Review on 🎙️ Olympus DS-2400 Voice Recorder for Efficient Dictation (142015) by Mick Ohlrogge

I have been using Olympus recorders for a long time and the features this recorder offers are really impressive. See the Sperazza review for more details. Everything about the hardware seems great. However, in order to play the .DS2 files you create on this device, you need Olympus' proprietary software, which you get ONLY on the CD that came with the device (you can't download it from their website - website won). I won't even give you the latest version number). I installed the software on my office computer, which is a fairly standard Windows XP installation, and I couldn't use it to play DS2 files. I tried to open the file but nothing happened. The program could work with other file formats (WMA and MP3), but not with DS2. No error message - just no reaction. After a few attempts to manipulate the DS2 file, it finally told me that the file didn't exist or could not be found, although I could easily find it in my directory. I called Olympus support where a nice gentleman kindly informed me that there is a bug in the software that makes it unreliable when used with a networked device. My office computer is connected to the network and that's where I want to use it. And of course without working software the device is useless because as far as I can tell almost no non-Olympus software can handle DS2 files and that's the only file type the DS-2400 can create. So, despite the excellent feature set, I will be returning it to Revain. I advise you to do all possible research to determine if the software will work on your computer before purchasing. If you intend to use it at home or in an offline environment, you probably won't have any problems. One more thing, if you are familiar with other Olympus digital voice recorders, you might be surprised by the sheer size and relative weight of this device. It is about twice the size of WS-310, for example. It's about the size of a medium-sized cell phone. However, very portable.