Olympus WS-883 Digital Voice Recorder

Cheap product

This product broke on me two days ago. It is cheap and not worth the price. It lasted only 3 1/2 months.

Kevin Olson

December 3, 2025

Well made recorder

Excellent recorder. Even the tiny speaker is clear enough to check recordings. The menus could be better but they work once you get used to them. I enjoy using the WS-883 just about every day. Well made and starts up quickly to capture thoughts and ideas.

OM System Olympus Digital Voice Recorder

Excellent

It’s ok

I have a few issues with this recorder. The person has to be really close. , and on top of that this recorded decides to shut off by itself, even when it’s on hold and locked to record.

I have a situation where I need a dependable and this isn’t it

Burlington East

May 24, 2023

Nice if you need it

This is a nice little hand recorder. It has tons of functions and you can plug it in and upload the recordings to your computer as well. This would be great in a situation where you need to record but can’t bring a smartphone or if you need to record hours and hours of information. This would make a nice gift to someone that needs it.

Amaryllis Myrtle

May 18, 2023

Very easy to use, reliable two mic recorder from a legendary brand!

Olympus Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of optics and reprography products established in 1919 and initially specializing in microscopes and thermometers. OM stands for Olympus Maitani, a brand of cameras, binoculars and audio recorders introduced by Olympus in 1972. The OM System stereo recorders line offers simple and friendly digital voice recorders that are perfect for everyday use. With long battery life and large LCD screens, this recorder is easy for anyone to view calendars, search notes, and control playback speeds.

This recorder feels great in hand and appears to be very well made and durable, built to withstand some heavy use over many, many years. The button layout is super intuitive and makes it very easy to make any menu selection with one hand, a classic design tried and tested by Olympus over decades and it still works!

This recorder looks very classic and nice, and it comes nicely packaged so it could work nicely as a gifting item. The duo microphone design allows for a very detailed recording of events and surroundings. The two microphones are capable of picking up soft voices and sounds from a distance with crisp, clear playback very accurately and efficiently. With Scene Modes option, the recorder's software also allows to automatically adjust settings for the best results in different scenarios such as Dictation, Meetings, Conferences and Telephone Recording. This filters out the backgrounds noises and cleans up the voice to be audible even in noisy settings or at longer distances from the mics. Perfect for recording lectures or speeches in a larger conference rooms or churches!

Tacha

May 5, 2023

A recorder with many useful features

This OM System WS-883 Digital Voice Recorder, Linear PCM/MP3 Recording Formats, USB Direct, 8gb Playback Speed and Volume Adjust, File Index, Erase Selected Files is very similar to the WS-710m that I purchased many years ago to record my college lectures. I felt it would be a good idea to upgrade to this new version, assuming Olympus would have continued to improve an already excellent product. In case anyone is considering doing the same, I've shared some images to demonstrate the hardware differences between the two. The WS-883 is unquestionably larger and heavier than the 710m. It requires two batteries instead of one and does not come with a storage pouch. The folder structure is the same as in previous versions. You have the same directories for recordings and music playback, plus it adds a Podcasts folder. The navigation appears to be identical as well. As a result, upgrading isn't that big of an issue.

I appreciate how you can switch between recording scenes. There are presets for lectures, conferences, meetings, dictations, and DNS (for speech recognition software). I haven't tried every option, but I know the lecture and dictation options work nicely. This model also includes an FM radio. The provided instructions are quite rudimentary, but you can download the manual, which is over 100 pages long, from the Olympus website. Everything is clearly described with numerous illustrations. It explains step by step how to preset radio stations, for example, but what I needed right away was directions on how to turn off the beeping every time you press a button (p. 75).

This recorder offers numerous useful features, such as the ability to extract the speaking portions of your files. This is quite useful when transcribing conversations. It is really simple to charge and access your files. Simply slide out the USB connector and plug it into your computer. You just need to click OK to begin charging. My Windows 11 PC immediately recognized this recorder and launched the explorer, allowing me to copy my files. There are just too many other exciting features to describe here; instead, I recommend downloading the manual to learn everything this recorder is capable of.