Olympus Digital Voice Recorder DM-420

This is an AWESOME voice recorder. I've been using this now for several years of lectures and I would buy it again in a heartbeat.Get this. period.Ok. where to start? this picks up the lecture voice clearly in rooms of different types (labs, lecture halls, small rooms, large rooms, etc). the sound quality is excellent. you can set many features on this (might be a bit daunting to set up at first, but play with it and it will become clear quickly what setting you need for it to be optimized for your needs). I think the different setting options is why it is so good in so many different acoustic settings. you can set it to record the whole group in a conference, a single person dictation, or to emphasize a particular person in a group when everyone else is yakking away out of sequence. it can focus on what you want and not have major distortion or be overwhelmed by say, a low background noise of an air conditioner vent or equipment nearby or have group conversation muddle out what's being said. Olympus knows their stuff here and did this right. I have mine set to get the instructor clearly (male or female, both sound clear and loud) but I can also hear questions from the back of the room with certain settings. simply amazing.the battery life is great. I record for about 6 hours a day and then play back while driving or studying. the battery is good for at least 3 or 4 days, but I do my best to keep it charged because the information is critical, so I prob could go longer on it but I don't. you can use the internal memory, but I just bought a micro sd card and it holds weeks of lectures at least (I don't think ive ever filled it up actually, but its nice to know I won't). every few days I just plug it n via the micro usb to usb cable to my laptop, and download the files to the Olympus software. I have mine set for mp3 format, but you can do wav and a few others if you want. it has a setting so you can just plug it in via usb (to a laptop or wall usb outlet thingy) to charge or have it charge while you file transfer. the rechargeable battery does last a long time, but you can also swap it out for a standard battery if you forgot to charge it and it ran out. no biggie.playback is great. I can have many different levels of speed adjustment to hear lecture playbacks quickly but still be understandable. I haven't used the podcast feature, no idea on that one. its got stereo recording (you can set to mono) and playback, and is fully compatible with external microphones and mp3 player type earbuds. I sometimes playback on the speaker, but usually listen via headset or run it through my car speakers while driving via the headphone out port.the folders, file names, etc are very customizable which is great, so I can quickly access whichever folder or lecture and keep my files stored in that section.I really got this for the sound quality. it is exceptional. the clarity is amazing. I've shown friends with hearing issues or attention/memory issues this and they get one themselves and agree its just a great tool to have so if they miss part of a lecture its all within easy playback. I've even burned cds for people who miss class or put the file on a flashdrive so they can hear the lecture they missed, and they are amazed at the sound quality of it. ***this puts other voice recorders to shame!*** they all say' wow! mine doesn't sound like that. I can barely hear mine when I play it. I can actually hear and understand what they're saying on yours.' point is, its worth the money to get something that actually works and works extremely well.not sure what else to say. just if you get this you won't go wrong. oh, I know, when I first got this as a test for it I turned it on in one corner of a room and talked at normal voice and walked around and left the room and went into other rooms across a house and could STILL hear my own voice clearly. I figured I would just find where it cut out---but it clearly picked up the sound everywhere I went. that is amazing.if you've got one and you're having any trouble at all I would say take a look at the settings because it gives you a lot of options - but it also has a lot of 'preset settings' to make it easy for you to just pick one or another if you don't want to figure out what you need. then you can go back and fine tune that preset to bring out say, the speakers voice, or the group speaking or block out low level vibration noise that may be drowning out other sounds or whatever. so you have a lot of control, but they also help you use them and take advantage of them even if all the options are too much to figure out (presets, use the presets, and then tweak them a bit if you want to).this is the higher end model (an older version now) and I also have a lower end model as a backup (I left this once in a lecture hall n didn't get it back for a few days). the lower end models don't have as many features. this has the absolute best sound quality also. the other model I have has the usb port that you slide in and out of the unit to plug it in, and after using both I have to say I really prefer just plugging in a usb cable, tho they both work fine.

I regret getting this voice recorder. I've had other Olympus and Sony recorders. Unfortunately, the battery recharge system is a nuisance. Every time, my DVR is locked up for a considerable amount of time while the battery bleeds down to a level such that the thing will charge. It's a hassle the requires several iterations of waiting.Currently, the DVR is locked on the "OLYMPUS" welcome display, but will not interface with my PC or charge up despite doing the annoying "Hold, Depress Stop, plug in USB" procedure. Apparently there's no reset.Pressing Stop while plugging in the USB is an unpleasant operation, having to do it so often to deal the battery recharge problems is even worse.

For professional reasons, I need sometimes to record interviews and lectures.I had already an Olympus DM-520 (an outstanding product) and decided to buy this DM-420, which is essentially the same, but with half the recording capacity. If you have to record important interviews, lectures and so on, you should better use 2 recorders at once, to guarantee a backup, just in case: the double recording is far cheaper than the possible loss of data.The reason for the choice of a DM-420 instead of another DM-520 was the color: the DM-520 is black and the DM-420 is silver, so it is quite easy to identify the recorders. And, as a matter of fact, I think that, for most users, 500 hours or 1000 hours will mean the same. Just remembering: 500 hours mean some 21 continuous days of recording time and the batteries will not last for 1 day.As told before, the DM-420 and the DM-520 are very similar. They use the same technology, the same microphone (wich is the most critical component of a digital recorder) and the same software. They are, by far, the best portable non-professional digital recorders I've ever seen, for several reasons:1. The microphone is very, very accurate. Other cheaper recorders (including other Olympus models) distort the sound and, in some cases, it is not easy to listen and undestand what was recorded;2. The rechargeable batteries last for a long time (I'd say some 20 hours of continuous recording);3. The software is nice. For sure, it could be better, but it is at least ok and represent a huge improvement compared to previous Olympus software releases;4. They are so light and small, and come with a stylish protective case;5. The operation is very easy and quite intuitive. The manual is reasonable;6. The voice activation feature (i.e., the recording is automatically suspended when the speach ceases) is very useful, both for saving record time and for making easy the further transcription of the recorded content;7. The earphones have superb quality, comparable to those from iPod and similar.But Olympus made a primary mistake: when I first tried this DM-420, I thought it was deffective. As a matter of fact, it was not, but it came with completely dead batteries. They had no manufacturing problems: they were just discharged, so I had to charge them before the use. When I bought the DM-520 a few months ago, I received it with the batteries fully charged, and I think this is the right way. I think this mistake is not enough to prevent a five stars evaluation, since the product itself is very worthwhile. But Olympus could be a bit more careful about such details.I do recommend this product, for its excellent performance and very fair price compared to its outstanding quality.