Since my classes for Law School start this week I figured I’d pick up a new toy to record my classes…obviously I went with a Sony.

It includes the device, a zipper case (fake leather), USB Cable, headphones, 2 AAA batteries, CD {Software}, and manuals.

The ICD-ST25 is not MS based but internal memory based. The retail price was around $140, the MS based ones were $250 and $300 and I couldn’t justify the hike.

Specs: {battery}
Stereo (85 min) {13 hours}
SP (260 min) {15 hours}
LP (695 min) {18 hours}

You get 5 folders (perfect, because I have 5 classes) and up to 495 recordings. You can record one message after another, before, or in between recordings. You can split recordings into multiple ones.

It has a line-in so I can hook up another source and record directly. It includes software for the PC so you can send the sound files to your PC or hook it up to Dragon Naturally Speaking and it will type out the recordings for you.

It also has several other advanced features which I am not familiar with including auto record and an alarm.

I guess I could also use it to record 85 minutes of music and use it as a Mp3 player as well…something to thing about.

I haven’t used it in a lecture yet, or with Dragon, but from basic recording and PC connectivity, I am very happy with this unit, even on it’s lowest setting…SP. Once you use it for a few minutes you can do almost anything you want with ease, it’s intuitive.

If you need to record lectures, or dictate letters, and do not need removable media, this is a great option. Be careful of the cheaper ones from Sony, they cannot hook up to a PC and your memos are stuck on the device.

Erik

nice review .. thank you tifosiv122:)

good luck in law school.

i’m a idiot that spent 300 for the icd-ms515..  :oops:

Thanks. If the $300 one took MS PRO I might have done it, but I have no more plain sticks and didn’t want to buy any more…

Have you tried the Voice to Text?

Erik

I’d be very interest in the speach-to-text conversion. A freind of mine is a nurse and wants to put together a bluetooth headset > PDA > Wifi > Laptop solution for charting patients.

before i purchased it..i was under the impression that i will be able to convert the lectures into text… it does do that but the recorder would have to “learn” the voice of the speaker(s). i doubt any of my instructors will be willing to do that.. yeah it doesn’t support pro but i can get about 17h 14m out of a 128mb(which is more than enough for me since i tranfer it to my tr and convert it to mp3 when i’m home).

I figured as much…I really just want to archive them, not really type them out. As far as the 128 goes, I realize it should be enough, but I don’t have any sticks lying around, I gave them away…all Pro Duo for me now…

Erik

will that be accurate tho? i mean the speech to text engine or whatever.. i’ve the the one that comes with Windows Xp.. it was a hassle.. hmm i dont know maybe some other companies has a better technology already.

They’ve been beating the speech-to-text horse for years now. I was hoping something had changed. I’m sure the gov’ment has something, but suspect it takes a lot of those horses.

Update:

I no longer use this for class, OneNote works just too well to need something like this. So, for about 4 weeks now, it’s been sitting in my desk collecting dust.

On another note, I have been looking for a basic solid-state Mp3 player to just throw around. I was looking for something from sony, NW-MS11 or NS-MS7, but the ebay prices are still $50ish, which in my mind is too much to spend on a basic player.

It hit me that this device could play Mp3’s…cool.

I did a test run…a 1 hour 6 minute album…63.7 MB of Mp3s.
I converted them through the given program (drag and drop).

Please remember, the player has 29.9 MBs of space.

Finished result: 5.6 MB free, 24.3 MBs used. It compressed it by 61.9%

It is in ST mode (for some reason its the only mode it will convert to).

Personally, it sounds just like my other players did. In no way am I any sort of audio critic, I grew up with cassettes. It is good enough for me to listen to.

So, it fit one full album and I still have some room to put a few more songs…

Again, I am glad I bought this, it now has another purpose.

Erik