hi guys,

I had a question, which is the best digital voice recorder to use with DragonDictate for Mac?   I need one that is typically records in MP3 format.  At a lower to middle range price point of about $75.  And that offers long life recording time.

Any suggestions?

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We believe that you will additionally need MacSpeech Scribe in order to transcribe digital recordings as we don't believe this is natively available in DragonDictate but we could be wrong. It probably wouldn't hurt to double check.

MP3 recordings can be transcribed but they are not ideally suited to MacSpeech Scribe because they are compressed. While WAV files take up a tremendous amount of space, they will work better. However, the best overall solution is DS2 files which are lossless fidelity and feature a 12 to 1 compression ratio. Unlike MP3s, DS2 recordings are designed specifically for speech recognition and do not suffer from a loss of quality when compressed. The Olympus DS-2400 is the only consumer grade recorder on the market that features DS2 algorithms. Unfortunately, we cannot make a $75 recommendation because we simply haven't performed any research in that area. Having made that disclaimer, if you're digital recorder isn't critical to your workflow, you might consider looking at the Sony ICD line of recorder such as the ICD-PX312D which meets your criteria and comes close to your budget. However, if a digital recorder is important to your workflow, you may need to consider raising your budget. A professional mechanic wouldn't be caught dead purchasing his tools at Walmart but Walmart tools are perfect for the weekend warrior who occasionally tinkers with his engine. Essentially, it all boils down to what your time is worth. We have tested around 80 different digital recorders since 1996 and found the average MP3 recorder makes twice as many errors as units that utilize the Olympus DS2 algorithms and for that reason, we only sell digital recorders that utilize DS2 algorithms on our website.

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