Sample Recordings from my Olympus DS-2
I've been thinking for a long time about getting a small voice recorder to carry around with me, but have always been skeptical of the sound quality of these things. Having read good reviews of the sound quality of the Olympus DS-2 Digital Voice Recorder, and having found a closeout deal too good to pass up, I went ahead and bought it. Below are some sample recordings for you so can hear it for yourself.
The DS-2 in the High Quality Stereo setting records Windows Media Audio files at a 44.1K sampling rate and encodes at 128kbps. The files below are the wma files copied directly from the recorder. I have not tinkered with them in any way.
Sample
#1 - Internal Stereo Microphone on the "Conference" sensitivity setting.InternalConf.wma
Sample
#2 - Internal Stereo Microphone on the "Dictation" sensitivity setting.InternalDictation.wma
Sample
#3 - External (EV RE-20) Microphone on the "Conference" sensitivity
setting.RE20Conf.wma
Sample
#4 - External (RE-20) Microphone on the "Dictation" sensitivity setting.RE20Dictation.wma
Obviously these files indicate that with the DS-2 it is possible to get a decent quality recording with a good quality external microphone. The Dictation sensitivity setting provides a better signal to noise ratio. I've been using this recorder now for a couple of years to record interviews with listeners at events I attend representing KAMB, and have been very happy with the quality of the recordings. I use an external hand-held dynamic mic and have gotten excellent results. The DS-2 is no longer available, but Olympus has newer models that I'm sure are as good or better. You might check out the DS-30 and DS-40. They also have a professional model now, the LS-10, that retails for $399. Click here for the Olympus page.
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