Side by Side Comparison of: Ravel vs Sony

good quality, got this for my 9 year old daughter, she wanted a flute but i was like, no you get a recorder..lolupdate: 6-16-17 i ordered 2 more for such a great price. now i'm trying to play mask off from future on it...lol

As with any recorder, this one is just irritating enough to get the job done. My daughter loves it and it is getting her through the recorder phase in school. This recorder, much like any other "professional" recorder, suggests to a child that they have the potential to be a professional recorder player one day in their future and does not diminish their dreams. I can see my daughter in the symphony now, right behind the flute players. My only complaint is that perhaps it should come up with some ibuprofen.

Great value! I bought this to learn to play Star Wars songs. It is much more complicated to learn than I expected. The only musical instrument I can play is the trumpet which only has three buttons, so this might be a less daunting task if you have already learned to play a similarly-buttoned instrument like the clarinet or flute.

This is a great recorder. We just use it at home for fun. I hope to eventually teach my children how to play something on it but for now they just pretend to know what they are doing and have a blast. It comes in a nice little bag with some sort of cleaning rod. I should probably read the directions on how to use that but just the fact that it came with it impressed me. It is very well made and sturdy. Like I said we are not musical prodigies and do not strive to be. We use these purely for fun. It is nice to know that if they did want to lean an actual song they could. Great product!

I love this recorder! I purchase this product for under $3 and honestly at that price I wasn't expecting much. But I was pleasantly surprised. It came in a nice little plastic carrying pouch with a cleaning rod and everything. It is a nice sturdy plastic material that has held up to my 3 children quite nicely. My one year old gets great satisfaction from blowing in it and making the sound. I feel like for the price and the quality you really can't go wrong. I would say if you are thinking about getting this recorder just do it! It's great!

When I was a kid, my cousin had to buy one of these for a class she had. I saw her playing songs and I wanted to do the same. I asked my mother to buy me one and a book to learn with. She did, and I taught myself to play all the different songs in the book. I am 33 years old now and my nephew is 6 and my little brother is 10. Since they have nothing in school with instruments, I decided to teach them myself. Once I got the recorder in my hand, it was like my fingers remembered everything and I automatically started playing. They are not expensive and the various colors are great. They feel just like a really good kind. The cleaner it comes with, i feel, it serves no purpose. Its just a plastic stick. I have an easier time using a baby's bottle cleaner. It works much better. That, or cleaning it with hot water by soaking it. The sound comes out very good. I even downloaded a few songs from the internet to play songs I never played before. Either way, these are great for teaching the kids to play music.

This recorder is great! Lightweight, easy to use, great sound quality. The process of downloading recordings to the computer is as easy as connecting it via USB. The software recognizes there is a new recording and with a click transfers it to the appropriate folder. Play back is easy and amazingly clear through computer speakers.

I have owned this for a little over 6 months and have arguably used only a few of it's basic functions. But, I am a sound engineer, and the quality of the recording is the most important point as long as the ease of making the recording is reasonable. The sound quality of the recording of this device is exceptional, and just making a simple voice recording is trivial! For around $50 dollars, it sound close to professional microphones for the twice the price. The battery life is also exceptional, because it seems for the 2 or 3 minutes I plug in the USB connector to transfer a few voice recordings, it charges. In fact, I don't even know how to charge it otherwise because it has never come up.

This is a great little recorder. It has mutable functions like voice activated recording, microphone recording, interview, lecture, meeting, and voce notes. You can put the recordings in different folders to keep everything organized. With out added micro SD card the preinstalled 4GB hard drive gives you 43h 55m of record time. If you need to you can add a Micro SD card for extra record time. But what puts this aside of the rest of the voice recorders is that you can connect this to your computer and transfer all the recorded files for later reference. This is a must for every student that is able to record there teachers lecture.

Works well so far. Conducted interview and sound was excellent. Wish I didn't need instructions, but it's not too complicated. Also can connect to computer with USB cable included and uses normal batteries.

I bought this for my daughter who's taking Organic Chemistry from a professor whose lectures ramble all over the place. She records his lectures then listens to it again where she can rewind, take detailed notes, and really sort it out. She LOVES it and so do her classmates who have asked that she send them the digital audio file as well. She can save it on her computer, burn it to a CD, listen to it in her car. Perfect for learning a tough subject! The device works great, picks up the audio wonderfully and is small enough to not be intrusive. I am VERY pleased with this purchase!

I had the ICD PX-312, which was damaged by battery leak, I have bought this one. High quality voice recorder, and easy to use.

Great recorder for home practice at the right price point. In our school district, fourth graders can't take home their school recorders till the end of the year, so this fills in the gap nicely. I just wish it came with a cotton bag the included plastic one stinks like petrochemicals.

Great for kids to learn from and and fulfills the intended purpose.surprisingly well constructed and seems to be ok sound properties enough to learn on at least.baby has tossed it around and used for swords and such and has held up just dandy like.

My daughter uses it at her school. Looks and sounds good.

Sounds excellent, and intonation is very good. For under $4 an amazing value. Rated 4 starts instead of 5 because of the extremely toxic-smelling clear plastic case it came in. Binned that thing immediately. Flute itself sounds every bit as good as the Yamaha recorders, which are slightly higher quality and still every inexpensive.

Daughter loves it. I like the fact it came with cleaning kit and case, only one thing wrong is the plastic case did not let the recorder dry between uses and it does stay wet but she used the cleaning kit and dried it...

My niece absolutely loves it and it works perfectly. I was afraid that for the price it would not sound good. But it plays wonderful. I am going to buy another one for my other nieces.

This works easily and well, the only drawback is you have to reset the volume when you start or stop recording otherwise there is an audible "beep." As I use this for recording lectures I often get thrown off by the beep, but I have had it awhile now and am getting use to it and remembering to turn it off.

Bought this because I had to record several one hour sessions for work. I knew there would be a lot of talking and asking questions and answers provided, so I didn't want to miss anything when I had to translate. It is sensitive enough to pick-up everything but that also is a downfall when others are talking simultaneously, papers are being shuffled, pens tapping, etc. Instruction paper that came with it was just OK. Learning curve for using the buttons.One down side is that you can only have five (5) folders to separate your work. If you can add more, could not find where to make more folders. Had to remember to download that day's folder onto my computer before using it the next day.I prefaced the meeting with the description and that created the initial folder. When I pressed the record button again, it remained it the same folder but it created a second recording under the folder. So essentially, you have two recordings (one stating the meeting name and then you have to press another button (I think the fast forward button - sorry don't have it in front of me while writing this) to listen to the second recording (the actual meeting) under that initial folder).Depending on the quality of the recording you select, depends on the number of hours of recording it can hold. Audio is more than adequate when listening without headphone. Audio is also more than adequate when transferring to the PC and listening. I have nothing to compare this to but I would definitely recommend for recording.Reason for four **** stars is because of the limitations of folders to separate the files. Should be able to create more than five separate recordings

The menu is too complex and confusing. So if the default settings are not for you, you must study. I finally figured it out. I raised from 2 stars to 4 stars.It will consistently record for 72+ hours on the lowest setting on one set of two batteries. Sony (one battery) and the rechargeable Trustins get only about 16 hours. For spy work it is great. You can leave it for 3 days running on your porch or in Baskerville's study.

Worked better than I expected. I have not used it extensively; rather, not very often.Pros: I have used it when I need to voice record conversations and lectures I want to review, or hide it in my pocket for more clandestine purposes. Couldn't believe that it actually picked up voices through my suit jacket or pants pocket (though distant during playback).Cons: It is not as user friendly as I would have imagined. No instruction book included. I had to test multiple settings in order to find those that fit my needs.Annoying feature: When you want to delete a recording, the device begins playing the recording until you finalize the deletion.

--and by "all," I mean it records things. I didn't give it 5 stars because it doesn't have a built-in laser pointer (kidding). I drive 40 minutes to/from class every day, so I have ample time to listen to it while nothin' else is going on.Only downsides: If you put a sufficiently large memory piece into the unit, it takes forever to start up. I just left it out and use internal memory. In addition, when you try to delete something, it actually plays it while it's asking you if you really want to delete it. It's a bit distracting and annoying if you're in-class while you're attempting to delete something. If I wanted it to play, I'd have played it before deleting it. It's not that many more button-presses.I'm always in the front row and recording quality is fantastic. I don't have to "really listen" to make out what the instructor is saying. It's just on the recording.

I had one of these for over two years then I lost it while in the woods. All of the features matched my needs. The ability to store music, podcast, and make my own voice recordings made it a one-device does all for me. You can set date/time on recordings (music or voice recording) to play as an alarm so I wake up to a different song each day of the week. The sound quality is excellent and when you use Sony's Sound Organizer you can easily set-up podcast downloads, move music and recordings to/from your PC. Anyway, I lost one of these and I looked for it for a month or two and I just couldn't stand being without it so I bought this replacement. I didn't rate it at 5 stars because the display isn't back-lit. Everything is great on this device except you can't see the screen in low light without you flashlight or something. Some folks say the menus are complicated but I disagree. The right-left button scrolls through the top level menu and then there is a choice for "Details" to take you to a second level. A different list of menu items may appear if you are in playback or record mode. It wasn't long for me to get familiar with how it works. Oh and the batteries...I have left it running all night in the woods to "listen" for game sounds. I retrieve it and review the recording in Sound Organizer for peaks in the sound graph. I can do this three nights on one pair of batteries. It's very efficient with energy consumption. It can go 16-20 hours easy on a battery and records.Another cool thing about this device is it has an external speaker so you can chose to use ear phones or just playback through the speaker. It also has a mic-in jack so you can add one of those ear piece microphones and record meetings or conference calls for later use to take notes. All in all, I have been very pleased with this device and my 15 year-old son has bought one and is using it to keep all of his music on now...and he has iPhone and other devices but he likes this thing better.

sounds nice. my son likes it but it breaks very easy. dropped on the tile and it broke the 1st we got it.

a little sharp, fine for the kiddos.

It has 3 pieces that slide together. There is a little bit of air loss at those connections so it sometimes has some issues when trying to play it. For the price it's fin, but I'll probably look to get a different one at some point.

Can't expect much for under three bucks. Still, this thing is difficult to play. One would be better off spending ten or twenty bucks for one that doesn't cause as much frustration.

I just bought this for fun and to see what a cheap recorder really sounds like. There's some serious pitch issues on some of the notes if you play with proper fingering techniques. Notes are either too flat or too sharp, though a few are dead-on. If you are even slightly serious about music, and you don't want to have messed up pitch, it will be better to spend more for a Yamaha or Aulos for more consistent pitch. You do get what pay for. I just wanted a crystal purple recorder, and I got just that. I'm probably not going to play on it anymore at this point, but it's really pretty.

Nice recorder, I bought it for my toddler who loves music. I received a recorder in the key of G rather than C. This makes the scale a little more difficult, but the instructions help. For now it's a nonissue since my son is too young to play scales anyway.Instrument is nicely made as far as these recorders go. My old Yamaha from elementary school is a little nicer.The bag is just a thick clear plastic sleeve with a snap on it, I didn't keep it. Cleaning rod has a slot for a tissue/cloth.

Not great. Cheap plastic quality, menus are difficult to navigate - took me half an hour of fiddling with it to figure them out, and the documentation is second rate. The sound quality is ok, but not great. If you're a Mac person, I wouldn't recommend it. The software that comes with it is Windows only. You have to pop out the chip and insert it into your Mac and listen to the files. Not user friendly at all, but if you want just a cheap recorder, go for it. I'd have spent a bit more, though. It's difficult to use the additional memory as well. You can't use both the internal and external memory at the same time, and have to switch between the two. Pain in the ass.

The quality is down with this model. I had an earlier version and it had a more solid feel and the plastic was a better quality.This model is also missing stereo microphones so... now that I founds the older one (I had lost it and bought this one as a replacement),this new one sits in my drawer. It's an inferior product.

doesn't come with a cable to connect to the computer or a card or a USB port. Thank god I had an extra cable that fit just right.

Several years ago, a friend bought a recorder from Radio Shack that relayed voice to text when connected to his computer. (It was priced similarly to this recorder.) Was hoping this item did the same as it came with a USB cord. (IT DOESN'T!) Was also hoping it would be more efficient at picking up member comments at our association meetings, but it's no better than the old cassette recorder we used prior to this.

This is an okay item. Pros: Fairly inexpensive, easy to use/handle, and acceptable voice/recording quality. Cons: No screen back light which makes it difficult to view the screen in low light (evenings/nights). However I think this benefits the battery life.

I would give it 5 stars if it had a back lit screen. It is very hard to read the screen in all but very good lighting.

I should return this recorder. The quality is not good at all.

Hello - this recorder sounds good but my son put it on the table and it rolled to the floor and the plastic cracked ! Not good for kids - should be able to withstand some knocks.

Reedy sound, difficult to use. Pretty to look at.

Quality isn't that great. Broke easily after being dropped and had to replace.

it arrived broken. :(

breaks really easy

It did not work, couldn't get menu to work; returned

I have spent so much money on portable tape recorders only to be dissatisfied. It is a good quality recorder but playback take forever. It is not functional for what I need. I have had stalking problems and am trying to catch "a needle in a haystack". It records fine but then I have to playback 8 hours or more and relisten to what I have recorded. There isn't an easy way to transfer the audio and scrub through it. I am just a basic user. If someone needs a portable recorder, it works fine. For detective work for evidence building, it is not the right one for me.

Functionally it's good. My big complaint is that the characters on the screen are almost invisible in any light except direct sunlight or high intensity lamp shining directly on the screen. I could not even make out the icons, they were so small. There are no instructions to even explain what the icons mean let alone what function they preform. One either has to already be familiar with them or be proficient using another device that is similar. These faults override any positive feelings I have for this device. I am going to find a different manufacturer.

It is a great recorder. I use it for my classes and the recordings of the lectures are beautiful. Clear and concise, I honestly can sit in the back of the classroom and record a lecture and still be able to hear my teacher in the recording. HOWEVER, when I first used the recording I could record 25 1-2 hour lectures. The second time, I got rid of the recordings and refreshed the recorder and could only record ten. I just recently deleted those and now I can not record any lectures. And now i have to buy an additional SD card because the recorder now does NOT record at all. Very disappointed with that. I have nothing on the recorder and it still does not work. Thanks alot Sony.

Cheap microphone. The microphone frequency range is very narrow. It will not pick up the highs or lows. It is stuck in the middle with what sounds like muffled audio. It's hard to make out what is being said from 15 feet away. I can however plug in a good microphone and get excellent audio. If you plan to use your own mic, this is great. If you are using it in school or a class with the onboard mic, then you need to be in the front row to hear clearly when played back. This recorder as-is would be best used for dictation only or with an external mic.

This is defiantly a lower end quality audio recorder. i make short films and i was needing something to record sound on besides my actual camera microphones. I thought this would be a great option, Sony usually have decent products but this is one of those cases where you really get what yo u pay for and if you got it cheap thats because it was made cheep. When the package arrived the box (within the package) was beat up, it even had a note saying, box is beat up but the device works just fine. It also had battlers installed, this kind of told me right off the back that someone else didn't like what they got and returned it and now i have it. Now i use a Lav mic to make my recordings, i found that the Sony recorder didn't do that great of job, i felt like i heard a lot of white noise, way more than i should. now some might think its the lav mic attached, well that's not true, i hooked up the same lav mic to my phone and i had better sound quality than what the Sony gave out. I was also hoping to get some sort of sound levels but this is a very and i mean very basic sound recorder. I say if your going to use this,it might only serve as a decent recorder for a class room to take notes or to record a meeting. this is not something to use for professional projects.

Product broke on second use

The first day we had this item my son dropped it on our tile floor and it broke.

Using the provided cleaning device, the inner mouth piece dislodged and won't go back in. Lasted less than 24 hours

Very brittle. Son broke after a few weeks.

doesn't make clear musical sound even for me with big hands. It almost whistles.

Does not work. Most of the holes don't make different notes. I ordered two (by accident), so I was surprise when neither recorder made good clean notes. I'm surprise how many people specifically say how well tuned they were. It was the first thing we noticed, they aren't good notes and are not tuned right. I would recommend spending better money on a wood one.

This unit is impossible to program. The Quick Guide and the pdf Manual are of NO help. Instructions for setting the Record Mode are incomplete and do not work as written. I have not found any source for answers to a specific question.

I received items and it is missing the following: stereo headphones, stereo microphoneshirt-clip ,carrying pouch, application software, Dragon Naturally speaking DVD-ROM, and Application software.

I just threw this into my E-waste bin. After only 3 months of recording, this unit failed to transfer any files to my computer. After 6 months, it stopped working altogether. A complete waste of money. The Olympus recorder was much better and long-lasting.

Very inadequate instructions. This unit will not work with my cable connected phone system.

I had high hopes for this recorder.Pros: Cheap + acceptable construction.Cons:1) Menu system is horrible. No UI engineering seems to have been done at all. Buttons presses are completely unintuitive + when you press the wrong button, you have to go all the way back to top of menu hierarchy + start again.2) No way to change date, except to remove batteries + set entire date again.3) Date always lost when removing batteries. Most system keep a few minutes of residual charge, so batteries can be changed quickly with recorder retaining settings. It appear all settings (date + all other settings) are lost for each battery change.4) Recoding stops after 199 recordings, even if large amount of memory remains.5) Recording quality distorted, even when recording in quiet room.

The product was disappointing as the volume and clarity of recording drops even a few feet away. It is not worth the money.