logo

Info

Reviewbucket.co.uk scanned the internet for Olympus WS-853 reviews.
You can find all Olympus WS-853 reviews and ratings on this page.

Read the reviews.

Analysis

For Olympus WS-853, 172 customer reviews collected from 3 e-commerce sites, and the average score is 4.1.

Detailed seller stats;
Amazon has 149 customer reviews and the average score is 4. Go to this seller.
Argos has 14 customer reviews and the average score is 4.6. Go to this seller.
Ebay has 9 customer reviews and the average score is 5. Go to this seller.

Detail

Click to list all products in this category.

Similar Items

17.4.2018

I do a lot of public speaking and thought that a voice recorder might help me improve my style and delivery. As I am no expert in audio technology I bought this recorder for two reasons: 1) I have owned Olympus cameras since the 1970's (why, oh why, did they lose their way in the immediate pre-digital and then, later, the digital age?) and 2) the video demonstration as to how to use this recorder convinced me that even a recording novice like me could obtain quality audio recordings.Olympus have obviously put a lot of thought into the menu layout - just for novices like me! It has preset senarioes such as: personal dictation, small group meetings, large group meetings and conferences.The unit adapts the built-in microphones to suit each situation and does so very well.The controls are simple to use but I would encourage all of you would are going to do me than press the record button to read the instructions and watch the informative, if brief, introductory video.For most purposes this recorder is more than adequate. The built in stereo microphones mean that most audio can be picked up provided the correct setting (small meeting, conference etc) is chosen before recording.I purchased am external microphone (see: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000BTAH62/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_51) also made by Olympus. I thought that I needed a better quality microphone to record my lectures and it did so but for the great majority of users the built-in microphone of the Olympus WS-853 MP3 will be more than sufficient.The unit is charged by plugging in the retractable USB plug which also allows for recordings to be downloaded to a computer and one of the main features that caused me to buy it in the first place.The shell is made of plastic and I would have preferred aluminium but I suppose there is a trade-off against quality and price. I prefer the weight of aluminum against plastic but that is just me being old school I suppose. The plastic used seems good - just don't drop it from any height or place any heavy weights on it - in other words use some common sense!Unless you intend to make radio broadcast quality recordings this is an ideal, easy to use, audio recorder.https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B013WBIW3K/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_55
Read more..

29.9.2015

I have to use a voice recorder in my job, in order to record candidates speaking French. It's important that the device I use is easy to use and produces understandable recordings. Having used various other devices this is the best so far as it combines simple operation with the ability to record in stereo and it has an integrated USB stick so that you can offload files to your computer. It also has an SD card slot should you require additional memory to the 4GB which it already has as internal memory.This is not a rechargeable model, for that you will need to purchase the WS-853, but it comes supplied with 2 AAA batteries and there's a paper manual with full instructions.I found it reallyeasy to work out how to set the recorder up with date and time and set to English; it takes you through the steps the first time you switch it on. The display albeit not back lit, is really clear and the font is a good size. The buttons are well laid out and the menus for using all the features are fairly intuitive. You can set up the recorder to deal with different environments from meeting, to dictation or conference and you can also adjust the recording volume and output on playback. There's a port for microphones and headphones and you could use it to record phone calls if necessary.I've found for my needs the meeting mode is ideal and I can use it to record without it being too obtrusive. The display shows you how much talk time you have left - mine is at 65 hours; which should be plenty of time! Should you wish to retrieve a specific recording easily you can search by date to locate it easily. You should note that though the instructions make no mention of windows 10 it works perfectly with this and also windows 8. It also is OS compatible.I've been impressed by the clarity of recordings I am able to achieve with this device and I also like the way that you don't need any cables; just slide a button in the rear and the USB stick pops out. It's all really well made and lightweight and well finished.It's a shame it doesn't come with a carry pouch but for my needs it's perfect and a huge improvement on what I had before. If you need something to dictate notes or record meetings this device is really very good.
Read more..

19.7.2016

Tried this in the following interview environments:1. In a gazebo during a heavy rain storm surrounded by chatty people with babies taking shelter.2. With a softly spoken man (seriously, the man speaks in lullaby) in a coffee shop with excessively loud music playing.3. In bed (that was just me)The gadget triumphed in all environments, clearly recording interviewees voices for easy transcription, largely reducing background banter & music. I am actually surprised that I didn't have to get a dictaphone with a metronome and a built-in karaoke system to get this kind of quality. Even the interface, buttons and filing system are intuitive — you just have to get used to a screen that doesn't give off light.It works perfectly with Mac.On the question of the built-in USB,yes it is a little awkward. You have to prop the dictaphone up quite carefully to take pressure off the USB port and the dictaphone as it hangs off the computer, and I've actually had horrid nightmares about damaging my dictaphone in the process. However, the convenience of having the option to plug in and download your recordings far outweighs the awkwardness and the lost sleep, which you can solve with the microSD card you probably have already.Is it worth the current £60? Well, let's see how long it lasts. If it lasts a few years, absolutely :)PS Oh and if you happen to have a Mac Mini on the left side of your desk, the dictaphone's screen with face away from you when you plug it in, for what that detail is worth to you.
Read more..

5.8.2017

This Olympus VN-541 Digital Voice Recorder might not have the look of my old-style Olympus analogue cassette voice recorder but it is cheaper, doesn't need tapes and it has many more modern features than my older model. For around forty pounds you get a device that is an easy-to-use conventional voice/comms recorder that has useful features like one-touch recording, noise cancellation, selecting the type of audio source, and playback speed control. This model has 4 GB of flash memory and comes supplied with two AAA batteries, a micro USB cable and instructions; battery life should be around sixty hours and recording capacity over 1000 hours.Voice recording and playback are via the built-in microphone and speaker or by using some of the optional accessories, it can also be connected to your computer. This device also functions as a music player/recorder, should that be a function you require, and it can play WMA files. This is a good value recorder that features everything you need for portable recordings and is recommended to anyone looking for a modern and handy way to record memos, lectures, conversations or music. The Olympus VN-541 is perfect for beginners, students and those who are about to start using a digital voice recorder for the first time – an ideal device to use when you may choose not to use the audio recorder function on your expensive Smartphone.
Read more..

4.1.2016

First impressions - the sound is clear and has good bass. There is good noise cancelling. The dictaphone is senstivive to finger movements so if you are holding the dictaphone make sure not to move / rub your fingers against the casing, as it will record these sounds as obtrusive noises that are can be loud enough to mask the recording. The recordings are in MP3.There are a number of modes for recording your voice. I found that the best for me (hand-held dictaphone of just my voice) is the default setting that does not alter the dictaphone, that is, the "out-of-box" default. The setting called "Dictaphone" oddly is not as good as the default - in fact is is quite poor, not as clear,and you get a poor volume level even when transferred to PC with windows volume and speaker volume turned almost to full. The other voice settings: "meeting" and "conference, are as clear as the default, though "conference" has less bass.When holding the dictaphone while recording my voice I found that holding it just under my lips so the two mics point to my chin or just under it, allowed for a recording with no breathing noise.If you plan on connecting to a home PC to transfer files to desktop, consider buying a lead like the Coolcase USB extension cable, so that your dictaphone, when plugged in using the built-in USB plug, is not left dangling from the PC.
Read more..

7.10.2015

I bought an Olympus 832 earlier this year so was very interested to see if this model was an improvement.There are two key differences.One very good - there is now twice as much storage space so you can use it as a memory stick for projects as well as a recorder.One maybe less good it is now, or says it is, only for MP3 files and before there were wma and pcm files as well. Makes little difference to me but might be important for others.Other differences are it is marginally bigger, there is a rather nice little carry case.Things I particularly like about this are:it is so easy to use. Just stick it in and it is pretty intuitive.It has a black body and the instructions for buttons are easy toread - good for those of us on the older scale ...............You can optimise the recording by the type of meeting you are in.You can speed up playback if you need it.You can run it on the Olympus and normal batteries. Just need to let the machine know.The sound quality and pick up is excellent. So far have used it in a workshop as back up to my colleagues notes. It was a big room and could pretty well hear everything, have used it for one on one interview where it is truly excellent and for focus groups.Going forward this is going to be the new and preferred machine with the other one as back up.
Read more..

5.11.2015

This is certainly a small and neat device. Easy to slip into a pocket or handbag and unobtrusive to use for dictation or in a meeting.I haven’t used one of these before, so I am a complete novice, but I found this easy to set up and use. It takes two rechargeable batteries (supplied), which I haven’t had any problem with (so far), but it is a nice feature that you can easily insert ordinary alkaline batteries if you need to.Once you have inserted the battery and turned it on, recording is a simple matter of pressing the REC button and talking into the device. I used the Dictation “scene” at first, which I found to be very quiet on playback, so later switched to Meeting,which was better.Because it is so small and neat, the display screen is of necessity very small and there are some very small icons on it. I totally missed the Folder indicator (my eyes aren’t what they once were!), and had to go to their website and download the on-line manual to find out how to change folder. However, finding and downloading the manual was easy to do, and this also helped me resolve another problem ... getting the date to display in a UK format (it’s irritating that it defaults to US format).In summary, this is a small and neat device, which is easy to use and I am very pleased with it.
Read more..

28.8.2017

I have been using a 'Dictaphone' for my work for years, the machines I have owned had the tiny cassettes for recording. This had been all fairly satisfactory - until I tried this little Olympus recorder. Using this Digital Voice Recorder has been akin to coming out of the dark-ages into the 21st century!The machine itself is so light to carry, weighing far less than my mobile telephone and is very easy and quiet to use. There is none of the clunking and clicking of the old type of voice-recorder, this is excellent when working in a quiet environment. It is also very easy to operate and very straightforward to set up, even for someone who is not really tech-savvy (although I must say that the pictorial instructions sheet is not that easy to follow,thankfully it is quite obvious what goes where etc).The device comes with the requisite batteries and a USB cable/lead so that you can store recordings on your PC (as voice recordings).A lovely light, simple voice recorder that is easy to use - perfect.
Read more..

2.10.2015

Love this as I needed an mp3 player I got this for my guitar amp and I can use the USB pop out plug to connect to my PC and load in MP3 guitar backing tracks. As it has line out it connects easily to any line in via 1/8 inch jack plug. The quality is as expected from this brand and sounds great with punchy bass though it sounds very tinny with the built in speaker but thats for using it as a voice recorder which is fair. I found it extremely easy to use even before reading all the manual. Press record it records press stop it stops and press ok and it plays back what can be more simple then that?The playback volume is high enough to hear what your doing and the screen is very clear.Its very well built and feels like good quality too and works on a couple of AAA batteries. Also nice to have a micro SDHC card slot to expand the memory. My windows 7 64bit PC reads it ok without fuss and also readable on the new windows 10 system as I tried it on another PC. Top product.
Read more..

15.9.2017

This is a handy wee recorder - I got it for my mother, who has memory problems. I can record a wee message to remind her what time appointments are, what days people are visiting etc, and she only has to press the button to remind herself. This means I haven't needed to use any of the more advanced functions such as uploading files to a computer, so I can't really review how easily that works.The actual recording and playback are simple enough, with the buttons clearly marked and the one-hand operation being very useful in contrast to having to press a couple of things before you can record. You can fast-forward and backward through recordings, and there are different settings according to your surroundings and what you're recording.Very useful wee recorder if you're just looking for the basics, and the sound quality of both recording and playback is very impressive.
Read more..

12.10.2015

At the heart of this recorder is fantastic quality sound, which is as it should be. I use this in conjunction with Dragon speech recognition software to take notes when I'm on the move, and then send the audio files to Dragon when I'm back at my PC. The accuracy of using this machine versus an app on my iphone is significantly higher. Dead easy to set up and start using, the integrated USB connector makes it fast and simple to transfer files when back at the PC. Only (very) minor disappointment is that the unit is entirely plastic - I had hoped that the front plate would be metal to distinguish from some of the lower models in the range, but I suppose it retains the benefit of being super light.Runs off triple A batteries, which seem to last well and of course are easily available if you need to get a new set at short notice.
Read more..

31.7.2017

First thing I really like about this new digital recorder is the slide switch to record instead of a push button. The helps accidently pressing it and stopping the recording if its in a bag or pocket.The recordings are very clear with no background noise which I also really like so the noise cancelling does really work.You can choose for 4 types of recordings, memo, talk, music and long play.The 2 x AAA batteries that are needed are included and last up to 60hours and there’s 4gb of built in storage for the recordings.There’s a Micro USB lead included and I’ve tested this on Mac and PC and both connect and work fine.There’s a basic manual included but set up is really easy and intuitive andthere’s a standard registration card.Overall it’s a great little digital voice recorder that does and excellent job.
Read more..

21.10.2015

A simply great little audio recorder that I use to record thoughts etc. As the dog walks me round the countryside each morning!With a massive built in memory, excellent tonal range and ease of use this is ideal for my purpose.I particularly like the built in USB plug - no need for further adaptors.Works of two AAA batteries which seem to go on for ever.Plugging into my iMac it is recognised as an external hard drive, so any audio speech files can easily be dragged into any appropriate Application.With the aid of OS X 10.11 I have been able to get individual files transferred from speech to text documents; the quality of recordings is such that very little effort is required at the editing stagewith most speech recognised correctly.A very neat unit and so handy for audio note taking on the go!
Read more..

3.11.2015

I occasionally have to conduct interviews and recording the subject clearly is essential. Previously I have just used my phone for this which was an imperfect solution with questionable sound quality and getting the files onto my PC was a bit of a faff.The Olympus has proved to be a much better solution. The sound quality is perfect for my needs and the stereo mic means both sides of the conversation are well recorded.I think the best thing about this recorder, apart from the small size and light weight, is just how easy it is to use. To record you simply turn it on and hit record and most excitingly a USB connector slides out of the Olympus and plugs straight into my PC so I can get to thefiles without any fuss.For me this is the perfect recorder.
Read more..

23.8.2017

I purchased the recorder to record some interviews for my master thesis.I needed something very simple and easy but still reliable, as I didnt want to lose any of the interviews. The recorder has four folders which I used to store the interviews differently (I had several interviews during one day). Format is .wma.Battery Life was great, i didn't have to charge it during my seven interviews.The recorders comes bundled with a microUSB cable and two batterys, so ready to go.Further, it turns on immediatly when you push the slide switch button, perfect if your interview partner is saying something important what you don't wanna miss!

List All Products

Terms and ConditionsPrivacy Policy