Which Digital Voice Recorder Should I Buy?

With a huge range of digital voice recorders to choose from you will likely spend many an hour researching the pros and cons of each one, compare their features, check compatibility and find features you may or may not need. But the type of digital voice recorder, notetaker or dictaphone is often overlooked.

In one of our first blog posts on our new USA centric digital voice blog we do a run down of the various Olympus digital voice recorders, what they are good for and of key importance the difference between a digital dictaphone and a digital notetaker.

Going Digital - Compare The Olympus Dictaphones

Olympus, the leaders in digital voice in Australia and most other parts of the world, have three digital dictaphones in their Pro and advanced range of digital voice recorders. Typically used by single speakers (people who dictate on their own) to record letters, notes etc these are popular in the medical and legal sectors.

Digital dictaphones differ from digital notetakers in that they can stop and start audio, emulating the old style tape recorders - whereas notetakers are designed to record with a defined start and stop, e.g. when recording interviews, meetings, lectures and focus groups.

In the Olympus range are three digital dictaphones - DS-2400, DS-3400 and DS-5000. In our latest blog post we compare these three in detail and explain the differences between each. We also offer some advice for people looking to upgrade from analogue tape dictaphones to digital.

In Australia these digital dictaphones are only available from authorised Olympus Pro dealers, look for this logo when shopping in Australia. Dictate Australia ( www.dictate.com.au ) is an Olympus Gold Pro Dealer.

DS-5000 & AS-5000 Set To Launch August 2008 In Australia

We reported back in March that the sunset for the amazing DS-4000 digital dictaphone and the AS-4000 digital transcription kit was fast approaching.




The next generation of top of the line digital dictaphones from Olympus will soon make their debut in Australia. The DS-5000 and DS-5000iD professional digital dictaphones along with their very own transcription kit the AS-5000 look to be coming the middle of August.

As reported in the Olympus press release the DS-5000 will replace the DS-4000 and the AS-5000 will replace the AS-4000. Interestingly the DS-5000 will not be compatible with the older AS-4000 transcription kits, users looking to move to the DS-5000 will need to replace all their kit.