• Voice-activated recording system

• 1-touch recording, great for meetings and notes

• Cue, review, and pause controls

• Built-in condenser mic

• Slim palm-fit design with a lustrous silver finish

The RN-305 sits squarely in the middle of Panasonic's RN line of microcassette recorders. It doesn't come with many advanced features, but what you do get is a solid recording device with voice-activation capability that runs for more than a dozen hours on a pair of AA batteries.

The voice-activated recording technology used in the RN-305 works better than we expected and usually only clipped off the first part of the first word that activated it. However, though it's easy to set the sound level required to activate the voice-activated recording feature, we achieved universally better results when we manually started and stopped the recorder. The RN-305 runs on batteries and has an external 3-volt power jack, but no AC adapter is included.

This recorder also comes with a feature that doubles your recording time by slowing down the tape speed. The recording quality does take a slight hit, but the results are still intelligible. We also liked the fast-play feature, which plays back recordings faster to make transcribing easier. The pitch of the recording rises to Chipmunks level when this option is enabled, but this is par for the course with this feature.

The RN-305 has a headphone jack, but if you need an external microphone jack, you'll want to opt instead for the feature-rich (and more expensive) Panasonic RN-405. Without a microphone jack, the RN-305 cannot record telephone interviews, and the device also lacks other handy features like a tape counter and a low-battery light. Still, the unit is a generally good workhorse that should appeal to students, employees who need to record meetings, and other users looking for a no-frills microcassette recorder that works as advertised. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Voice-activated recording feature works better than expected
• Inexpensive
• Good battery life

Cons:

• Few advanced features
• No microphone

I saw this one, it was much cheaper than the digital recorders that I was looking at. I tried it as soon as I got home. If you buy this, be sure to pick up a 3pk of micro-cassettes and 2 AA batteries.

It has worked pretty well. I don't use the voice activation feature. Making sure to get everything that I need on tape is far to important, so I just record.

I really wish that this also had a spot for a plug in microphone. It would really come in handy when trying to get some comments when you are standing in a crowd. A wrist strap would also be nice, so you don't have to worry about dropping this thing.

If you can afford a digital recorder, get it. If you can't or aren't going to use it enough to make it worth spending that kind of money, this is a great alternative.

12 of 14 found the following review helpful:


Doesn't quite work  Aug 20, 2000 By Matthew Fields "Splendor in Sound"
In voice-activated mode, records a noisy beep every 2 seconds, thus almost completely obscuring the recording. This is with new Panasonic batteries. Problem only appears in voice-activated mode.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:


A Good Buy  Jun 20, 2001 By B. Hauck "bettiola"
This is just what I was looking for - an inexpensive, hand-held cassette machine I could use for personal "dictation". I like the voice-activated feature. It's definitely nothing fancy, but for the price I wasn't expecting anything fancy. By the way, I chose it based on other people's reviews here of this product and found them very helpful. (Also, Panasonic products have a good frequency-of-repair record, according to Consumer Reports.)

11 of 21 found the following review helpful:


An Good Microcassette Recorder  Jun 15, 2000 By Pasha
I've tried other more expensive recorders; however, I was very pleasantly surprised that this GE was an excellent recorder with really good recording fidelity and playback fidelity. It's small, very portable, and sturdy. It is easy to load with batteries and tape and the adjustable mike sensitivity setting is really good. This machine is excellent for my formal and informal use and of course, excellent at the price.

See all 6 customer reviews on Amazon.com