Olympus LS-10 review

The Olympus LS-10 portable audio recorder can capture production-quality stereo sound through twin microphones that protrude like antennae from the top of the recorder.

It supports more file types than most recorders, including Wav PCM, MP3 and WMA formats.

A 3.5mm stereo mini-jack is provided for monitoring the sound through headphones, as well as line-in and microphone ports for connecting external audio sources. A USB interface makes transferring files to and from the recorder simple, and the LS-10 even has built-in stereo speakers.

It's sturdy, comfortable to hold, fits easily in a pocket and there's a standard tripod thread on the bottom. The LS-10 requires two AA batteries and weighs 165g with them fitted. Battery life with two alkalines lagged behind MP3 players at nine hours and 31 minutes. Although the manual warns that recording until the battery runs out may result in file loss, this didn't occur in our tests.

Menus look basic on the mono LCD screen, but it's designed to conserve battery power. A folder list makes it easy to save recordings in different preset directories, and a settings menu provides fine control over microphone configuration and file formats. The highest quality setting records 96kHz (96,000Hz), 24-bit Wav PCM files.

The sensitive microphones deliver excellent sound quality. Background noises were clearly audible at default settings, which is undesirable in spoken word recordings. The zoom mic options eliminate most of the ambient noise, but these are unavailable in high-quality PCM modes.

The recorder's 2GB of internal storage is enough for only 59 minutes of audio recorded at the highest quality, but lower-quality settings and compressed formats allow you to cram much longer recordings into the same space. You can add SD and SDHC cards to extend recording times.

The recorder comes with Steinberg's Cubase LE 4 audio-editing and sequencing software, which is overkill for simple editing. However, it has everything you're likely to need if you're serious about audio production.

The LS-10 isn't cheap, but its audio quality is excellent. It's ideal for recording podcasts, interviews and meetings, while its sensitivity and quality are useful for recording musical rehearsals. If you just want to record the occasional memo, though, you're better off using the voice recorder function of an MP3 player such as Sandisk's Sansa e280 or a cheaper digital voice recorder. If you want production-quality audio recording on the move, the LS-10 is perfect.