I can put MP3's on it, and it will play them back with a wonderful, warm, analog sound. So I can use it occasionally as a portable player, which it's pretty darn good at!
Overall
If you need more critical musical recording quality in an "all in one" box, the Olympus is closer to this goal provided you understand its limits and are mindful of them. I consider it more of a "very high quality capture device" for music when you are in more controlled recording environments. I don't think of it as a music player.
If you need more portability, ease of operation and convenience, and are willing to listen to a lesser (but still very high) audio quality, the Sony is worth a close look. Listen to the audio samples on the Sony Canada site (www.sony.ca). I consider it more of a "high quality capture and playback device" for all kinds of recording situations, indoors or out.
For my recording needs, it replaced an aging but awesome iRiver H120 (20 GB recorder capable of recording 44/16 or MP3, plus playback of many audio file types. I found nothing that would do everything the iRiver did, so I split the job up. Bought an iPod for listening to music and the Sony for recording.
My recording needs are smaller than my recording ego. I'd love a Marantz PMD 661, but have no way to justify it or the price. I needed a recorder to handle 1- to 4-part vocal practices, with from 1-50 people, without having to pay a lot of attention to tweaking levels to get a quality recording. I wanted more than "recognizable," I wanted "listenable." The Sony got it right.
Sony did all that and surprised me with more flexibility than I expected. I had been debating between this and the Olympus LS-10. At the time I purchased, I was able to find the Sony online new for $70, versus the Olympus for $219. I downloaded the manuals, read a number of reviews, listened to sound samples, and even looked at some in audio editing software.
The real differences between this and the Olympus come from the product's target market: Sony aimed for digital voice recording, and Olympus aimed at music recording. But they overlap enough that comparisons are worth making:
(0) Both offer line-in or built-in mic recording; USB connection to a computer; 44/16 or MP3 recording (more later), high quality mics in stereo; battery operation; and tiny speakers useful for little more than basic monitoring. In each of these camps, one model or the other offers a little more versatility than the other. I believe it is these "little things" that make or break the choice over which is right for you.
(1) Sony's got 1 GB of RAM, which limits you to 90 minutes of CD quality (44.1/16) recording (if you choose one of the lossy formats like MP3 (192 or 128) or Sony's proprietary LPEC format, you'll get many hours more). There's no expansion option (c'mon, a MicroSD card slot would not have been out of the question). Olympus offers more high resolution, high bit rate formats, and comes with 2 GB built in with an SD card slot for more expansion. Score 1 for Olympus.
(2) If you use rechargeables, the Sony will recharge the AAA batteries via USB when connected, while the Olympus will not. The Oly's 12 hour on AA's mean you'll likely use an AC adaptor much of the time, like when transferring files to/from the PC. But the Olym does not include one. Worse, the Oly manual explicitly says DO NOT connect via USB while connected to AC power. WHAT? That's just goofy, and it sounds too easy to fry something important. Score 1 for Sony.
(3) Sony added a number of useful features geared toward "voice clarity" when recording, and when playing back, any combination of which can be turned on/off. Some are "recorded" with the signal, but others are playback-only. Voice boost, low cut, noise cut are very effective (particularly if what you want to hear is the voice range in a recording). The digital vari-speed playback is fair at best (always seems warbly to me), as is the voice-activated recording (it tends to cut off the first word). From reviews, and the manual, Olympus offers a low cut switch, and preset/manual recording level settings, but its playback adjustments are limited to some preset reverbs. Yuck. Sony's microphones are great, but I believe they are not on par with the Oly's. This is purely subjective, but again the "target market" means that one product requires quality voice reproduction while the other requires quality musical reproduction. I believe this purpose may drive the internal processing of the recorded signal just as it does the features offered by each product. I consider this one a tie.
Letdowns in both Camps
I am disappointed that the Olympus does not feature any better "listening adjustments" like equalization settings. This seems to be a natural fit for a musician's device. Every iPod's got it! On the Sony side, I am disappointed that "fast forwarding through" recordings is somewhat choppy, and for long recording of over 30 minutes it tends to take a while to get farther in. To be fair, it does speed up the longer you hold the scan function, but I miss the ability to set the scan speed the way I could with RockBox on my iRiver. Some devices do this, and scan MP3's smoothly.
Surprises Too
Some little bonuses haves surprised me. Both recorders come with 5 pre-made folders, labeled Folder01 through Folder05, for recording. The Sony manual led me to think that this was it, these 5 folders were what I had to work with. However, when connected to a PC the Sony allowed me to create more folders, change the names of existing ones, and generally treat the files and file system the way you want. I renamed the folders to more useful names, and created a few others, and it handled them all just fine when disconnected from the computer, never complaining. (Of course, if I reformat the entire drive, I'm sure it will go back to its defaults...which I will change again. But for a Sony product to give me this kind of leeway and freedom, pretty cool! I can't say how the Oly handles the 5 default folders, or whether more are allowed.
Sony's got convenience down with this one. The first menu item displayed is always the recording mode (44/16, MP3, LPEC, etc.) and, beside that, the recording level (with a Music preset, three voice presets Normal, High, SuperHigh, and Manual). Nice and clean, and well thought-out. Also, I can put MP3's on it, and it will play them back with a wonderful, warm, analog sound. So I can use it occasionally as a portable player, which it's pretty darn good at!
Overall
If you need more critical musical recording quality in an "all in one" box, the Olympus is closer to this goal provided you understand its limits and are mindful of them. I consider it more of a "very high quality capture device" for music when you are in more controlled recording environments. I don't think of it as a music player.
If you need more portability, ease of operation and convenience, and are willing to listen to a lesser (but still very high) audio quality, the Sony is worth a close look. Listen to the audio samples on the Sony Canada site (www.sony.ca). I consider it more of a "high quality capture and playback device" for all kinds of recording situations, indoors or out.
96 of 96 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
I needed a voice recorder that could be used mainly for recording lectures from about 40-50 feet away as well as some dictation. I also wanted to be able to make high-quality recordings for the occasional podcast. The ICD-SX700 seemed to fit the bill, and in most ways it does. However, it had a couple of design flaws that ultimately made it unusable for me, but might still work well for you. Similar to a previous review, I compared this to an Olympus LS-10, and ultimately stuck with the LS-10.
First, the good. There are plenty of recording formats available. The CD-quality PCM format is what I used for most of my testing, as the LS-10 has the same quality level (44/16). The built-in mics are great on this device, and it was able to pick up a lecture at 40 feet clearly; it was pretty much the same quality as the LS-10. The zoom function on the LS-10 made it a little clearer. For some reason, Adobe Soundbooth was able to clean up the LS-10's file a little better than the SX700, but maybe I was just doing something wrong. Basically, however, the sound was equally good (way better than the Olympus DS-40 I have tried in the past).
The SX700 is basically an "instant on" device. You put it on hold to put it to sleep, and taking it off hold wakes it up instantly. You can push record as fast as humanly possible and it will start up. The LS-10 has about a 3-5 second startup time. The SX700 also handles pre-record mode better than the LS-10. For the LS-10, you hit record once to arm the device and check the levels, then record again to start recording. For the SX700, pushing record just starts instantly recording. If you want a pre-record mode, you hold down record for a second. So, if you just want to start recording instantly on the SX700 you can, and if you want to set your levels first, you only have to wait a second. A big plus to the SX700 here.
Being able to charge the batteries from the USB is nice, but not such a big deal.
Now, for the problem areas. The mics are good, but they are also very sensitive. You have to crank the input way down if you are dictating right into the device. The LS-10 has a "high-low" switch on the side, but the SX 700 doesn't. You have to either go into the menu and pick a volume, or change the levels manually. The LS-10 has a dial for setting the recording levels, and is basically instant. On the SX700, it's digital, so you have to hold down the volume button and wait for it to move to where you want it. It can be a bit frustrating to get it set exactly where you want it. Also, the mics are very susceptible to popping and wind noise, making the windscreen basically mandatory if you are dictating directly into the device. Which brings up a MAJOR FLAW for me: the headphone jack is on the top of the device, between the mics. You cannot plug in headphones and have the windscreen on at the same time. This means you cannot monitor yourself while talking into the device without getting a bunch of popping sounds. I would have thought Sony would have put the mic jack up there and the headphone jack on the side, but they did the opposite, and it was a major oversight. With mic sensitivity already an issue, this makes it very hard to know if you are distorting or not. The LS-10 and the SX700 both have limiters, but only the LS-10 has an automatic gain control. With the LS-10, I can set the AGC on and just start talking. With the SX700, I found I really had to futz around with the levels just to get a decent sound when dictating. If you just want to record a quick memo, the LS-10 can give you better sound more quickly, though you do have to push record twice.
Also, I was able to get better sound out of the LS-10 when using my lavaliere mic; the recording from the SX700 sounded a bit more distant and muddy.
Another problem with the SX700 is recording capacity, but this may not be an issue for most. With only 1GB, you can only get 90 min of PCM. With the LS-10, I can get 3 hours with the built-in 2 GB and hours more with a cheap SD card. The Sony has a very nice compression codec, but I'm on a Mac, so I have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it converted. The highest MP3 quality is 198kbps. The LS-10 can do twice that, and I can just drag and drop it on my computer. That's only an issue for us Mac folk, I suppose.
In the end, I really liked the audio quality, form factor, and speed of the SX700. However, the botched headphone jack placement, the limited recording capacity, and the unavailability of Sony software for the Mac pushed me to the LS-10. However, the SX700 is an excellent device, and is half the cost of the LS-10 for the same basic quality of sound. For what I plan to use it for, those limitations added up to be too much. But for many folks, I think the SX700 is a very solid device at an unbeatable price point, especially if you plan to use the device in only one or two different scenarios and don't need to change the levels often.
First, the good. There are plenty of recording formats available. The CD-quality PCM format is what I used for most of my testing, as the LS-10 has the same quality level (44/16). The built-in mics are great on this device, and it was able to pick up a lecture at 40 feet clearly; it was pretty much the same quality as the LS-10. The zoom function on the LS-10 made it a little clearer. For some reason, Adobe Soundbooth was able to clean up the LS-10's file a little better than the SX700, but maybe I was just doing something wrong. Basically, however, the sound was equally good (way better than the Olympus DS-40 I have tried in the past).
The SX700 is basically an "instant on" device. You put it on hold to put it to sleep, and taking it off hold wakes it up instantly. You can push record as fast as humanly possible and it will start up. The LS-10 has about a 3-5 second startup time. The SX700 also handles pre-record mode better than the LS-10. For the LS-10, you hit record once to arm the device and check the levels, then record again to start recording. For the SX700, pushing record just starts instantly recording. If you want a pre-record mode, you hold down record for a second. So, if you just want to start recording instantly on the SX700 you can, and if you want to set your levels first, you only have to wait a second. A big plus to the SX700 here.
Being able to charge the batteries from the USB is nice, but not such a big deal.
Now, for the problem areas. The mics are good, but they are also very sensitive. You have to crank the input way down if you are dictating right into the device. The LS-10 has a "high-low" switch on the side, but the SX 700 doesn't. You have to either go into the menu and pick a volume, or change the levels manually. The LS-10 has a dial for setting the recording levels, and is basically instant. On the SX700, it's digital, so you have to hold down the volume button and wait for it to move to where you want it. It can be a bit frustrating to get it set exactly where you want it. Also, the mics are very susceptible to popping and wind noise, making the windscreen basically mandatory if you are dictating directly into the device. Which brings up a MAJOR FLAW for me: the headphone jack is on the top of the device, between the mics. You cannot plug in headphones and have the windscreen on at the same time. This means you cannot monitor yourself while talking into the device without getting a bunch of popping sounds. I would have thought Sony would have put the mic jack up there and the headphone jack on the side, but they did the opposite, and it was a major oversight. With mic sensitivity already an issue, this makes it very hard to know if you are distorting or not. The LS-10 and the SX700 both have limiters, but only the LS-10 has an automatic gain control. With the LS-10, I can set the AGC on and just start talking. With the SX700, I found I really had to futz around with the levels just to get a decent sound when dictating. If you just want to record a quick memo, the LS-10 can give you better sound more quickly, though you do have to push record twice.
Also, I was able to get better sound out of the LS-10 when using my lavaliere mic; the recording from the SX700 sounded a bit more distant and muddy.
Another problem with the SX700 is recording capacity, but this may not be an issue for most. With only 1GB, you can only get 90 min of PCM. With the LS-10, I can get 3 hours with the built-in 2 GB and hours more with a cheap SD card. The Sony has a very nice compression codec, but I'm on a Mac, so I have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it converted. The highest MP3 quality is 198kbps. The LS-10 can do twice that, and I can just drag and drop it on my computer. That's only an issue for us Mac folk, I suppose.
In the end, I really liked the audio quality, form factor, and speed of the SX700. However, the botched headphone jack placement, the limited recording capacity, and the unavailability of Sony software for the Mac pushed me to the LS-10. However, the SX700 is an excellent device, and is half the cost of the LS-10 for the same basic quality of sound. For what I plan to use it for, those limitations added up to be too much. But for many folks, I think the SX700 is a very solid device at an unbeatable price point, especially if you plan to use the device in only one or two different scenarios and don't need to change the levels often.
52 of 52 people found the following review helpful
I've spent a week with my new 700 and I give it two thumbs up. I'm very critical on gear, and this little unit is hard to find fault with. So, let's get down to it. As a voice note-taker , it has everything you need. Set at mono and on one of the lesser recording types, you have days of recording time. Organizing your recordings into files is easy. If you get the D model, you get the software to do automatic voice to text conversion. Where the fun begins is with using the 700 as a Field-recorder. It has 10 different recording modes. In CD quality 44.1Khz 16Bit linear, you get 1.5 hours of flawless recording. It is the same as if you used a rack-full of digital recording equipment. The on-board mics sound excellent. One note, they (the mics) have the bass lowered a bit to accommodate voice recording, so if you plan to to field to CD recording of live music, I would get a simple stereo hand mic. You can plug it right into the 700. Mode-wise, 44.1khz/16bit gives the best results for music. Second best is Sony's own Lpec stereo HQ. It gives 11 hours of stereo recording and the provided software converts it to any format you want afterwords.
If 44.1/16 is 100% quality, then Lpec STHQ is 85%. Number #3 is 192khz MP3. I would give it 75% on the quality scale. Lpec STHQ is a fine and efficient mode for music.
It would take an engineer like me to hear the difference.
Battery life is excellent. Pop a set of rechargables in there and the USB cable charges them. If I had one complaint, it would be that the level meter does not show on playback. Once you record it right, you don't need to see the meter on playback. Kick on the limiter to be sure you don't go over 100% when recording. That's it.
For $125, it does everything the $300 stereo hand-recorders do..and more.
If 44.1/16 is 100% quality, then Lpec STHQ is 85%. Number #3 is 192khz MP3. I would give it 75% on the quality scale. Lpec STHQ is a fine and efficient mode for music.
It would take an engineer like me to hear the difference.
Battery life is excellent. Pop a set of rechargables in there and the USB cable charges them. If I had one complaint, it would be that the level meter does not show on playback. Once you record it right, you don't need to see the meter on playback. Kick on the limiter to be sure you don't go over 100% when recording. That's it.
For $125, it does everything the $300 stereo hand-recorders do..and more.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very Disappointed - Lasted about 23 months!
Purchased February, 2010. Used about a dozen times. Never mistreated. It now shorts batteries and doesn't work at all. Sony will exchange it for $80.00. Read more
Published 4 months ago by ittybitty
Sony ICD-SX7-- Stick recorder
It will be some time before I am able to use it to its fullest. The Book leaves much to be desired, but got the larger off the internet. Sound pickup and quailty is great. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Paul
I'll never buy Sony again
Never worked w/ Dragon. I contacted them and they "were working on it".
i don't use it much and just tried to turn it on tonight. DEAD. Read more
i don't use it much and just tried to turn it on tonight. DEAD. Read more
Published 14 months ago by john in Austin
Worst product I ever bought on line
I know Im not stupid....have a graduate degree....but this has got to be the worst product Amazon sells. The directions are poorly written,the quality of the recording is terrible. Read more
Published 18 months ago
A unique Recorder
This product is compact and easy to switch from playing my music to voice recording.
Published on February 27, 2010 by OLAKUNLE OGBARA
Sony Recorder
This is a great improvement over the previous Sony digital recorder I purchased. The buttons are smaller, so if you have larger hands or fingers, you might have to take it slowly... Read more
Published on February 2, 2010 by manonair
Good Stuff
Great Product .... i dunno much about this product... i bought it for my wife. She loves it. I hear that it is crystal clear and is one of the best that you can order ... Read more
Published on January 23, 2010 by L. Byrne
Great evidence tool in law enforcement.
I researched and compared Olympus recorders and this Sony recorder. A friend of mine uses a similar Olympus and likes it. I use this Sony recorder in the slim case it came with. Read more
Published on December 23, 2009 by B. Rozas
Great sound from lhis little recorder
I bought this mainly to do evps with. It is very sensitive mic but without distortion and machine noise that some have. Conforms to your hand well. Read more
Published on December 8, 2009 by Eileen Sutis
Miserable for dictation
Since none of the reviews I read here really deal in-depth with dictation, I thought this review might be useful to save someone else the return postage on this recorder. Read more
Published on December 1, 2009 by PDX Girl
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