iDictate – Digital Voice Blog

Olympus voice are an innovative bunch, they don’t tend to sit on their hands doing not a lot, they keep refining and evolving their range of digital voice recorders. It is not uncommon to see digital voice recorder models come and go in the space of a single year. As such we often find customers coming back after years of use to replace their digital note taker or dictaphone only to find that their old model voice recorder has been replaced by a newer model.

In an attempt to make finding the current equivalent voice recorder to replace your old trusty Olympus digital voice recorder a little easier I have compiled a list of old models and their latest equivalents. This list covers PCM music recorders, interview/meeting/focus group recorders, budget recorders, the Pro range of digital dictaphones and finally Olympus digital transcription kits. More

October 2011: Olympus voice have posted an update to the firmware for the Olympus DM-3 and DM-5 digital voice recorders. The latest version jumps from 1.20 to 1.30 and included updates specifically for the DM-5 model and is focussed around DAISY, digital talking books for the vision impaired.

The official change from firmware version 1.20 to 1.30 details:

• Start DAISY file playback from previously stopped position. (DM-5 only)
• Improved DAISY bookmark function: The bookmark is at the exact position where it is set by the user. (DM-5 only)

For details on how to update the firmware on your DM-3/DM-5 please refer to our earlier blog post:

Mac & Windows – Olympus DM-3 / DM-5 Firmware Update – How To

The DM series recorders in Australia are now manned by the Olympus DM-3 and the Olympus DM-5 digital voice recorders since the launch of the DM3 in early July 2011. To look at them you would be hard pressed to tell the difference other than the Olympus DM3 is silver and the Olympus DM5 is black.

So what is the difference between the two? Here is a summary:

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A new firmware update is available for the Olympus DM-3 and DM-5 digital voice/meeting/interview recorders, version 1.20

New in this firmware release is:

1. Support the functions of USB microphone or Speaker.
2. Supports the function to register the voice keywords for the schedule.
3. Supports the function to register the voice memos for the schedule.
4. Supports the playback for audio files from the schedule list display.
5. Improve the volume setting when the text file is spoken out.
6. Supports to directly connect the device to CD drive and import DAISY contents from CD (Only for DM-5)

Both the Olympus DM-3 and DM-5 can be updated on either a Windows or a Mac, to find out how please review our earlier blog post by clicking the link below:

How to firmware update your Olympus DM-3 / DM-5 on Windows or Mac

The latest Olympus digital voice recorders come with the ability to update their firmware as and when Olympus release new updates. The firmware is essentially the operating system that runs your digital voice recorder so it is a good idea to always stay up-to-date with any new firmware releases, much as you do with your Mac when new OS X operating system releases are made and on Windows with security patches and fixes. Firmware updates will improve the usability of your recorder, fix any minor bugs and often add more features or improve usability.

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This Friday (24th June, 2011) we will see the sad demise of the superb Olympus DM-450 and DM-550 digital voice recorders in Australia, that’s the bad news (ahhhhhhh). But the good news, they will be replaced by the Olympus DM-3 (hooray !!) – cheer along with me if it makes you feel better.

This will be a day of mixed emotions for me, as I have stated before in my ramblings the DM-450 was easily my favourite recorders ever. Ease of use, audio quality, speed of startup, feature packed and of course a great looking recorder made this an awesome recorder, sadly replaced along with the DM-550 (its bigger, beefier, PCM brother) by the DM-3. The DM-3 will join the already available DM-5 as the sole representatives of the DM range in Australia.

We hope to get our first DM-3 early next week and will follow that up with some testing and a full blog review and some up close pictures for your viewing and reading pleasure.

So long DM-450, my friend !

Olympus have just announced that the Olympus DM-3 digital voice recorder will soon be available in Australia (mid 2011) and will replace the hugely popular DM-450 and DM-550 recorders.

The DM-450 has to be my all time favourite Olympus recorder and I use my demo DM-450 all the time so I will be sad to see the end of the DM-450 and DM-550. But, the DM-3 will join the bigger beefier DM-5 which has been out in Australia for a while taking over as the sole representatives of the DM series recorders down under.

So what does the DM-3 have?

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