Olympus Digital Voice Recorder DM-520

I'm amending my initial review -- I decided to keep the DM-520 after all because of its outstanding features when used as Olympus intends it to be used. (I've been using the DM-520 for about a month.)

Initially I'd planned to use this recorder for dictation -- but, that's not it's intended market. It really is meant to be a recorder for music (live performance, vocals, instrument practice, etc.). I've been using it to record guitar lessons with my instructor, and I love it for that purpose. In this context, I set up the recorder at the beginning of the lesson and stop recording at the end of the hour lesson. Playback is phenomenal -- I'm using WMA "SP" mode and the sound is great. The 8 gig Micro-SDHC card I put in has almost 1,000 hours of storage using the WMA SP format (less capacity, of course, when recording in stereo and "high quality" modes).

I would not,however, use this recorder for dictation, which was my original intent. I'm very impressed with the...Read more

I needed this primarily for recording personal coaching sessions both in person and on the phone. I wanted a stereo recorder that saved files in a non-proprietary format such as WMA or MP3, and I needed it to run on an external AC power supply as well as on batteries. This is one of very few recorders that meets those requirements.

At first I was disappointed because, out of the box, you cannot make recordings while it's plugged in to the power supply. The default configuration assumes that when the USB connector is plugged in to the power supply, you are really doing file transfer rather than recording. In this respect, my old Olympus DS-40 is better, because the external power supply connects to a mini power jack that is separate from the USB port. Another non-intuitive difficulty I encountered in using the power supply is that it will NOT recharge the internal batteries unless you hold the "STOP" button down while plugging in the power supply.

It...Read more

At the outset, let me say that I am not the typical user for whom the DM-520 was designed. For example, I don't categorize my music into playlists, albums and artists. I simply have a bunch of diverse audio files, including music, that I've successfully transferred to the device for my listening enjoyment, and the device plays it all beautifully. Because of my prior successful experience with Olympus DVR's, I was impressed when I read about the improvements included on the DM-520, specifically:

(1) The increased memory to 4GB, plus the additional SD memory card feature.
(2) The convenience of using two AAA rechargeable batteries.
(3) The improved stereo microphone.


The opening screen on the DM-520 indicates the three major sections for holding recorded data:

(1) Recording
(2) Music
(3) Podcast

Like some of their other models, the Recording section has 5 folders available for making recordings...Read more