Product Description

Olympus digital voice recorders offer excellent sound quality together with the latest multimedia features. For mobile people, who frequently dictate, Olympus has developed the perfect system, which heralds a new era in mobile communication.This voice cancellation microphone reduces background noise for clear dictation, which makes it ideal for computer speech recognition.

Product Details

• Brand: Olympus
• Model: 145031
• Dimensions: 7.87" h x 27.56" w x 43.31" l, 1.00 pounds

Features

• Ideal for transcription
• Increases transcription accuracy by reducing ambient noise
• Simply plugs into digital voice recorders
• Usable with all digital voice recorders using the DSS file format

Amazon.com Product Description
The Olympus ME-12 Noise Canceling Microphone is specifically designed to reduce the effects of ambient noise. This microphone is especially recommended as a way to improve transcription accuracy when using digital dictations in conjunction with voice recognition software.

Customer Reviews

Quick test
I bought a couple of microphones looking to replace my Plantronics .Audio desktop microphone. Of them were the Koss M-18, Logitech USB Desktop, and this one.

This Olympus was the cheapest of the 3. It's sensitivity is a little low. This helps with canceling a lot of background noise & makes sense as the primary purpose of this mic was usage with digital recorders. However, any dictation where the source is further than 10 inches may not record clearly.

I was using the mic with my PC audio card so results may vary when using it with the suggested Olympus recorders.

Better off without mic
I married this mic to the Olympus WS-200S Digital Voice Recorder, which by the way plays in stereo. When attaching the mic there was a significant loss of volume, as the system only used one channel rather than stereo. The resulting loss of volume requiered the volume to be turned up during playback increasing backround noise levels. I use this device to record class lectures at the college level. Without the mic I was able to hear student questions from the back clearly. With the mic installed, I could no longer make out all the questions from the high volume related static.

Good mic at a great price
Better for interviews than the built-in mic on Olympus voice recorders. I have the WS-320M recorder. The ME-12 mic is not as sensitive as the built-in, though. The ME-12 is at its best when dictating, and not as good when recording a lecture from far away.

Works great with an extension cable, and is especially good for recording live interviews. You can move the mic where you want it depending on who's speaking.