Impulse Buy
So I was still skimming a bunch of info about the Olympus WS-200S. Some interesting things that I found. One item that appealed to me was that it had a microphone jack. I’ll tell you this - having your own microphone can do wonders compared to built-in microphones. Hopefully I’ll be able to understand my slurred and sleepy voice easier.
I also found a picture of the item taken apart so that I could get a feel for its actual size using the USB jack as reference. The buttons on the side appear to be much easier to use in the dark, as that is when I record my dreams in the middle of the night and early in the morning. One of the features advertised on ebay was that you could drag-and drop documents rite from the device as if it were a mass storage device. This is a selling point, as it is exactly what I was looking for. No need to install junk software. I can also drag files onto the device other then audio.
One downside is that it records in Windows Media Audio (WMA). But from what I have found, there are not any digital voice recorders out there that record in MP3 format. I shouldn’t have any problems converting WMA directly to MP3 though. My current W-10 records in WAV. Before I can convert it to MP3, I have to convert it to a different type of WAV format. It gets confusing for me to go through that part of the process. The quality of WMA is rite up there with near CD quality at 44kHz and can record in Stereo or Mono.
So in the end, I spent US $99.99 + $8.99 for shipping from Ohio on eBay (Item 9720797974).
May 4th, 2006 at 2:38 am
[…] I recently pulled out my W-10 Digital Voice Recorder and started grabbing the old files from it. I immediatley found two things that I just hated about this thing. First - the speed at wich files are transfered to the computer is very slow. The other is these thwap sounds. The recorder inserts these high noises of clicks, thwaps and scratches. I eventaully found a program to help me edit the files to remove the sounds called Audacity. The thing is, these sounds shouldn’t be there in the first place. Hopefully with the WS-200S that I just purchased, these problems will not be apparent anymore. […]