Review on 🎙️ OM Digital Solutions VN-722PC Voice Recorders: Convenient 4GB Built-In-Memory for Superior Audio Recording by Bob Randles

I bought this unit specifically to record calls for an audio blog/podcast. To my dismay, I found that when recording, the recorder picks up background noise directly through the unit's line-in jack and amplifies it to a level that makes listening to the recorded conversation problematic. It generated very loud white noise, "hiss", static, and other background noise as loud as the recorded conversation. I've tried various input methods, including the Hello Direct media interface, connecting directly to a phone, and even using a portable phone's audio jack. All methods resulted in the same unacceptable background noise. Thinking there might be something wrong with my phone equipment, I went out and bought a Sony ICD-UX533 audio recorder. This is a high end recorder (and looks different) than the Sony ICD-PX333 (don't be confused). The Sony recorder has a "Line-In" mode because it asks the question "Mic or Line-In?". when connecting the input to the audio input jack. Using Sony's "Line In" mode, the phone's sound was exceptional and approached studio quality. In "Mic In" mode, the quality was only marginally better than that of the Olympus recorder. My guess is that the recorder's electronics handle the input offset differently depending on the input mode selected. In any case, the Olympus dictation recorder was useless for recording telephone conversations via the audio input. Although Olympus has a device that lets you record with a plug-in mic-headphone, I wanted something higher than a tiny mic with direct audio input. I should also note that none of the Olympus settings (noise filter, phone input, etc.) improved the result. To that end, the Sony machine is head and shoulders above Olympus. If you want to use recorded phone audio through the line-in, don't buy an Olympus - you ship it back.