Sony ICD-SX57 Digital Voice Recorder with 256 MB Built-in Flash Memory and USB
by Sony
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List Price: Buy Used: from $79.50 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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(Click here)
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sony ICD-SX57 Digital Voice Recorder with 256 MB Built-in Flash Memory and USB
Customer Review: So Far So Good
Summary: 4 Stars
Just bought this and it's been great so far. Still playing around with the settings. Love the wav and mp3 file formats. Software is very easy to use. The stereo mic(s) do a great job...sounds almost the same as
with my external mic!
Customer Review: Soney ICD-SX57 Digital Voice Recorder MINUS Dragon Software
Summary: 3 Stars
The recorder works well although noise is a little bit of a problem.
The main draw back is that it came without the Dragon software!
This was misleading in the advertizement and product discription.
On the product package itself it claims compatability with the Dragon software but says its not included and doesn't indicate which version of software it is compatible with.
When serveying to buy this product I was mislead trying to compare products and prices. Some included the Dragon S/W and the other ones that did not include the S/W generally did NOT indicate it, so I was mis-led for price comparisons.
Customer Review: OK, but just OK
Summary: 2 Stars
I am a journalist and use the device for recording interviews. The weakness of this device is the Sony proprietary file format.If they would only record in MP3 format you could download, file and play from your computer. Instead I back up on the computer, erase and if later I want to refer back I have to reinstall onto the device to play. It sucks, what were they thinking.Customer Review: Wont work with my Mac
Summary: 2 Stars
I should have known. I read a lot or reviews and this seemed to be the product for me. The description says it supports wav and mp3 formats. Problem is you have to run the software on a PC to get that to happen. The msv file format is not compatible with a Mac. Looks like this is going back.Customer Review: Love it...except for the exploding batteries
Summary: 1 Stars
I've been searching forever for an easy-to-use, reliable digital voice recorder to record sermons and other events for our church to podcast. Finally picked up one of these this week, and was thrilled with its easy operation and terrific recording quality in a few short tests. Today it also came through its first full-length sermon recording with flying colors. Looked like a total winner.
Then I came home, connected it to the computer, downloaded and edited the file, and left it connected for a couple of hours while I did some other work at my desk. After a while, I heard an odd fizzing sound. By the time I looked over to see what was making it, the sound had disappeared. Happened two more times. Finally, I touched the recorder to move it out of the way to get something else, and discovered it was blazing hot. I immediately yanked it off the USB cable and moved it off the papers it had been sitting on. Then I noticed a bluish-green drop of goo where the device had been sitting. After letting it "cool" for about 10 minutes (during which it actually stayed amazingly hot), I was able to touch it with bare fingers and I pulled out the batteries. They were very gooey and the paint on the labels had liquified.
Not a good sign for a brand new device. And, yes, I was using the Sony batteries that came packaged with the recorder, so there's no chance I used the wrong kind.
I'd love to give this thing five stars for the recording quality, size, ease of use, user interface and all those very good things. But it definitely gets a 0 for safety (can't imagine what might have happened if I hadn't been sitting there when it started to sizzle), and that's got to trump all else - can't burn down the house or church for the sake of a nice, crisp recording.
Addendum: The recorder comes with two non-rechargeable Sony AAA batteries. The instruction book warns you to make sure the batteries are installed before connecting it to the computer with the USB cable. But using the supplied non-rechargeable batteries while the device is connected causes the batteries to explode. (It has actually happened twice to me now - I tried it again a week after the incident described above, and the same thing happened...in less than 20 minutes.) I tried connecting it to the computer a third time, however, with NO batteries installed, and it worked fine...despite the instructions to the contrary in the manual. Also, I would presume that using rechargeable batteries would be a good alternative, since it's likely the non-rechargeables are exploding because the recorder is trying to charge them through the USB cable. The recorder does have a setting that allows you to turn off the battery charge function while the device is connected to the USB cable...but while this seems like a good solution, when I tried it with the non-rechargeable batteries, the computer didn't recognize the device when it was connected. So the best, safest option seems to be using nothing but rechargeable batteries...and keeping non-rechargeables away from the thing at all costs.