Tonfarb 136GB Digital Voice Recorder with Playback,9775 Hours Audio Record

This recorder FEELS great. It’s heavy enough to feel stout, but not so much that it would bother you. The menus could be laid out better, but aren’t that hard to figure out. I bought this for a strange reason. I am a ham radio operator who is CONSTANTLY listening to the police scanner. Everyone I know texts me, asking if I know what’s going on when they see police activity. Long story short, after hearing traffic a few times that I wish I could play back, I decided that I needed to start recording the police traffic in my area so I could listen to incidents after the fact. I have this recorder connected to the line out on my ham radio, using the mic jack on the recorder. It’s split, with the output going to an external speaker as well. When you start a recording with something plugged into the mic jack, it asks if it is “line in” or “microphone”. Using the “line in” option, without an attenuator, and at about 80% volume, it records perfectly clear. It CAN take line level input, up to a point. The speaker is perfectly loud for my needs at this level. An attenuator would make up for the last 20% of the volume on the speaker if I needed it. I don’t trust the no name SD card it came with, so I upgraded to a Samsung 512 GB card. I have it set to save off recordings in hour long increments (MP3, max bitrate). It’s averaging about 85 MB per hour. So about 200 days on a card that size. At that rate, I’ll just dump or wipe the recordings every 6 months, and offload anything interesting that happens. I wish it had a loop record option, so I didn’t have to remember to do that, but you can format the card from the menus, so it doesn’t get any easier to reset when it gets full. It’s also nice that the file names for the recordings are automatically named with the date and time they are started. (You can set it to constantly record and save off recordings at certain length intervals). When downloading the files, they show up as a USB storage device, so no confusion there! For $33.00, this is perfect for what I needed it for. Hopefully it doesn’t burn up from 24/7 use. I will update this review if it does. Menus and manual are chinglish, but they aren’t super confusing. UPDATE: This device, even when plugged into a charger, will not record 24/7. I'm not sure how long it stays on, but I went to check on this after several weeks, and it had powered off. I still think this is a great device, however it does not work for the application I outlined above for 24/7 audio recording. UPDATE 2: I had a 512 GB SD card in the device, and was recording in 60 minute intervals. When the number of files in the directory reached 200, it said it had reached the file limit. After switching to a longer recording length, it said my storage was full at about 100 GB. This seems like a great bargain for a good device, but for my use, it has too many shortcomings.

This digital voice recorder works so well. The recordings play crisp and clear from the actual recorder. Loud as well. I was skeptical as it wasn’t a known brand but I am so pleased with this recorder. I will definitely buy again when I need another. It is the cutest pink color and surprisingly lightweight and small. It is fairly easy to use however I did not find the instructions guide particularly easy to understand. I have not yet tried to transfer information from it to my computer.

This digital voice recorder is what I needed for my job. It is absolutely very helpful. Extremely easy to use. The playback is very clear. The appearance is very small versatile. It fits in your pocket very discreet if you wanna hide it. Great product.

I really liked the available colors, mine is pink. It is small and compact, easy to use with clear and concise options to navigate settings. It records well, but if you want to use it for lectures, you need to be close to the professor for better sound. I'm taking one star because when I first started it, it stayed frozen on Welcome mode for a long while, it wouldn't even turn off. Eventually, I pressed the power button straight for about five minutes. It finally turned off and I continued to press the power button for another five minutes. After a short time, it came back on on its own and it was fine.

I wasn't sure if I would like this lil unit. After learning how to operate it, I have to say I really really like it. Lots of storage and it picks up my voice super clear and clean. So now I'm trying to figure out how to plug it into my laptop and see if it will write what I've recorded. I would definitely recommend this lil package. Great value for the money.

EDIT:And then I used the thing. Hence the edit. I hated the thing. But I got lucky because the back button didn’t work correctly. And boy am I grateful! That allowed me to send the thing back. This sound is very poor. And it seems to be designed by engineers who thought up various things that might be nice to put into a recorder, but there’s no common sense about it. The old saying is, “form follows function!“ In other words, make it so that it works with the functions which you want to perform. Not just random haphazard punch this button or do it this way and you get that. They didn’t stop to think well, the Customer is probably going to punch this button first. And this is what they’re going to want to do first period and then this is what they might want to do after that. Nope! The way that you access various functions is all over the place! For me, the lack of voice quality was the most critical. My iPhone blows this completely out of the water with it/ voice recorded app. If I had realised that I had that on my iPhone, I wouldn’t have bought this! My original review: However the instructions, which are written in very good English, are kind of like word salad. You unfold this sheet of paper and you have tex covering both sides. However, things are sort of scattered about. There is a good graphic of the recorder and the buttons on it are numbered and there is a chart showing the numbered points and what they do. But that’s where the assistance stops! I’ve scanned what they’ve written and it wasn’t a much help to me. I was able to figure out how to record, and how to dump what I want to dump. So I think I can make this work for my purposes, but I think it’s pretty frustrating. What they needed to write was step-by-step: how to make a record recording. And then after that had to listen to the recordings you have. And then after that, how to dump one or many. I looked this model yp on YouTube. The video I found (maybe I didn’t search well enough) was simply detailing what you get as the man took the things out of the box. Phooey.! I am also quite a bit disgruntled with the back button and the button with the graphic of a left facing arrow. Both do the same thing. They take the User back to the beginning of the recording! So if you want to hear a word that you just heard repeated, you’re going to be waiting a long time to hear that word as you listen to everything leading up to it. For the massive but yet not terribly usable instruction sheet, and the inability to backspace just a bit (from what I can discern from the instruction Irons), they’re getting a four star but they’re our times when I wonder if I should’ve given it at three. However, it seems to be well-made, is quite compact, and has good voice quality so…you be the judge.

Excellent sound quality and plenty of storage, even without a memory card. The user interface is simple enough. Works great for recording zoom meetings so I can review what was discussed later on.

I purchased this to record interviews and then load the mp files into transcription software. The issue I'm having is that the recorder isn't the best at picking up the whole conversation. If the person changes their tone, it has a very hard time picking it up when they speak softly, even if the recorder is sitting two feet in front of them. I have tried to play with the settings to increase what it picks up but am still having issues. If there is background noise when recording, it has an even harder time with this. The recorder battery life seems to be good for all-day use.