Digital Voice Recorder, COOAU 8GB Rechargeable Dictaphone, Portable Sound Audio Recorder, MP3 Player, A-B Repeat, USB, Noise Canceling, One-button Recording for Interviews, Lectures, Conferences

This is a tiny, good quality sound recorder that can also help monitor sound for a camera. Even expensive cameras often do not have headphone outputs, but you can split the mic input between the camera and this voice recorder and then monitor the sound via the headphone output of the recorder. Or you can record just into the recorder and sync the audio waveforms when editing, muting the camera's audio. One minor annoyance is that the audio in the .wav could not be seen by Adobe Premiere CS6 so had to be converted (via audition). Small enough to fit lengthways into some phone mounts to go on the shoe of the camera.

Cheap and basic but good value for money. Some points to note: first it ONLY records in WAV format. (it can playback in WAV, MP3 or WMV but I am guessing no-one will use this as a player) The sound quality is OK - but there is some background noise in monitoring and less so in all recordings - just about acceptable. There are numerous clicks and loud spikes when recording with VAR on and when switched off there are still a few - this makes this recorder not fit for recording interviews where the quality is important. It may have a high quality data rate but that means nothing if the recording is broken by frequent cracks and pops. The settings are effectively auto on everything. The left and right level meter display is a sham and merely a looping animated icon to give the impression sound is recording. The voice activated recording VAR works OK but it will clip a half second of the first word of each section when it starts - with a loud crack. The file timecode relates to the first moment the VAR recording starts - after that you have no reference about when the VAR had kicked in to record subsequent clips. The interface is poor, slow to use and not intuitive... typically Chinese. As a dictaphone this has no functionality - it can't rewind a set amount and review so useless in that role. Scanning forward in long clips is very tedious and hit and miss. As a backup recorder for lectures it is fine. As a separate recorder to support recording video on say a gopro then it is just about acceptable quality but you will have to risk the cracks and pops will interrupt. The manual is rubbish (of the same quality as the Amazon listing above)

This is a six star product. There are many reasons, but the first is that it packs a mighty punch that puts to shame recorders that are five times the price. It comes already partly charged and includes a tie clip microphone, mini jacks, usb leads and even a pair of ADSL leads. It is extremely solidly built and can be slipped unobtrusively in your pocket with the clip-on mic lead fed through your clothing. So two of these units could be used for an interview, or for many other applications. It also has an earphone port, a small menu/function display and reasonably clear controls. There is a volume control for both playback and recording, an inbuilt equaliser, a small speaker and various storage settings. The files can be instantly uploaded for editing. The sound quality is extremely good when output to a computer or other system with larger speakers, and when adjusted for example on a video editing time line. A single device can be used for anything from making personal notes, to recording a conference, telephone call, business meeting, interview, and even a feature film, documentary, or journalism/reporting on a budget. The saved audio files are a doddle to import into a video editor and synced with the visuals. It is a lo-tech video solution that costs a tiny fraction compared with conventional audio set ups for video shooting, which normally relies on multiple radio/bluetooth links, a transmitter, receiver and other complicated equipment such as boom-mics, condensor mics, shotgun mics etc. The build quality is second to none yet the form factor is very small. This is by far the best price to quality ratio audio device on Amazon and knocks spots off other more well known devices costing a lot more. This product is highly recommended.

Sound is good (apart from HP mode, which for some reason randomly crackles and hisses), but MP mode is good. Forget about SP mode, it’s barely even old telephone quality. It DOES record whilst charging (someone on here said it didn’t), and you CAN change the time from within the recorder itself (again, sometime on here said you had to do it through your computer, but you don’t). Solid feel, seems like it’s metal of some sort, quite heavy, but that’s good. Menus are slightly fiddly, but you get used to it. It has a line input, which is good for the price (Voice activation DOES NOT WORK in line-in mode, which is a big shame). Speaker quality is okay, but you’d benefit from listening to it through headphones or downloading the sound file to a PC. Oh, it’s NOT stereo recording either, even though it looks like it has two mics, it’s just mono recording. I was surprised how small it was, but that to me is also a good thing. Screen display text is small, which doesn’t bother me, but it may be an issue for some. Microphone seems to pick up sounds from a distance, that’s good. It has a physical on/off switch, which I think is also good. It also has voice activated recording, which works well. Files are time stamped (the stamp is the time when u press record button). Overall, is this worth the £17 I paid?... absolutely. I’ve got Olympus voice recorders and the interface may not be as pleasing on the eye, but the sound is pretty much as good as more expensive ones. I recommend it.