Olympus Enters the Portable Recorder Market with the LS-10

It seems like the portable recorder niche looks more and more attractive for electronic goods producers...Olympus, a manufacturer with a strong tradition in photo cameras and a medium one in professional audio, decided it was time to take the next step. The result of the engineering and design strives is called the LS-10 and looks pretty much as anyone would expect from a portable stereo handheld recorder to look like.

The design of the Olympus LS-10 is pretty much like everything you've seen so far, with a backlit LCD display for instant access to relevant data, one-touch buttons for quick and easy operation of the most common functions and quite a lot of side-buttons and switches and wheels. As far as the overall looks are concerned, the Olympus LS-10 seems to be pretty handy as long as you manage to learn hot to handle it without accidentally pressing or turning the controls located on the sides of the body. The play/stop, RW/FFW commands are located on an easy-to-use dial in the middle of the frontplate, for easy access, one or two fingers.

This handheld recorder comes with the expected 24-bit audio resolution capability and 96kHz sampling rate for obtaining high-quality recordings, while the internal 2GB memory can be expanded by means of an SD/SDHC card slot, especially created for those in need to do long high-grade recordings. The stereo microphones are of course cardioid ones, with a high-quality built-in mic preamp and stereo speakers for on-the-fly examination of the recorded material.

Line and mic inputs are also present, as well as an USB port for instant connectivity with any computer. The Olympus LS-10 has a recording time of up to 12 hours and is operated by DC adapter or dual AA batteries (whose running time was not specified) and comes bundled with Cubase LE 4. The price is around $400, just like with all products of this type. Complex specs here.

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