Best Voice Recorder | Wirecutter updates
Top choice
This is an easy-to-use recorder that provides smooth, clear sound in the most common recording situations. It is rechargeable via USB and allows you to easily transfer files to a computer.
The Sony UX560 scored very highly on our listening panel, and has the best combination of features of any recorder we’ve tested. The UX560’s bright, backlit screen makes the display easier to read than other recorders we’ve tested except for the Philips DVT2510, which has a color display. The recorder is also very easy to navigate, with an intuitive toggle menu to access settings and recording. Plus, the UX560 conveniently comes with a built-in rechargeable battery, so you won’t need to keep spare batteries on hand (although you’ll need to bring a charger or wall adapter if you need to charge on the go).
Produces clear, crisp audio recordings. The Sony UX560 placed about the same as the other two models in two of the three recording settings. The UX560 performed particularly well in a coffee shop environment: One listener said, “You could hear the background noise, but it didn’t muffle the speaker.” Regarding the office test, one listener commented that “this was a cool recording to listen to. You might hear some room distortion in the recording, but that’s such a minor problem with the recorder that it shouldn’t really be talking about. The panel chose the Philips DVT2510 for the lecture recording, but only by one point (on a scale of one to three, three being the highest score), and listeners said the lecturer still sounded clear on the UX560 recording. Sony The PX470, the budget choice, didn’t outshine the UX560 in a quiet office.
The UX560 was the easiest recorder to use among those tested. It’s intuitive to use out of the box: Pressing the home button leads you to a simple conversion menu where you can record, fine-tune settings, and listen to music (which can be loaded onto the device from a computer) or recordings. The buttons are clearly labeled, unlike the Philips DVT2510, and the rear button makes menu navigation much easier than the Olympus WS-853.
It has a built-in USB plug for easy file transfer. The UX560 has a built-in USB 3.0 plug, which can be extended or retracted by sliding a button on the side of the recorder that allows you to connect the recorder to your computer to download your recordings. Once the connection is made, you can also rename files and folders on the device from your desktop – those changes are clearly visible on the device, something that is not done with other options and that can be useful for long-term planning.
The Philips recorder does not have this function at all; at Olympus, Anna was able to rename files and folders from her Mac, but the device no longer recognized them (the Olympus manual warns of this possibility).
It has a rechargeable battery, which charges through that USB plug. This means you won’t have to worry about having disposable batteries on hand. The UX560 doesn’t come with a wall charger — you’ll need to use a USB charger or connect the recorder to a computer to charge it; if you have a recent Apple laptop or other computer with only USB-C ports, you’ll need an adapter.
On a full charge, you can record 27 hours in the commonly used MP3 format, or 23 hours in the highest quality 560 setting (uncompressed LPCM audio at 44.1 kHz, or “CD quality” audio). Anna recorded for about two hours, and the battery indicator showed that the recorder was still fully charged.
It has enough storage capacity. The recorder comes with 4 GB of storage, which allows approximately 39 hours of recording using MP3 format at 192 Kbps; that compares to what you get with most records we’ve reviewed. The covered but easily accessible MicroSD slot allows for 32 GB of storage space if you need more recording hours. The UX560 offers a variety of file and recording formats so you can choose better sound quality or smaller file sizes.
Additional features make an already good recorder stand out from the crowd. Choose from a “noise cut” filter (which cuts out both low and high frequency sounds) or a low cut filter to reduce noisy low frequencies and isolated booming sounds. Scene selection presets allow you to optimize EQ settings and microphone sensitivity for lectures, meetings, interviews, voice notes, and loud and soft music situations. You can mark places in your recording over time, so you can return to them later as you listen, and voice-activated recording can automatically pause during pauses in the conversation. (This feature was present in all recordings tested, or you may prefer to pause and restart the recording to make sure you get the sound you want.)
Selecting the Clear Voice function during playback helped reduce background noise in our coffee shop and lecture recordings but didn’t make as much of a difference as the noise cancellation feature on the Olympus. The UX560’s other playback options, however, make it a better choice than the Olympus for people who want to record interviews or studies: the AB Repeat function lets you go back and play the same section over and over again, and the digital volume control lets you adjust the playback speed if you need to listen closely to passages that are difficult to decipher. The UX560 has a recording mode that will give you a clean interface with fewer distractions while recording if that’s your thing, but you can still fast forward, rewind, and adjust the digital volume control in normal playback mode. Oddly, you won’t be able to use AB Repeat to replay the same section over and over again in record mode.
For better sound quality, you can connect an external microphone, although we think that would not be necessary for most people given the good results we were able to get with the internal microphones in our various test situations. The UX560 also has a headphone jack for monitoring recordings and listening to playback.
We love its sleek, portable design. The UX560 is a small, compact recorder that feels good in the hand, and its matte plastic and clear design make it look a little cheaper than the others reviewed. At just 4 inches long, 1.5 inches wide, and 0.44 inches thick, the UX560 is the smallest recorder we’ve tested. It can easily fit in a shirt pocket or a pocket of thick jeans, while some records are almost twice as big and fit better in a purse or briefcase.
Like all recorders we’ve tested, the UX560 also comes with a belt loop if you want to add a wrist strap or lanyard; you’ll need to provide your own, although it’s easy enough to find an inexpensive option.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The screen dims and eventually turns off during recording. This is a bit annoying, but the LED shows that you are still recording.
It doesn’t have a delete button. This recorder also doesn’t have an easy delete button, so you’ll need to navigate through its menu to delete recordings.
