Olympus DS330 Digital Voice Recorder

The black Olympus Digital Voice Recorder DS-330 ($150 street) has a highly readable LCD, thanks to a bright backlight that turns on when you press any of the controls. Short playback mode records for two hours 35 minutes. Long Playback mode records for an ample 5:30 and voice quality is still acceptable. You can connect the DS-330 to your computer either directly, via the included USB cable, or by inserting the recorder into the supplied USB dock. Either way, you can easily play files, move them to or from the unit, and convert them from their native DSS (Digital Speech Standard) format to WAV format using the bundled DSS Player software. And to help with manual transcription, the program also offers user-definable function keys for stopping, playing, rewinding, and so on. One notable feature of both the recorder and the software is noise cancellation. In our tests, it made words easier to hear above background noise, which helps make the DS-330 a good choice for recording in less than ideal conditions.