RCA RP5140 1GB USB 276 Hour MP3 Recording Digital Voice Recorder

I received the recorder quicker than I expected, and it works great!
I suggest using the Microphone (included) instead of the built-in mic if recording a meeting, and play around with the 'sensitivity' setting. I use "high" for meetings and med or low if I'm just recording my own lecture (if I'm wearing the microphone).
Best of all, its in mp3 format... only improvement I can think of is to have the memory on a removable card so you could just plug it into a computer - as is, you have to fool around with a usb cable - I love this gadget. - it will also play mp3's.

I bought this on the strength of H. Rosser's review, and am glad to say that it has turned out to be a good buy. Small and easy to handle, I like the fact that I can transfer the recordings as mp3 files directly through a USB connection to my computer. Playback of sound on the recorder itself is pretty shoddy, of course, but the sound quality of the recording is good on my computer. I've even recorded myself playing music; and while the music playback leaves a lot to be desired, it's good enough for practice purposes. It's a great voice recorder, picks up sound from a couple yards away. If you're looking for a good music recorder, you should probably search for something more high-end. Only real complaint: the display screen has small type that's hard to read, but once you've got your settings programmed in, you probably won't have to use the interface much anyway. I definitely recommend it.

I wish only to add a few thoughts to the above reviews.

Not only is it a great little recorder, it is a great little player. It has 6 folders for recording into, and a music folder for playback. However, I have found that the music folder is not the only folder where you can deposit files. I have an audio book cd that I converted to 128kb mp3 files, with names like cd1-01..cd5-13 and I've placed them in folder 6. On startup, it loads the directories of all folders, apparently alphabetically, and so it retains the correct order of files I placed there.

The advantage of placing files in folder 1-6 is that bookmarks then work; they don't have any affect in the music folder. Fast forward is also different in the number folders. If you hold down ff for 30 seconds of elapsed time (but it takes about 7 seconds real time) it then begins to skip by minutes quickly. In the music folder it does not do this, but skips faster, about 15x. I had at first thought I needed to...Read more