While Olympus isn't my favorite brand for digital cameras, when it comes to digital audio recorders they do make some of the best. Earlier this week I had ordered an Olympus DS-2 Digital Voice Recorder, which turns out to be a very fine product. The Olympus DS-2 has a built in stereo microphone, 64MB of on-board memory, and a large back-lit LCD display. With the 64MB of on-board memory and five different quality modes, the total recording time can range from 1 hour to 22 hours in LP mode. One of the minor complaints about the DS-2 is the inability to use any memory cards to extend its recording capacity, but two hours of recording length in high quality mode is good enough for my purposes.

Shipping with the recorder is a wealth of accessories. The DS-2 had included a recorder base, DSS player software, two batteries, USB cable, earbuds, user manual, and a DS-2 carrying case. When ordering the DS-2 I was not aware that the carrying case was included, so I ended up ordering one individually from B&H Photo Video, so now I got two.

The Olympus DS-2 Digital Voice Recorder can record in either DSS and WMA file formats and then can be transferred to a computer via USB 2.0. The included USB cable can either connect directly into the bottom of the recorder or can connect into the Olympus base. The USB interface for the DS-2 is not the standard USB mini-B.

On the front of the Olympus DS-2 is the large LCD display along with buttons for record, stop, rewind, play, and fast forward. On the right hand side are additional controls with a volume increase and decrease and then on the left hand side is the hold button, which doubles as the on/off switch.

At the top of the DS-2 are the two microphones while on the bottom is the speaker as well as the battery compartment. At the top of the recorder is also an input jack for connecting the DS-2 to a microphone.

The Olympus DS-2 is very easy to control and had got the time set along with adjusting all of my settings in just a few minutes. The controls were very easy to figure out, and the on/off switch once realizing it was the hold switch as it isn't documented in the manual. The recording quality for the Olympus DS-2 was also great and among the best I have heard for hand-held sub-$150 digital voice/audio recorders. While minor, my only complaints for the device were the lack of no memory card support, no USB mini-B interface, and it would be excellent if the Olympus DS-2 was rechargeable. The two AAA batteries are supposed to last for 18 hours of recording, but it would have been frosting on the cake if the DS-2 was rechargeable. Nevertheless I feel the Olympus DS-2 is a terrific audio recorder for $90~100 USD.