Editorial Review:Product Description:Stay organized and on the move with this high-class storage device and powerful music player. Record meetings or notes and even store large documents to bring from one computer to another. The easy USB input lets you plug the WS-331M right into the computer for fast results. Up to 500 songs can be stored and played in impressive stereo sound with track & artist name clearly displayed on the LCD. You'll never be hindered from recording audio, notes, lectures and more with an amazing 555 hours of available recording time. Nothing is faster than plugging right into the USB port on a computer to download or upload files with the WS-331M's cool USB Direct design. The unique USB Direct design means you can connect it right to the USB port on your computer and download or transfer audio, music, photos and more. Play recordings in Fast and Slow Playback mode - 50 percent faster or 50 percent slower than real time Recording Format - WMA (Windows Media Audio) Recording Media - Built-in 2 GB flash memory Recording Time - Stereo XQ Mode 35 hours 30 minutes, Stereo HQ Mode 71 hours, Stereo SP Mode 142 hours 5 minutes, HQ Mode 142 hours 5 minutes, SP Mode 279 hours 35 minutes, LP Mode 555 hours 45 minutes Input Level - -70dbv PC Interface - USB direct, 2.0 Full Speed Voice Activation - Switchable On & Off Practical Maximum - Output 70 mW Speaker - Built-in 18 mm round dynamic speaker Microphone & Earphone Jack Power Supply - One AAA battery Battery Life - Up to 21 hours OS Supported - Microsoft Windows 2000, XP & Vista Dimensions - Length 3.73 x Width 1.52 x Depth 0.43 inch (excluding protrusions) Weight - 1.66 ounces (47 grams) including battery
Amazon.com Product Description:Stay organized and on the move with the Olympus WAS-331M Digital Voice Recorder and WMA Music Player, a high-quality digital voice recorder and powerful music player. Record meetings or notes and even store large documents to bring from one computer to another. For added convenience, the device features a speedy USB connection for easy file transfers with a PC. The its speedy USB 2.0 connection, just plug the WAS-331M into an open USB port and start transferring files. Up to 500 songs can be stored and played in impressive stereo sound with track and artist name clearly displayed on the WAS-331M's easy to read LCD screen.
The WAS-331M has the ability to play recordings in fast and slow playback modes, up to 50-percent faster or 50-percent slower than real time. The unit records files in the WMA (Windows Media Audio) format, and its 2 GB of flash memory is able to capture audio recordings in the following modes: stereo XQ mode (35 hours 30 minutes), stereo HQ mode (71 hours), stereo SP mode (142 hours 5 minutes), HQ mode (142 hours 5 minutes), SP mode (279 hours 35 minutes), and LP mode (555 hours 45 minutes). Other great features include voice activated recording, and a built-in 18 mm round dynamic speaker. The device runs on one AAA battery and offers up to 21 hours of continuous battery life. Compatible with Microsoft Windows 2000 and later operating systems (including Vista), the WAS-331M measures 3.73 x 1.52 x 0.43 inches and weighs just 1.66 ounces.
What's in the Box WS-331M digital voice recorder, USB cable, stereo earphones, one AAA alkaline battery, and instruction manual.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Liked It So Much I Bought Another One
I recently lost the first recorder I bought when I forgot it in a classroom at school. I was very happy with it and purchased the same recorder a second time. I purchased this digital voice recorder to tape my lectures at school. I had a hard time picking one out, but I finally decided on this one for the 2GB storage. I was very happy with the decision. It picked up my professor's voice in a big lecture room where I sat all the way in the back. There is a little bit of hissing with playback, but I feel that is expected.
Rating: 
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Olympus WAS-331M (2 gigabyte) recorder review
A great small digital recorder except for 2 serious problems, plus 4 other problems:
Problem 1, starting Recording is a complex failure prone process
It is difficult to start recording. First, you have to slide the Hold switch downward, wait for the operating system to initialize the system and do a system check, then watch for the standard display to appear. At least 50% of the time the Hold slide switch fails to operate, provides a momentary pulse, then the system has to shut down. So you repeat this process until the system check is completed. Now the unit is on, then on the right side you press a momentary switch firmly, since there's no feedback from the switch and observe the red light or the display to insure that the unit is recording. Then examine the recording meter display to see if there's any amplitude reading. If there's no noise in the room then tap the mic to observe any amplitude reading, if it's there then you're recording. Otherwise, press the record switch again, because you may not have pressed the Record switch firmly enough, or the momentary had a bounce and it's not recording, so just repeat this process until you get the unit recording. While this may really seem to stupid to believe, you can get relatively fast at it, if you have good lighting to examine the recorder, and repeat the process as needed, which should mean that you can get the recorder turned on in about 15 seconds.
A simple small but well made slide switch at the upper right corner, that has three positions: STOP, PAUSE, RECORD is all I would ever need to control this recorder. For the Olympus engineers, Yes, this means no power-up switch called Hold. So when you slide the switch upward from Stop to Record, you both turn the recorder on and start recording immediately, you don't need to do a lengthy operating system initialization test, we can assume that nobody smashed the recorder with a sledge hammer.
Problem 2, the Battery Meter doesn't work
Now that you got the recorder turned on and recording, this doesn't mean that you be able to record anything, because you have no idea how much battery life is left. The tiny battery meter in the upper left corner of the screen only tells you if the battery is almost completely dead. So you could start recording something extremely relevant and discover that you recorded only the first minute of a one hour nightmare and you have no evidence to defend yourself from a legal attack by a predator later on, thanks to a nonfunctional battery meter design. So the only thing you can do is buy a lot of AAA batteries and through them away after every long recording. As a result you will spend more on batteries than on the recorder. Of course, a AA battery has about twice the capacity as a AAA battery, so the slightly larger AA battery would be a better choice in such a small recorder, even it had a slightly larger bulge over the battery area.
Problem 3, the Time and Date is lost during a quick battery change
Since you have to repeatedly change batteries due to the lack of a functional battery meter, unfortunately you have to put in the time and date each time also, because no matter how quickly you insert the new battery, the time and date is scrambled, although other options are retained in memory without being lost during the battery change. This further means that if the battery goes dead during a long lecture that you can't just insert another battery and keep recording, because the system may require you to carefully reset the new date and time.
Problem 4, the lettering on the display is too small
Unless you're 17 years old with 20/20 vision the lettering is too small to read and reinsert the Time and Date, which incidentally has to be done repeatedly. The screen size is OK, just the lettering is extra small, and there is room to increase the type size. How could this not be obvious?
Problem 5, the internal mic is not as good as the external mics
I would be glad to pay more money for a better quality microphone, that's built into the smallest recorder. When possible I do plug in the ME52 external directional mono microphone for better quality sound, although the internal mic is not all that bad. For voice recording I always record in the highest quality mono mode. An Omni-directional internal mic is naturally preferable to a directional microphone since we're not necessarily focused on the recording process or the orientation of the recorder.
Problem 6, a bright red light is not always appropriate
Naturally, you could put black tape on the bright red recording lights so that you don't advertise to any violent person that you are recording evidence of their assault, unless of course you're trying to get killed. Please don't treat us like idiot children because sadistic lawyers want to protect murders from being recorded. Right now recordings of O.J. Simpson's armed assault are being used in court, and the court recognizes that this may be the only way there will ever be any accuracy or justice in the court room.
Apparently, the people who design, manufacture or sell such recorders don't actually use them, which is typical of most products, or they use them at a brightly lit table, just to see if the product works at all. Naturally, we would be interested in knowing if there's any similar small recorder with high quality recording capabilities and at least 1 GB of memory which solved at least the first 2 of these problems.
Rating: 
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My Opinion
2 years ago after much thought and research decided to purchase the Olympus WAS-321M DVR. I liked it so much that I bought the newest model even though the first one still works perfectly. I was surprised to fin that it has been updated in many small and useable ways making for a notably improved machine even though at first glance they look almost identical. If you read "reviews" on this item, you will hear some complaints: in general, I have NO complaints about this item, EXCEPT - and it is one that I have never seen mentioned: I really wish it had a MANUAL RECORDING LEVEL CONTROL. WMA/Mp3 Music sounds as good as the source material. I bought rechargeable AAA batteries for this thing from www.all-battery.com which have worked great. In short: I LOVE THIS THING.
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TheThriftstoreMountaineer
gKd
Rating: -
Perfect little voice recorder
The quality of the recording is amazing. I bought it for my classes and for meetings ...no matter where I sit, the recordings are very clear. Very asy to use. I did not purchase it for music so I have not been using it for that. This is definitely one of my better buys online.
Rating: -
Good for what it is intended
For notes, lectures and other recording this can't be beat. The built in speaker is low quality but still can be heard. I don't use this as a music player so I can't comment on it's capability. I wish there was a way to edit individual recordings such as removing silence or unwanted parts but there is not. You can only delete the entire file.