FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
This recorder does a very good job. I have read other reviews about it saying it did not do a good job on recording conferences. But I feel that is because the user did not have the setting correct. There are two settings Dictation and another setting for group settings. What they are in layman terms one setting is for close up and one is for recording items farther away.
I was happy with the recording.
WHAT ABOUT THE MANUAL?
Well the manual is good and bad. You probably will need to read it a couple of times to figure the device out.
There are some features that are very important to know that are not in there. Like how do you pause? You push the ok key when you are listening, that stops what you are hearing, push it again to continue. Well that is not in the manual.
WHAT ABOUT THE MUSIC PLAYER.
Well if you get half way through a pod caste and want to listen to another podcast and return to the one you were listening to you are out of luck. The cue on this device is nervwracking. It does not work like a tape player with two forward and two reverse cue speeds. It only cues seconds ahead each forward press. This ends up taking you too long to get where you want, and press it just wrong and it takes you to the next song and you have to start over. Ahhhhhh They need to fix that part.
There are controls both for equalization and bass. You can increase the base.
DO YOU RECOMMEND ANY ACCESSORIES?
I would recommend buying a separate case for it. I bought one for memory cards made by Lowepro that has a powch on the right side where the recorder can fit. On the left are two pockets. One holds the earphones and one holds the airport adapter and the USB extender cables that come with this.
WHAT OTHER COOL FACTORS DOES THE DEVICE HAVE?
One of the coolest factors of this is how easy it is to hook up to sync to a lap top or other device. You slide part of the device sideways and you have a exposed usb port.
The syncronization with windows media player is magic.
If you want to use Apples site then you will need an mp4 converter. But the one I have does a lousy job so its really more suited to using mp3 and wma compatible sites.
WHAT ABOUT THE LCD SCREEN?
The LCD screen is adequate.
I really like the backlight.
Overall I recommend this device.
WHAT CAN I USE IT FOR?
- Podcaste creation
- Recording sounds for a Sampler
- Recording notes to yourself, there are five folders to store notes in. However the names are static, you cant change them to more user friendly names.
WHAT ELSE WAS CONFUSING ABOUT IT?
To turn off the unit you press hold. Why not put a hold/off text there. Thats confusing isnt it?
DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER COMMENTS?
The volume controls work as expected.
Hope you find this review helpful.
I am happy with mine.
Its easy to use for the non tech type person and complex enough for the techies out there.
TO CLARIFY: I bought the ws-321m, the 1gb version of this recorder, but everything, literally everything, is the same, except for the storage capacity. The instruction manual it comes with even says that it's for the 300m (256mb), the 311m (512), and the 321m (1gb).
So.....this thing is awesome! It's very easy to learn how to use and use, and it's really small and lightweight. The music is surprisingly rich in sound when you play it through earphones. It even sounds good when you play it off the speaker, though understandably not as rich. It has bass and equalizers, etc. The one problem, which is really minor, is that I haven;t been able to find a way to search through the library while I'm listening to a song, because the button you press to go through folders normally serves a different function when the music is playing. So, you have to stop the song and then go to the folder/song from there. But it's not such a big deal.
Very cool features: Of course, the USB immediate connectivity with no cables and the cool factor of popping the piece off and sliding it right into your computer cannot be understated and goes without saying.
But the index marks feature is quite useful as well - you can actually set markers down wither while you're recording or when you're listening to the playback (even during a song) and quick skip back and forth to them as you desire.
Oh, and recording quality is great and awesome.
All in all, an extremely nifty little recorder and I'm EXTREMELY happy with my purchase.
I bought my WS-300M about one month ago and use it practically every day for a few hours. I love it. It's beautifully designed, expertly documented in the instruction manual, easy to use, versatile, and interfaces flawlessly with my computer.
I mainly use it for on-the-fly recording of original songs I sing and play on my acoustic guitar. I use the built-in stereo mics. I have found the sound quality surprisingly good.
I've dropped it a few times, and it survived without damage.