Tascam Portable Studio Recorder, Black, 7.5 x 2.4 x 1.2 inches (DR-05V2)

I LOVE THIS RECORDER! I had heard horror stories about the competitor, Zoom H1 (about audio drifting off-sync after a while, the built quality of the Zoom, etc), and I took my chance on this wonderful product! I know there are Zoom lovers but I have a budget and don't want to spend $100 twice so I went with the best option for my situation.You can definitely hear the (good) difference in this. I have a Rode Video MIC GO and most of you know that the GO doesn't have many settings to turn down the hiss and everything in the audio, but if you plug it into this recorder, it just goes away, especially if you re speaking and there is no surrounding noise. I even tried recording ambience/sound effects with my Rode directly into the Tascam and it was so amazing! I am amazed and know for sure that I made the right choice! You can clearly hear the difference from the audio with the Rode into the camera and the Rode into this Tascam recorder.Now, I am no one to judge on the internal MIC of this system (the top two channeled MICs) because I haven't used it yet, but I have a couple projects with required voice-overs and will update this review to let you guys know how it sounded and I am sure it would sound great!All the buttons are easy to click, access, and use and the settings are WAY too simple. I am no man of sound/audio and I only do it because I am currently a one man band film maker (15 years old; I have no other choice) so I'm forced to learn all of these settings and stuff but I was really surprised at how the settings were clear, simple, and short! I also love the additional headphone jack to listen to the audio because being on set a couple times, I have always wanted to look like a boom MIC operator with the boom pole and headphones, haha! So that is a great touch!Well, I've said everything I know about this recorder and I hope you take my word for consideration in choosing what field recorder you should buy!

I have had this mic for almost a decade. This thing is so easy to use, portable, and extremely adjustable. This mic will let you hear exactly what the environment sounds like. If you plug in your headphones to hear what it's picking up, you might forget you're wearing headphones at all.It doesn't matter if you're recording environment audio, vocals, or gathering experimental audio data for an experiment. This mic has you covered.Also, in the decade I've been using this, I've only needed to change the batteries ONCE, and I frequently record stuff with this. This mic will make you feel like you put alien technology in for batteries. They last (practically) forever. I'm blown away by this every time I grab it to record something.This mic changed my life, when it comes to recording things. People will push you to get the thousand-dollar gear but I assure you that this mic does perfectly well.

Excellent recorder for use with the good, sensitive, well balanced own mics. With the remarkable quality of recordings it is capble of, it is a pity this unit does not support phantom power and XLR inputs. This limits its potentially MUCH wider usage including musical recordings. Very ease to operate, decent battery life and an overall very appealing unit by TASCAM. Unfortunately, the installed omni-directional mics are inadequate for grand piano recordings and as noted external mics are limited to a 3.5mm equipped microphone only. Otherwise - a gem!

Very lightweight and it records pretty high quality. I inserted a 32 gig card....be sure to get the right size....and it will record at the highest quality all night.I live close to trains that come by at about 40 mph. Direct line of sight. So, I put the Tascam on a tripod and recorded the whole episode, from the long approach to long distance departure. After I recorded it I sat in the patio of our backyard and plugged in a good headset to listen to what I recorded. It was so authentic sounding that I forgot I had headphones on and looked to see the loud train come by....and had to laugh because it was what I recorded minutes earlier.The recorder/playback is pretty intricate and complicated but, with reading glasses and with the pdf download manual I was able to master it. I recorded loud music over the weekend and it sounds great. I had to roll off the low end to eliminate the hollow room sound....which would have been sort of 'boomy'. It saves the settings you choose so you can set it up the way you need for your use and it will stay that way and always be ready to record. Good tool, worth the money.