| There are many IC recorders. But when it comes to compatibility with Macs, Mac users don’t have many choices. And I’m writing a review on Olympus DS-50 because this small recording device (about the size of a cigarette box cut in half vertically) is one of the few ones that you can use comfortably with Macs. |  |
Before purchasing it, we weren’t sure if our iMac can recognize Olympus DS-50. In fact, we found no online retailer that specifically told us how to use Olympus DS-50 on Macs although some of them said it is Mac-compatible. We needed more information, but well… We decided to test it on our own.
Olympus DS-50 comes with a USB cable which allows me to connect the device to our iMac. USB 1.1 is sufficient, so you can use the USB connector on your keyboard. That’s pretty much it, and its hard disk drive will be recognized in no time.
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| So why would you choose Olympus DS-50 if you use Windows OS? One good reason is its low-cut (high-pass) recording voice filter. The biggest problem with handheld recording devices is that they produce a motor-like noise inside. You don’t want to buy a cheap audio recorder because it’s most likely to record a low-frequency rumble noise and a high-frequency (hissing) noise. And Olympus DS-50 does a fairly good job. In fact, its microphone head is detachable. So what you can do is separate the microphone head from the body using a remote cable that comes with the device. (Listen to audio shown at the end of the review.) |  |
Olympus DS-50 is not a perfect audio recording device. Its microphone head is very, very sensitive to sounds. So if you rub it with a finger softly with or without conscience or just by accident, your recorded audio piece will be ruined a big time with a terrible tearing-like noise.
Let me talk a little bit about the technical side of Olympus DS-50. Its sampling rate is fixed at 44.1 kHz. And Olympus DS-50 supports 5 different audio data rates. These data rates are labeled as follows.
According to Olympus, DS-50’s 1GB internal memory can hold as much as “over 275 hours” of audio in LP mode and “over 17 hours” of audio in SXQ mode. Olympus DS-50 doesn’t consume a great deal of electricity. We never timed it, but our guess is that you can probably record some 15 hours of audio without swapping batteries. And you can use rechargable batteries.
To wrap it up, Olympus DS-50 is a good audio recording device for those who cannot afford to buy a PCM recorder, which can be as expensive as $1,500/Â¥150,000. Most importantly, Olympus DS-50 is compatible with Macs. And if you need an audio recording device that lets you cut the background noise, Olympus DS-50 may be a good purchase.
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Click on the button to listen to audio (curtain drawing) that was recorded with Olympus DS-50. 
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* We have purchased the product introduced here ourselves. We are not being paid to review this product in any way.
Fantastic review, really helpful, exactly what I needed to decide which recorder to buy, very grateful
Gerry
That’s very nice of you saying that. Thanks.
Thank you, I just by the sony ICD-P620 but it does´nt work with the mac so i´ll returnit and change it for the Olimpus. Thanks for your advise
Thank you so much. I read all the retailer descriptions and, like you said, some said it was Mac compatible, some did not, some mentioned having to download conversion software (which didn’t make sense to me since you can get Windows Media Player for a Mac). You answered the exact question I needed answered. Thanks again.