I am considering buying a small portable sound recorder, and would be
interested in suggestions/recommendations people may be able to make that
would suit the following requirements, etc.

The recorder will be used to record spoken word discussions, not music.
Hence it need not be of outstanding 'hi fi' quality, but I'd obviously like
good clear speech recordings to be possible. The main idea is a recorder
easy and convenient to use for making a record of conversations with a
minimum of fuss.

I'd like a digital recorder (MiniDisc or an equivalent) able to record up
to 1 or 2 hours at a time.

The unit will be used by my wife as well as by myself. She has epilepsy,
and hence it will need to be rugged (to protect it against the effects of
being dropped or mistreated if she has a fit whilst using the recorder),
portable, and reasonably cheap (so if she loses it, it will be no big
deal).

It will also need to be compact and simple to use. Inbuilt mics but with
sensitivity/noise levels good enough for conversation recordings without
having to hold the mics to the mouth like a dictaphone. One-button
recording action, with the ability to automatically adjust the gain, or
fairly clear and simple metering and obvious gain control. Light, small,
etc. Pref uses standard batteries of a size/type I can easily recharge even
if this is done out of the actual recorder.

Ideally have an S/PDIF output so I can then transfer recordings onto CDR
using an audio CDRW recorder.

My only experience up to now is with dedicated 'hi fi' recorders of various
sorts which are part of mains-powered systems, and where the quality of
recording is the prime consideration. Not had any experience of serious
speech recordings using a portable, so I currently don't know what might
suit this application best.

Ideas? :-)

Slainte,

Jim

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