Sanyo's HDR-B5GM 5GB digital voice recorder
By Peter Rojas 
posted February 4th 2005 9:21AM
posted February 4th 2005 9:21AM
Might not ever make it outside of Japan, but Sanyo just introduced the HDR-B5GM, a new portable digital voice recorder with a 5GB hard drive that will retail for over $500 when it comes out next month. Not as much of a milestone as they'd like you to think, since there are already plenty of hard drive-based MP3 players out there that can double as voice recorders (you could add Griffin's iTalk or Belkin's Universal Microphone Adapter to a 20GB iPod and still come out way ahead). No doubt the audio quality of the HDR-B5GM's recordings are better than what you'd get with your standard MP3 player's voice recording function, but if you're just recording interviews or class lectures, is it worth the extra few hundred bucks?
Anyone looking for a dirt-cheap way to record very high quality voice notes ought to check out the iRiver IFP-180T, which Amazon is blowing out for about $43 after rebate.
It's an obsolescent player with a tiny capacity (though plenty enough to get me though my workouts.) But the wild card is that these units record bizarrely good audio, at a price that's about the same as a crappy-sounding microcassette recorder.
A voice recorder,to be useful, needs to have an instant on feature. MP3 players have voice recording capability but are not always on, so the user has to hit the on button and "hold that thought" for a few seconds.
re: the iriver - any idea what the storage translates to for voice recordings? i'm looking for the equivalent of at least 2 hours worth.....
The iRiver, like most flash based units, is crappy low-bitrate quality. The Neuros (http://www.neurosaudio.com) units record up to 48kHz WAV or 160kbit MP3, and a 30GB unit is $230.
One of the problems with the internet is that people like Dave get to post complete bullshit with a tone of authority. I've spent the last month testing recording on lots of units including Creatives, Mobiblus, iRivers, etc. , and there is simply no way he could make that statement if he's ever tried recording with an iRiver. The whole reason I posted is that it's one of the only flash units with GREAT, high-bitrate voice recording quality. (And, thanks to a model changeover, right now it's by far the cheapest one that records this well.) Go try one and see. (By the way, the newer iRivers encode on the fly to 320k mp3 -- overkill for voice, but better than the Neuros.)
And please stop posting things you imagine to be true, or would like to be true, or you think might vindicate your choice of player...it's not helpful.
Peter, I bought the 128k iRiver 1xx series (the original iRiver flash line that's being blown out now), and it can record a maximum of 2 1/4 hours in its highest-quality format, 128 kbps mono WAV. There are two other quality settings, the lowest being 32kbps WAV which yields 9 hours recording time. [Note that 32kpbs WAV is the format that almost every other flash player records in, so this recording bitrate will indeed give you the crappy sound that Dave refers to. (For reference, CD audio is 705kbps /channel.)] If you wanted 4 1/2 hours of great quality, spend the extra $20 and get the 256k model (still very cheap.)
But if you're looking for extremely long recording times in amazing quality, any of the newer iRiver flash units (all but the original 1xx series) record voice DIRECTLY to mp3, so you can record mono audio to 64kbps mp3 (cd quality.) This gives you some truly amazing recording times; a 512k iRiver can record 18 hours of crystal-clear mono audio. (And I think 32k mono mp3 sounds more than good enough for voice, so this would yield 32 hours of recording.)
Well, I'm waiting for the geniuses to give us the ability to use iPod minis and 4G iPods with Linux so we can then record in 96k, and they're getting closer: http://www.ipodlinux.org/blog/index.php?p=11
$500 for something a $250ish Hi-MD recorder could outpreform. Makes sense.
any info on Sanyo ICR B180NX, pro/cons/comparisons to other Digital Voicer Recorder models etc..
also how do the latest in these DVRs stack up against Mini Disc recorders for sound reproduction/recording live music and price (bang for yer $)