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

I bought this to record forensic examinations I do. So people may be speaking quietly, whispering, crying etc. The initial couple of times I tried it, I could not get enough volume out of the internal mikes. I tried the different scene settings and still the sound wasn't there. It wasn't until I fought through the manual and found out how to use the monoraul zoom microphone setting that I was able to get acceptable sound from two people speaking in a modest size room. Which brings me to the manual. Of course, it's only on disk, so you either have to read it on screen or print it out. And it's written in Japanese English... "the functioning of the Euphony will be the sound enhanced." Thereby, making it next to useless when trying to drill down through the various menu settings to try to make adjustments. Olympus is a huge company--you think they could afford an English speaking technical writer.

The software that comes with it seems to be first-rate, enabling all...Read more