Olympus LS-10 Linear PCM Recorder

Olympus LS-10 Linear PCM Recorder
"Digital recording that sounds better than a CD" is how Olympus touts the LS-10, which records MP3, WMA, or uncompressed wav files via two integrated stereo mics. Studens, journalists, podcasters, and musicians should also know this compact beauty is shirt-pocket-friendly, one-handed operational, and records audio that approaches studio levels at an alluring sub-$400 price.
The LS-10's exceptional ease of use comes by way of a blacklit 1.8-inch LCD, jog dial, intiutive menus, and smart design touches. On the LS-10's left, for example, you can manually adjust recording levels, set microphone sensitivity to Low (indoor/band demos) or High (outdoors/conferences), and active a Low Cut filter that minimizes low-frequency levels. A list button display recording, which save up to five folder (200 files each). An additional Music folder holds transfered songs for playback via headphones or the LS-10's two stereo speakers (decent quality; weak volume). There's also a configurable Fn button; tripod connector; mini USB port; and mic, line-in, 3.5mm headphone, and remote jacks.
WAV recordings top out at 96KHz, 24-bit; MP3s at 320KBps;and WMAs at 160Kbps. My indoor (office, living room, conference room) and outdoor (backyard, street intersection, ballpark) recording possessed impressive clarity, solid volume levels, and a wealth of surprising sound nuances. A WAV recording from my backyard, for example, captured the low-level humming and buzzing of a guitar amp and the bright chirping of birds with equal clarity. Files I burned to CD were also impressive. Overall, I preferred manually adjusting recording levels over auto adjustments.
Olympus includes Steinberg Cubase LE4 editing software and integrates hit-and-miss Reverb (Normal, Studio, Hall, Club, Dome) and Euphony (Normal, Natural, Wide, Power) playback effects. A Zoom Mic setting can also apply Wide (surround sound), Standard, Narrow, and Zoom parameter to recordings. Despite lacking extras (namely XLR jacks) that some more-expensive competitors offers, the LS-10 provides numerous high-end features at a price that's not high end.
by Blaine Flamig
Specs: Two wind screens included; Rated battery life: 12 hours (2 AA); 2GB onboard storage; stores up to 3:10 (hours:minutes) uncompressed WAV files; SD slot (support up to 8GB cards).
source: Computer Power User October 2008.
www.olympus.com