Among the handheld digital recorders we’ve looked at at the NAMM Show, the Olympus LS-10 looked really interesting.

A bit taller/longer than some of the other recorders we’ve seen (and will write up soon, we promise), the LS-10 captures sound in extremely high fidelity, 24-bit/96 kHz Linear PCM Recording, that “sounds twice as good as a CD,” according to the company rep. In the noisy confines of the Anaheim Convention Center (one of the most chaotic, noisy places on earth), playback through headphones really did sound surprisingly good. 

The LS-10 offers the standard variety of audio file formats: WAV, MP3 and WMA for recording and playback. It has built-in 2GB NAND Flash memory, and can accommodate a removable SD/SDHC card up to 8 GB. It runs on two AA batteries (and can supposedly run up to 8 hours on these alone), and has an AC adapter as well. The Olympus recorder also has built-in high-sensitivity and low-noise stereo microphones and mic jack for use with other microphones. 

Olympus, more famous for its very nice cameras, is advocating the use of the LS-10 for field recordings, as in documentary work and the like. The recorder can be set up on a small tripod, and controlled via a wireless remote control, both of which come standard with the LS-10. The user can unobtrusively capture audio.