OM SYSTEM OLYMPUS VN-541PC Digital Voice Recorder

The Olympus VN-541PC is small and lightweight & does exactly what I need it to do. It records my voice for note taking with out distracting me from driving. I can reach for it easily, find it, find the REC button and slide it into ON position and within about 1.5 seconds the things is recording. It notifies of this with a tiny beep. I do not need to look away from the road for even a moment. It is also easy to operate in total darkness such as when I wake up in the middle of the night and need to record a thought or a dream. I have 2 of these, one for the house and one for the car. Mine record in WMA format. I wanted the companion model that records MP3 but no one had it in stock when I was shopping. The difference is negligible as both formats are common and easily heard on the computer. The WMA unit has 4 record settings, for extremely long events in VERY compressed and ugly sound; memo for notes to myself when the mic can be held close to my mouth; talk, for recording an interview for example, and the highest setting does a descent job at only 20 kbps IIRC. I would use this for grabbing a lecture. I don't think I would use this device for seriously recording music, but that was not my intention, nor was it designed for this. I have better machines for that purpose. I have not run down a battery yet, but the specs lead me to believe it is excellent. I expect that the MP3 model would perform similarly. My only reservation with Olympus audio recorders in the past is that they may not last, as was the case with my (forget the model) which was a much more expensive machine and I did use that one for recording music. It developed an issue with the SD card reader. I sent it in for service under the warranty and had it back shortly, but the same issue redeveloped after the warranty had expired. So I used it as a player only until it failed completely. These newer machines do not have a card, they have internal memory only. I hope they will not develop a similar problem, but at only $40 it is not such a catastrophe if they fail. Files can be dumped into the computer using a basic USC cord.

These are very handy recorders that are nice for a lot of things, including when speaking to some agent about complicated things concerning tech while on the phone or recording my last 10 bank transactions when I have questions about my account balance. They're also great for keeping a dream journal due to their quick and easy operation. And being an old guy, it's way easier to grab one of these than trying to find a pen and paper to write things down; just flip one switch and then play it back later to retrieve the particulars...Also, one thing that goes well with it is a simple (and inexpensive) lanyard to have the practicality of wearing it around the neck.Get one, you'll like it!

when I searched reviews and questions for mac or apple, I saw some people saying, yes it's compatible! and others giving one star reviews saying it's not compatible.well i JUST opened this, did a quick test recording and then hooked it up to my macbook air. The icon for this recorder showed on my desktop, I found and opened the file, and it's in m4a, which isn't compatible with apple's quicktime. But you can then easily google "convert m4a to mp3" or whatever format you want if you dont want mp3 and youll see plenty of free websites that convert the file easily and freely (but i dont know what the data conversion limit is - like would it convert a half hour conversation for free?). you just drag over the m4a file into the website that does free conversions, choose what file type you want to convert it to, and then click download.for me, converting to mp3 made the file open in music (formerly called itunes), and if i converted to (i think) aac it opened in the books app.might depend on your computer etc. the sound i thought was crappy until i googled how to raise the volume. the sound quality of just my voice was pretty good when i opened it in apple music! i haven't tested it talking with someone else.i love that you can just quickly toggle the recording button and it starts recording, no fumbling or waiting. it did automticaly prompt me to set date and time which i did easily, but i see when i oened the m4a file on my computer, it showed like a 2016 date or something, not july 9 2021 as i had put.So.......this might be good if i want to snippet something down, as a backup to my iphone voice memos app. BUt...i'm leery of always having to convert m4a to another file type, just not knowing how heavy the files will be and if converting the files will always be free. so if i had to record an important half hour conversation, i dont know if this would work. i guess i'll just have to test it. i LOVE the simplicity of it though.in the voice memos app on my iphone, if i record something in voice memo i could just email the recording to myself, i dont have to hook anything up - this machine doesnt have that. but i was planning to use this to record phone calls, which i cant do with voice memos while im on a call.i know my review isn't complete bc i havent fully tested it yet but just wanted to get this out there for macbook people. im inclined to search for something like this machine - simple - that outputs file types that are apple compatible just for ease of use. but it's lightweight and seems like battery is long lasting and easy to use (besides having to do the file conversion which is annoying) so if i cant find anything better i'll keep it.

This is excellent, it ticks all my boxes - except. for. I would trade battery life for a back-lit display. But, it's easy enough to use that _while you're recoding_ you don't have to see the display at all. Hit the *ONE CLICK RECORD* button and you're rollin'. (BEST feature in the unit)Recording quality is fine for me but I dinged it a star because I know it won't be good for everyone. The unit wants to be both near field and event wide, those require two totally different approaches to capturing sound. The unit does fine but your bootlegs may not be as good as the Grateful Dead shows you got in the 70s.Bottom line: Yeup!

I keep this unit in my shirt pocket most of the time. I find that when I am driving a car, I frequently think of things I need or want to do, or have ideas. This is a great way to capture them. My first unit worked well, until I dumped it in some water. I have kept my current recorder dry and it is working fine.I find that the "music" setting gives the best sound reproduction. Additionally, I can play back dictations made with the music setting into my iPad dictation (Pages). Comes out pretty much correct. Interesting!