Olympus VN-722PC Voice Recorder with 4 GB Built-in-Memory (Certified Refurbished)

Absolutely delighted with this excellent digital voice recorder.Simple to use, I can turn it on with one hand and start recording in a few seconds.Effective, clear and crisp sounds on playback, I didn't need the instructions.Small, discreet and lightweight, similiar in weight and size to a two finger Twix.Fits comfortably into the palm of my hand.Microphone input and headphone jacks located on the top.Not quite sure these are refurbished, looks, feels and performs as new, packaged well and presented as a quality item.Short usb wire supplied for file download, simple "plug n play" file transfer and playback.This is my honest review of the purchased product, buy with confidence, you won't be disappointed.Oh, did I forget to mention that it has over 60hrs of voice recording available on internal (non removable) memory card.

Volume control is not that loud or clear

I got this recorder to record meetings and review them later. For that it works great. I turn it on at the beginning, set the Hold button to avoid accidentally turning it off, and it records the whole thing. No problem.Playback is just as simple. I don't get to name my recordings. They're just recording 1, 2, 3 ... in folder A, B, C, D, or E. I'm OK with that. I'm not saving these meetings for posterity, so that's organization enough. If I was saving them long term, I would copy them off the device onto my laptop and file them on something like Google Drive or Dropbox. Then they're just files (albeit .wav files). I can do whatever I want with them (including converting them to .mp3 with an outside party converter).I did test this copy/rename/store procedure to be sure I could do it. I'm a computer guy, but it really was pretty much drag and drop on my windows machines.Learning the interface took a half hour. I could have been using it 5 minutes out of the box. It is pretty simple. I'm a gadgets geek, so I had to read the manual and play with all the settings. The manual ain't nothing to write home about. If you don't want to read there are several YouTube videos that convey the same information.I don't use it to record 5 second notes-to-self. Some people have complained that it takes too long to power up the device to record a quick note. But honestly, if I start counting out loud the second I pick it up and start to turn it on, I can clearly hear myself saying "5, 6, ...".). If you can't wait 5 seconds you probably need a personal assistant following you around.When reading the description I didn't like that it used AA batteries instead of something rechargable. In practice that hasn't been a problem. In fact, it's easier to have a couple of extra AAs with me than it is to run out of juice and wait an hour to have enough charge to continue. (I've recorded 8 or 10 hours and the batteries are still the original ones.)I could have used my phone to do the same thing, but I am usually doing other things while I'm trying to record; checking my calendar and glancing at incoming messages. I also like that I can just hand it to someone else to listen and don't have to mess with copying and emailing files.I rated it 4 stars because it does what it says and I didn't have any issues. To get a five star review, something has to far exceed my expectations. I would still recommend it. I just can't gush about it.

makes a high pitch whine sound basically garbage

This is an update to my original "5-star" review. I have now had a chance to use the recorder in real life and it is disappointingly lacking in user-friendly features. I am basing this on my favorite voice recorder, a lost Panasonic digital that was about 8 years old and I will now be looking for a used one or at least look at other Panasonics again.I need to explain that 90% of my voice recorder use is in my car, which is a somewhat noisy sports car and my preference is to make notes while I drive, think about them, review and update, etc. I have done this for years and have no trouble using my previous recorders without looking at them, which I don't think is a good idea while driving. Those purchasers who use this recorder sitting at their quiet office desk will probably not have the same complaints I have.The REC and STOP buttons barely extend above the surface of the recorder and have almost no tactile feedback (you can't feel the button 'click') so it's hard to tell if you actually pressed the button without looking at the display, which I won't do while driving. Without tactile feedback you must rely on the 'beep', which is so quiet it gets drowned out by the moderate background noise of the car. Several times I failed to press the STOP button firmly enough and the record process continued, only to be paused the next time I hit REC, so I ended up with one awfully long recording with mostly nothing in it and the next note not recorded at all.Oddly enough, the PLAY button 'beep' is much louder and is audible in the car, but I have no clue why they would do it this way as it's the opposite of how it should work. When playing a recording there is no doubt you pushed the PLAY button because you hear the audio start. It's when starting and stopping the record process (both silent) that you need the feedback.Also, when reviewing a recorded note, the PLAY button does not pause like it did on my old Panasonic, so you have to feel for the barely-detectable STOP button in order to pause, then move back to the PLAY button to resume. A PLAY/PAUSE button is much easier.But the worst is when you want to delete a recorded note. I'm used to my old Panasonic that had nice tactile feedback on all the buttons and you could easily feel where they were located. If I wanted to delete a recording, I would hit ERASE, it would beep and require a confirmation, then I pressed ERASE a second time and it would give me a long beep. So, 2 quick presses of ERASE deleted the current note, AND it would let you delete a note in the middle of playing it, so you didn't have to wait for it to finish or manually stop it before deleting. Perfect.This recorder has the ERASE button flush with the surface of the recorder so it's impossible to find by feel; you have to "know" where it's located in relation to the 4-way navigation ring if you want to delete something. Here's how it goes - you hit ERASE, then you must look at the display to navigate up or down and choose what you want to do from the menu, then hit PLAY/ENTER, then look at the menu again, navigate up or down again, and then hit PLAY/ENTER. So the process to delete a recording is ERASE, UP, PLAY, UP, PLAY. You have to hit 3 different buttons, 2 of them twice, in order to delete a recording. That's just crazy. On top of that, you can't erase a recording if it's playing; you must either wait for it to end or hit STOP, and then you can do the other 5-steps to delete it.This recorder seems well-made, looks nice, and makes good recordings. But it's just not useable in my application. I'm bummed.====================================================================================ORIGINAL REVIEW:I bought the Factory Refurbished recorder and if it didn't come in a box that said "refurbished" I would have thought it was new. Included was the USB cable and 2 new Duracell batteries.This recorder works great and in nearly all cases is simple and intuitive to use. I purposely did not read the manual before using the recorder and had no trouble making recordings, sorting through them, playing them back, etc. Very straight-forward and good quality audio, at least on the WMA 64 setting which is the default and highest quality mode. At that setting it claims to have enough memory for 64 hours so why bother with a lower-quality setting.Unlike other digital recorders I have used, this one will power-down after a few minutes of non-use. My last good recorder stayed "up" all the time and all I had to do was press REC to start a recording. This machine will go to sleep and to wake it up you press any key, wait about 2 seconds for it to boot, then you're ready to record. Using the REC key to wake it up means you just pause a second and press REC again to start recording.I think I may know what is "wrong" with this model that is causing people to return them - the instructions have errors. They first walk you through setting the date and time, and then the very next instruction describes how to change the recording mode (record quality), which they say is done by pressing the + and - keys at the same time. This is actually impossible, as + and - are on opposite sides of the 4-way rocker switch and pressing both at once would require breaking the plastic ring that activates the 4 switches. The most you can do is press one or the other which only changes the volume of the speaker.In actuality, the only way to change the recording quality is through the menu settings, which is not discussed anywhere in the instructions. I think the erroneous instructions in the manual could lead many users to think the recorder is bad and send it back.

I needed a digital recorder for a recent interview for publication and this Olympus recorder did the trick aptly! This fit in your hand recording device records conversations very well and clearly. You can also divide your recordings in several folders, change recording modes based on whether you are recording a concert, business or school presentation, over the phone or with a live interview as I did. The Olympus VN-722PC Voice recorder comes with a USB device to upload to your computer. The directions are fairly easy to read, but I would stress that you should do a few dry runs to make sure that your recorder is operating properly before you plan to use it. No more micro taping recorders as I have done for several years now that I can bring this digital device with me at an event! The price is right and it is refurbished!