Olympus WS-400 Digital Recorder (White) Decide Now

My colleague and I compared notes on the Olympus WS-400 versus the Sony ICD-UX71 digital voice recorders for use by our undergraduate social science students, and here's a copy of what we agreed on:

Both the Sony and the Olympus have nearly identical features:
- 1GB storage
- stereo microphones
- USB direct connect
- 1 AAA battery
- about 2 seconds to start up

The Sony creates MP3 files, and the Olympus creates WMA files, but this is not a big problem for Mac users, since many of us have the free Flip4Mac download that automatically converts WMA files for Apple Quicktime player.

I think that the Olympus WS-400 is a better product for student interviewing, for the following reasons:

1) the Olympus has fewer buttons, and better placement of them

2) when you record on the Olympus, you can see the input sound levels on little bar charts, which confirms it's actually working

3) the Sony has a plastic cap that covers up the USB direct connect, which comes off and can easily be misplaced. But the Olympus uses a simple slider button to move the USB connector outside of the case, where you can use it. No parts to lose!

4) when I connected both units to PC and Mac computers, both units appeared on the screen within seconds, but the Olympus had a simpler file structure (only one level) to locate the recorded files.

5) Based on my simultaneous recording test, the sound quality was very similar on the PC, but better for the Olympus on the Mac (not sure why). For file size, the Olympus is about 2/3 the size of the Sony files (I think, because the default sound quality level on Sony is 192k, while the Olympus is 128k)

6) The Olympus is a better price.

If you buy the Olympus, one very simple but important setup instruction: the AAA battery has a thin transparent plastic covering that must be removed before inserting it into the unitGet more detail about Olympus WS-400 Digital Recorder (White).