Sony Memory Stick Digital Voice Recorder w/ Voice Editing Software

Excellent product

Strengths: very professional design, memory expansion slot, stereo and mono record modes, Dragon software included, works flawlessly, quite small.

Weaknesses: price...but, a steal considering that the Dragon software sells separately for $160.

Summary: I did not achieve the 99% advertised accuracy right away. I still haven't. After a week, I may be around 70-80% on the voice recognition. It's still quite handy, especially if you want to reduce your risk of repetitive stress injuries (carpal tunnel). There is an initial setup investment of a few hours to install, read the training scripts into the machine, etc. I was not immediately successful using a blue tooth headset with Dragon, but the recorder worked from the 1st time. What would really be slick is if Sony or Dragon had allowed the recorder to be used as a direct-through microphone so you can dictate live into the computer when you want to. You must record and then use the USB cable to transfer, which is still quite fast, but not as handy as live. Then you have to open the Sony software, select the track, and translate with voice recognition. Dragon otherwise allows you to dictate right into the machine, but you need a headset or other high quality mic to do so, besides the recorder.

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Happy with the purchace

Strengths: Great record quality. Recorded sound is very clear. The recorder did not add any noise as cheaper recorders add. Great record time. My NI-MH recharables recorded for two hours and still over 1/2 full

Weaknesses: Not completely intitutive on how to use--had to the read manual to figure things out. All playback and features are controlled from the center joystick type thing. Once you get the hang of it-its ok.

Summary: The recorder looks very nice and compact--although it is not as tiny as the Olympus models. After reading many reviews myself I decided to get this recorder.

The fact it can use external Memory Stick Duos is very useful. The recorder lists support for at least 2GB Memory Stick Duos. I put in my free after rebate 256MB MS and it records 11 hours at the highest quality. Although having the external and internal memory did cause me to record accidently using internal memory that runs out in an hour at highest quality.

The recorder uses 2 AAA batteries. I put in 2 Ni-MH recharables which lasted for what I need it for 3 hours and less than half usage. I figured swapping batters is pretty easy--compared to built in batteries.

The recorder plugs into a standard mini-usb connector--and like most sony producst now the plug cover seems to be hinged on a tiny piece of plastic that I'm afraid to break off. Windows XP sees the internal and external memory stick as a flash drive. The files are store in normal FAT except they are stored in MSV format.

The Sony software that came with the recorder was pretty easy to use. Splitting tracks and converting MSV to WAV was pretty easy to do. Playback could be accelerated.

Overall although this was pretty expensive. I thought it was worth my money. Hoping it will last a long time.

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