Best Voice Recorders and Transcribers for Speech

Analyzing reviews from 41 Sites…

11 out of 14 products found

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Olympus RECORDER

$135.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.thenerds.net
summary: i used the ws-311m to record a conference speaker and it worked nicely, picking up all the conversation from different parts of the room.
from A Customer from Westerly, RI, clickfrom.buy.com
this is a dandy little device for recording speech.
from www.bestbuy.com
you might as well use headphones, plug into powered pc speakers, or transfer the files to a pc since the tiny built in speaker is not very useful.
from JCJ from Charleston, WV, www.circuitcity.com
speaker is small but playback thru headphone or computer is outstanding.
from www.compuplus.com
one of the speakers was very low...too difficult even for ears was picked up by this.

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Positives: Easy To Use, Excellent Sound Quality, Compact, Recording Media: Digital

2 RECOMMENDED by 6 people for SPEECH

Olympus WS-210S 512 MB

$58.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
i tune the station or frequency i want, place the recorder near the speaker, then start the recorder so that i can get a sound capture of the station i am listening to.
from www.amazon.com
i had been to hear several speakers and have missed not being able to go back and listen to portions of their presentations, but i have used it several times now to record meetings, shopping lists,
from www.amazon.com
it has a flat bump for the speaker, and a long bump for the single battery.
from www.amazon.com
the built in speaker is barely useful, and sounds scratchy.
from www.amazon.com
the built-in speaker is mediocre, but about what i would expect.

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Positives: Easy To Use, Compact, Long Battery Life, Recording Media: Digital

3 RECOMMENDED by 6 people for SPEECH

Olympus RECORDER

$74.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.newegg.com
it even sounds good when you play it off the speaker, though understandably not as rich.
from www.amazon.com
it does not provide concert hall sound it captures a speaker or someone provideing information.
from www.amazon.com
however, it does have very good "limiter" circuitry (alc), reducing the volume of my fumbling and coughs so i don't blow my speakers out on playback.
from www.amazon.com
i recorded the lectures in a small a/v room and put it right under a speaker.
from www.amazon.com
looking forward to applying my speech recognition software (ilisten).

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Positives: Easy To Use, Nice Sound Quality, Large Capacity, Recording Media: Digital

4 RECOMMENDED by 7 people for SPEECH

Olympus DS-30 Handheld Digital

$95.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.compuplus.com
summary: i'm a speech-language pathologist, so to me, a good recorder is a necessity for my evaluation of patients' speech.
from AllenG from Lincoln, NE, www.circuitcity.com
the playback is of very good quality, it's better though earbuds than with the speaker.
from mike n from hawaii, www.circuitcity.com
i just put the recorder against the earphone speakers.
from www.compuplus.com
this only makes a different when playing through your pc speakers storage.
from www.amazon.com
only negative is that the built in speaker is pretty much worthless as you have to hold it to your ear to hear well.

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Positives: Nice Sound Quality, Large Capacity, Easy To Use, Recording Media: Digital

5 RECOMMENDED by 11 people for SPEECH

Olympus VN4100PC Digital

$54.00 Est. at Amazon

from Mark E. from Minnesota, clickfrom.buy.com
the downside includes poor speaker quality and not stereo for headphones/ear pieces.
from www.amazon.com
it's perfect for tasks such as recording a lecture or meeting, making verbal to-do lists, practicing a speech or presentation, and so on.
from www.amazon.com
the speaker for some reason wasn't working when i first got it but after switching to low setting, it seems to work just fine.
from www.amazon.com
at a workshop, i sat towards the back of a hotel conference room and the recorder captured the speaker's voice from the ceiling speakers (about 12 feet overhead).
from www.amazon.com
it picks up voices with excellent quality even when the speakers are several feet from the device.

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Positives: Easy To Use, Compact, Nice Sound Quality, Recording Media: Digital

Sony ICDPX720 USB DIGITAL NOTETAKE 1 GB

$57.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
i purchased this recorder so i could use speech recognition software if i wanted to, without paying for any additional microphones/headsets.
from www.amazon.com
even if you are sitting very far (30-40 feet) from the speaker, you could record and listen to the speech later on.
from www.amazon.com
the speaker is decent, but even the cheapest sony headphones are better.

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Positives: Nice Sound Quality, Excellent Capabilities, Good Portability, Recording Media: Digital

Audiovox RP5130

$52.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
this little recorder and it is little, is easy to put into your shirt pocket and record any speeches you give.
from www.amazon.com
the speaker is a little tinny, but it's so easy to plug in headphones, or drag them onto your computer, that it's really not an issue.
from www.amazon.com
- the playback speakers are not so good, you will have to load the audio files on your computer for maximum quality of playback.

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Positives: Easy To Use, Compact, Great Portability, Recording Media: Digital

Olympus VN-4100 256 MB

$50.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
the speaker for some reason wasn't working when i first got it but after switching to low setting, it seems to work just fine.
from www.amazon.com
the sound quality out of the speaker isn't great but quite good enough.
from www.amazon.com
i record meetings, seminars, and practice speeches with this handy little device.
from www.amazon.com
i use this to record seminar speakers.

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Positives: Easy To Use, Compact, Nice Sound Quality, Recording Media: Digital

Tascam DR07 Portable Digital Recorder

$169.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
there is no built-in speaker.
from www.amazon.com
no speaker!

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Positives: Nice Sound Quality, Compact, Great Portability

Sony ICD-UX80 2048 MB

$110.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
i don't listen to the files from the recorder, so i don't care about the internal speaker at all.
from www.amazon.com
the only minor detail is the low output it has on it's built in speaker.
from www.amazon.com
it plays back well with the speaker or with headphones.
from www.amazon.com
as others mentioned, the external speaker is junk, but the sound with the supplied earphones is decent and with a good set of ear/head phones, both music and voice recordings sound great.
from www.amazon.com
be careful about your expectations of the internal speaker - you can only get so much sound out of a teeny speaker.

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Positives: Compact, Easy To Use, Long Battery Life, Recording Media: Digital

Olympus DS-50

$233.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
the recorder has no build-in tex-to-speech, so the only information it can speak is "canned" speech such as menu options and pre-existing folder names.
from www.amazon.com
you can listen to your recorder through the built-in speaker.
from www.amazon.com
even if the recording comes out, often you are seated in the audience of a meeting where people are not speaking through microphones and soft speakers just aren't recordable.

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Positives: Compact, Long Battery Life, Large Capacity, Recording Media: Digital

Sony ICDB600 512 MB

$33.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
if you really want to, you can hook up a 3.5mm double-male audio cable to the speaker end of the unit and the mic input on your computer and you can record that way, but i would just get a voice
from www.amazon.com
the only option for transferring these sound files electronically is to use the speaker/audio out jack.
from www.amazon.com
also there is no speed control on this model to speed up or slow down speech.

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Positives: Compact, Large Capacity, Good Sound Quality, Recording Media: Digital

Sony ICDSX68DR9

$235.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
if you're planning on doing speech-to-voice transcription, i highly recommend this product as well.
from www.amazon.com
the software was designed pretty much for an individual's speech pattern not for multple person speaking on a single recording.
from www.amazon.com
i was disappointed that the transcription software is only for a single speaker, and only works after reading a lenghty test passage.
from www.amazon.com
i have not been able to enable the speech recognition program because of the difficulty in the use of the recorder.

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Positives: Large Capacity, Long Battery Life, Recording Media: Digital, Design: Handheld

Olympus WS-110

Check Site at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
for instance, if you're in a loud auditorium and someone next to you coughs, the recorder will pick up that and it will be louder than the speaker on the stage.
from www.amazon.com
the in-built speaker is quite good considering its size
from www.bestbuy.com
trouble i had with this unit was the quality of playback through the built-in speaker.
from lp from Wisc, www.circuitcity.com
whether it's in my shirt or pants pocket it captures everything i want to hear.the hold switch eliminates accidentally turning the device on or off.this has aset of filters that you can apply to the

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Positives: Compact, Easy To Use, Large Capacity

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Computers and Office

Voice Recorders and Transcribers

Best Voice Recorders and Transcribers for Speech

Olympus RECORDER

Olympus WS-210S 512 MB

Olympus RECORDER

Olympus DS-30 Handheld Digital

Olympus VN4100PC Digital

Sony ICDPX720 USB DIGITAL NOTETAKE 1 GB

Audiovox RP5130

Olympus VN-4100 256 MB

Tascam DR07 Portable Digital Recorder

Sony ICD-UX80 2048 MB

Olympus DS-50

Sony ICDB600 512 MB

Sony ICDSX68DR9

Olympus WS-110

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