Digital Recorder Reviews - The Best and The Worst

So you're going to buy a new digital audio recorder? Great! Time to check out some digital recorder reviews.

I hope that when you finally make your purchase you will enjoy using your recorder for whatever you intend to do. Digital audio recorders have become so powerful and able to produce amazing sounding recordings that more and more amateur musicians and interviewers are turning to them every day.

If your like most people, you've probably decided to do some research. You want to find out what people think are the best models, what people think are the worst models, which ones work best for voice recording, which ones work best for recording guitar... the list goes on and on! And, probably like most people, you typed a basic search into google and were hit over the head with thousands of results, junk pages, spam pages, weak affiliate sites etc... etc... and you were left saying "I just want to read about some portable &$*#ing recorders!"

You may have even stumbled across my digital recorder review site. While it is true that there are a million people out there trying to sell you these units (myself included!) there are some of us that are trying to provide some legitimate information as well, mainly because we also are enthusiasts and truly enjoying using these units to make high-quality recordings of ourselves!

I would like to try and point out some of the better sites and give you some tips on what to look for in a site when you are trying to get some honest information about the specific recorder you are after.

So, where to start? 

Manufacturers Websites

Yep, obviously these sites are going to having shining reviews and product descriptions, they want you to buy their product! BUT, these sites are the most reliable place to start with your search because they will provide the most accurate information regarding specifications like audio quality, features, accessories etc... Start with some of these manufacturers, Zoom, Sony, Olympus, Tascam, Sonosax, M-Audio. These companies all offer great recorders and you can start to weed out which products you are interested in, and which you aren't

Big-name Review Sites

These should be your next stop. Sites like cnet.com, zdnet.com, consumerreports.org etc... These sites all have a pretty large selection of digital recorder reviews. Any site that is not specifically designed around promoting one product will usually give you a good broad review that typically isn't *too* biased, but keep in mind a lot of these sites may receive perks from some of the companies they review so don't take these reviews always at face-value.  However, reading some of these broader reviews may let you weed out a few more choices from your list of prospective recorders. 

Niche-Blogs/Sites

Once you get your list narrowed down to two or three potential recorders, these are where you can really find some great information on your recorder of choice. With some careful and diligent searching you can find actual hands-on reviews written by average people, recordings made with the device, videos, gripes etc... Just BE CAREFUL a lot of these sites are complete junk! With most of these sites made either to feed links to another site or to simply provide you with a 3 line product description stolen from amazon in the hopes that you will click, you will have to exercise your internet BS muscle quite a bit to make sure you are getting good quality information! 

User-Review Sites

Harmony-central.com has an excellent database of user reviews, as does amazon.com and many other larger retail outlets. These can be a good source but again you have to be careful. Most of these reviews are written by people who have just received the product and are still in the honey moon phase where they love EVERYTHING about it. Try and find reviews written by users who have had the digital recorder at least 2 months or more and the "new gadget goodness" has worn off a little. 

I hope that some of this has been helpful for you in your search for digital recorder reviews and please leave me a comment, I'd love to hear your experiences! 

Cheers!