The Olympus VN-4100PC is an excellent value. It's perfect for tasks such as recording a lecture or meeting, making verbal to-do lists, practicing a speech or presentation, and so on. Some reviewers criticize it because it's not very good at recording music, and the play-back is monaural, and they're right. It's not really designed for professional-style, stereo recording. As is the case with all machines, you have to live within its design limits.
The VN-4100PC has some very nice features that make it an excellent value. It is shirt-picket small and very light weight. The controls are simple and intuitive enough that you can operate it out of the package, without even reading the instructions. (However, the instructions tell you how to perform important setup functions, so you should read them.) In short, it's a nice, small, light personal audio recorder.
The built-in microphone is actually pretty good, but if you leave the recorder in your pocket while you're recording, you'll get quite a bit of ambient noise. The same can happen if you prop it on a book. There are two ways to work around this limitation, which is inherent to all similar recorders. Either put the machine on something soft on the desk, such as a coat, or buy an external microphone. The external microphone is probably the best way to go; you'll get far superior electronics, and it's easy to clip or place the mic so you can avoid the ambient noise.
This certainly isn't a high-end, professional-grade recorder. It wasn't designed to be one. Rather, it's a convenient, low-cost personal recorder that does exactly what it's supposed to do. It's an excellent value for the money. I'm very happy I bought it, and I'd do it again.
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