Sony ICD-ST25 Portable Digital Voice Recorder

I've used mine for classes, just asked permission from professors. The voice quality is great even from the back rows. Sometimes, I used external mic to boost the voice. When I listened with accompanied ear bud, it's like noise cancellation one, I heard like the professors were talking into my ears! I used SP (standard) mode... just enough for a 3-hours class. The control buttons are not great but acceptable for voice quality and easy to use. You can see how much more memory or battery power left. This recorder costs about an IT or business text book so I'm happy for mine. For my experiences, this is very helpful for evening classes, when I was sleepy and unable to catch up everything. The greatest time was in my philosphy class, the professor talked too much and I needed them for writing assignments. Just be sure to save files in your PC and you'll appreciate them when the professors assigned take home exams ;-). I also recommend to use rechargeable AAAs. Happy recording! ps. I don't recommend for bandle, such as with Dragon software. That software needs to be trained with voices (several hours) to transcribe what you recorded. If you're planning to transcribe your lectrues, you'll need your professors' voices to train that softare. How can you get your professors?

Buttons are very small, so large handed/fingered people might have trouble with them. Nice sound quality on SP (7 hr); LP (15 hr) is the usual MP3 on low resolution warble, ST is pretty good, but creates pretty bulky mono-sounding files, unless you're using external stereo mics, or a stereo line-in. 5 user folders for sorting - can do Add or Overwrite, but takes about 2-3 clicks to change the mode. Display normally stays on, but it's like a digital watch with a backlight. Sound output is quite audible for a little wafer speaker. Bought as a replacement for a micro-cassette, and used for vocal presentation preparation, so I like the scan/review features and the variable speed playback. Vocal-Up does a modest job of basically compressing the input to equalize amplitude (think of it as auto-gain). Delicate refers to the overall feel in that it's pretty much all plastic, and I'm worried about dropping it and having a lot of damage from a fall. But that's what one gets for the price, and the size (which is like a couple of matchboxes stacked vertically).

Works very well. I am pleased with sony quality.

I returned this, after really trying hard to like it. I have large hands, and, the buttons were so small I kept hitting the wrong ones. Further, you have to delicately push back and forth one switch to go from function to function; I don't mean up and down length-wise, but, perpendicular to the layout of the switch, which is extremely counter-intuitive. Also, I could not accept having to toggle through several menu windows just to allow me to erase part of what I was dictating. I really wanted to simply use this like an old fashioned microcassette: forward, backward, erase mistakes and dictate over, but, also have the luxury of voice recognition. It flat-out did not work. Try something else!

Usually Sony comes up with great products, but this one is a bit shaky. There are so many controls, so many abbreviations for what they do, that it's a bit overwhelming, even after owning this thing for a few months. I'm use to having the major buttons be record, play, rewind, fast forward, next file. On this unit, there is this incredibly complex big button that controls a dozen functions, some of them you will never need. Not only do you have to fumble around sliding this thing forward, backwards, up, down, and in, but you have to know what the crytic abbreviation that pops up on the LCD screen means. Then there are a few other tiny switches and buttons all over the unit you have to remember how to use, again with little heiroglyphics that suggest it's function. I guess I should have played with one of these units before I bought it -- I bought it based on it's features, most of which I will never use. If the team of engineers who built this device got to redesign the iPOD, there would add about twenty stainless steel switches, knobs, buttons and connectors and call it the "Apple YTD-TU652 Portable Digital Music Playing Device"... now would you think that would be a successful product?

Works great for voice recording. Records hours of lectures. Upload to computer works great and you can scroll anywhere into the recording to listen to segments. As you scroll just look at the time to decide what part to review. Battery life is good. The buttons work ok for me.