OM Digital Solutions WS-500 Digital Voice Recorder (Silver)

I won't repeat what other reviews have stated. The WS-500M does its job very well and is a good value, compared to other models, and the competition. Here I'll contrast it with the DS-40 and the WS-500M, which I own, and with the DS-61 (a 2gb version of the DS-40).Nevertheless, there are some things to add about this unit, and DVRs in general. For best sound quality, it is essential that you pick the correct microphone sensitivity. The WS-500M offers two levels, the DS40 three. (More is better.) Moreover, the WS-500M requires you to go two levels down in a menu to change sensitivity. The DS-40 has a handy switch on the side. Curiously, the next lower model, WS-400S, has a two-position switch on the side. (You will not learn this detail from website descriptions, but only from the common manual or by experience.)Every line of Olympus DVRs has a different setup of buttons. Those on the DS-40 are on the side, and it is easy to tell by touch that you have successfully started or stopped recording. The tiny buttons on the face of the WS-500M are much less positive. Compounding the problem is the absence of a green playback light on the WS-500M. The DS-40 has not only a red recording light but also a green playback pilot light, and these lights are brighter than the one on the WS-500M.So far, it appears that I prefer the DS-40, but the WS-500M has some good points, as well. Its built-in USB plug means you can always connect to your computer, even if a USB cable is not at hand. The WS-500M is slightly but significantly smaller, which I find valuable. Considering that the WS-500M has four times the memory of the DS-40, it is a much better value, even though it lacks the latter's excellent removable stereo microphone. (The DS-61 has 2gb, same as the WS-500M.)Bottom line: both the WS-500M and the DS-40 are excellent units, but the former is a better value. If pride of ownership derived from build quality is added to the equation, then the DS-40 is the one for you.UPDATE after a month's use: I really think the buttons are the weak point of this device. Unless you put it on Hold, it is very easy to start recording accidentally. When not looking at the unit, it is harder to tell by feel which button to press than the DS-40 discussed above. I now think that because of the superior buttons and external sensitivity control, I would now recommend the DS-40 above this one, though it is a poorer value for money. It seems that button position is a personal taste, and some other reviewers prefer them on the face, as in the WS-500M. Different strokes...UPDATE #2 after nine months. I find in actual use that the smaller size of the WS-500M trumps the build quality of the DS-40, and I actually use the WS-500M far more. One more point: I found the rechargeable battery useless, as it has much less life than a good alkaline battery. Fortunately one can use either type.

I've had this recorder for about 10 days and have used it for both voice recordings, playback of voice and playback of music files and an audiobook. I've also used the USB recharging feature, copied audiobook & music files to the "Music" folder from my Dell laptop USB port running Vista Home Premium (64 bit). The unit is small, and easily fits in a pocket. Overall, I've found the WS-500M (silver) recorder to be excellent! I'm very pleased with it.Reason I bought it:I'm a self-employed writer and wanted to record story ideas, meetings, interviews, etc.. Plus for other meetings where I wanted a record of what was said, saving me from writing everything down. I had been using an HP iPAQ PDA (hx2495b) Pocket PC with built-in voice recorder. But over the years I've had trouble with Windows Mobile 5 hanging before going into a meeting (slow, doggy OS). When it worked it was fine, but then it recorded to main memory and when that ran out, the recording stopped of course. So I bought the right tool for the job.Other reviews:I read the reviews on here & elsewhere before buying it and it is highly rated. One person mentioned the 30 page manual as being long, but that includes the instructions in four languages (i.e. EN, FR, ES, PT) with the English (EN) section being 11 pages. There is a foldout section with diagrams the instructions refer to.Another compliant I've seen is the hard to use menu, I disagree with that, the menus are easy to use. I have computer background though, so electronic devices come easy to me. I do have some experience with using the Olympus WS-210S (256 MB) recorder, and this unit is nicer. When I first used the WS-210S the menu took some getting used to, but I think the WS-500M has improved the menu. The WS-210S is used at our church, where it is plugged into the sound system's mixer (via patch cable to the MIC jack on the unit) and we record the priest's homily. Our priest has a wireless microphone. We then convert the WMA format to MP3 (free utility: "Efficient WMA MP3 Converter"), edit out unwanted audio (start/end) with the free "Audacity" software & export as MP3, then upload to our parish website as a podcast. The WS-210S only records in WMA format, while the WS-500M can record in WMA or MP3*. (* You need to download the free firmware upgrade from the Olympus site to record in MP3.) Nice added feature!The backlight feature is nice. The USB recharging feature allows you to recharge the included AAA NiMH rechargeable battery by plugging into a USB port on your computer. Pressing <STOP> & plugging into the USB port only allows charging, so you can't transfer files & recharge at the same time. I don't see this as a drawback. The recharging feature was important to me. Alkalines are costly & end up in the landfill, unless you can recycle them.There is a switch that allows you to use it in either Voice or Music modes. "Voice" allows you to select the five different folders (A-E), record/playback audio, etc.. "Music" mode allows access to the "Music" folder (where you can copy music or other audio files (i.e. audiobooks) to it from your computer). You can copy whole folders into the "Music" folder from your computer to group music, audiobooks separately. There are no playlists, so you would have to name the tracks in a sequential format to play in that order. If you want an MP3 player, you should look for that first. The primary purpose of this unit is a voice recorder, so the added feature of playing MP3/WMA's is nice, but it lacks features (i.e. playlists) found in MP3 players.The sound through the speaker is adequate, but as others have noted, it sounds much better (CD quality) through the included ear-buds (or your own pair). You can also plug external speakers into the headphone jack, or with a patch cable into your car stereo (if it has an input AUX type jack). If you set the voice recording to the lowest quality though, I don't know how that will sound. So if your recording live music somewhere, set the recording quality in the menu to the highest.Someone said the recorder will pickup table noise when placed on a table for a meeting. I would suggest placing the recorder on a book or stack of papers.Someone said there is no ON/OFF switch, actually there is and it's the "HOLD" switch. It's oddly named, but in the HOLD position it's OFF, while sliding it the other way is ON. It has a nice feature of turning off after a couple minutes of non-use (i.e. not recording, not playing back or pressing buttons).There is a light on the front & back that shows when it's recording or charging. When recharging is done, the light turns off. You can get more tech. spec's at the Olympus site, don't buy it there as it's list price ($100).

This is a nifty little voice recorder. It records in WMA format, which gives it a big advantage over the cheap SONY ICD-P520 that I bought it to replace; the SONY recorder only recorded in some weird custom format that required special software to read, which brings me to the Olympus-WS500's other advantage, which is that files can be copied directly to the computer through Windows Explorer, and no special additional software is required. It also has a decent battery life.Overall it is a very good product, but it does, HOWEVER, have one important flaw:The so-called "Date Stamp" on the voice recordings is nothing more than the normal "Date Created" property for the file, which gets automatically overwritten as soon as the file is copied to the computer. I had to spend quite a large amount of time copying and pasting the "Date Created" info for each file into the little "Comments" box in the file summary so that I would be able to look up a date for each recording other than the date on which I copied them to my computer.