Sony ICD-SX700 Digital Voice Recorder with Voice Operated Recording

This little recorder rocks. There's a lot to say about it.

For my recording needs, it replaced an aging but awesome iRiver H120 (20 GB recorder capable of recording 44/16 or MP3, plus playback of many audio file types. I found nothing that would do everything the iRiver did, so I split the job up. Bought an iPod for listening to music and the Sony for recording.

My recording needs are smaller than my recording ego. I'd love a Marantz PMD 661, but have no way to justify it or the price. I needed a recorder to handle 1- to 4-part vocal practices, with from 1-50 people, without having to pay a lot of attention to tweaking levels to get a quality recording. I wanted more than "recognizable," I wanted "listenable." The Sony got it right.

Sony did all that and surprised me with more flexibility than I expected. I had been debating between this and the Olympus LS-10. At the time I purchased, I was able to find the Sony online new for $70, versus the...Read more

I needed a voice recorder that could be used mainly for recording lectures from about 40-50 feet away as well as some dictation. I also wanted to be able to make high-quality recordings for the occasional podcast. The ICD-SX700 seemed to fit the bill, and in most ways it does. However, it had a couple of design flaws that ultimately made it unusable for me, but might still work well for you. Similar to a previous review, I compared this to an Olympus LS-10, and ultimately stuck with the LS-10.

First, the good. There are plenty of recording formats available. The CD-quality PCM format is what I used for most of my testing, as the LS-10 has the same quality level (44/16). The built-in mics are great on this device, and it was able to pick up a lecture at 40 feet clearly; it was pretty much the same quality as the LS-10. The zoom function on the LS-10 made it a little clearer. For some reason, Adobe Soundbooth was able to clean up the LS-10's file a little better...Read more

I've spent a week with my new 700 and I give it two thumbs up. I'm very critical on gear, and this little unit is hard to find fault with. So, let's get down to it. As a voice note-taker , it has everything you need. Set at mono and on one of the lesser recording types, you have days of recording time. Organizing your recordings into files is easy. If you get the D model, you get the software to do automatic voice to text conversion. Where the fun begins is with using the 700 as a Field-recorder. It has 10 different recording modes. In CD quality 44.1Khz 16Bit linear, you get 1.5 hours of flawless recording. It is the same as if you used a rack-full of digital recording equipment. The on-board mics sound excellent. One note, they (the mics) have the bass lowered a bit to accommodate voice recording, so if you plan to to field to CD recording of live music, I would get a simple stereo hand mic. You can plug it right into the 700. Mode-wise, 44.1khz/16bit gives the best results for...Read more