Review on Sony TCM-200DV Voice Recorder - Standard Cassette Model (Discontinued by Manufacturer) by Yung Kaelin

As a high school journalism teacher, I often have students use a tape recorder for interviews. I have always been happy with Sony products and have had excellent results with the Sony TCM-150. During this school year I bought four more recorders and decided on the Sony TCM-200DV. This is a minor upgrade over the 150. The 200DV includes three additional features. 1) It has an external microphone jack (which I never use). [Note: The internal microphone is located on top of the recorder and is multi-directional so it clearly picks up both your voice and that of the other party.] 2) It also has variable speed playback controls. This feature is particularly useful when transcribing interviews. This allows you to slow down what's being said without having to constantly stop and rewind. 3) Finally, it has a record/playback mode that allows you to double the recording time of a cassette. For example, if you have a 90 minute tape, you can set the slider to "Double" and get 90 minutes of recording time per side of the tape. Rarely do any of my student interviews last longer than 45 minutes, but this is a nice feature. My only problem is the price. A year ago I bought a 150 for half the price of a 200DV. I don't use function 1 or 3 and the 200DV still doesn't have a counter (like the 150). You must decide whether these additional features justify the additional cost. This recorder uses a standard size audio cassette and runs on two AA batteries. For recording spoken words, this is a great little voice recorder that does the job more than adequately. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED