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Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Absolutely Perfect

Written by JA from Portland

Oct 19, 2006

I bought this device to record music sessions, and although it's advertised as a voice recorder it works very nicely for music even in large rooms, cafes, etc, although it doesn't pick up a guitar as well as an instrument mic (that's expected, though). Believe them when they say CD quality. I was astounded when I heard the playback, especially in vocals, and it picks up from a good distance.

On a fully charged video ipod, i could record about an hour and fifteen minutes worth of sound, sometimes stopping and starting again. I would say this item is perfect for:
Voice notes (lectures, voice-overs for video projects, interviews)
Music events (lessons, an ensemble group, live at a cafe)
Really anything you want to remember, playback, share with friends. Every recording goes straight to your itunes music library so it's really easy to convert to mp3 and send in emails.

This product is quality, useful, and fun! Smaller than it looks in the pictures, too. I'm really happy with it - don't hesitate!

105 of 124 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Musicians, don't buy it.

Written by GG from Nashville

Oct 18, 2006

The fact that you can plug in a charger is the big plus on this recorder, as both recorders I've tried (this and the Extrememac)sucked the life out of a fully charged battery FAST, but that's about it. Of course, the hard drive noise is well documented (and reason enough not to buy, if you care about the recording), but I actually had the device skipping - actually dropping beats out of the recording. Maybe a lemon? I tried it sitting on a piano during a rehearsal and tried both settings, with and without an external mic. It was just not worth it. Probably great for lectures (minus the skipping), but if you're a musician looking to record rehearsals or performances - get yourself a minidisc recorder. They still don't have anything comparable for an iPod. I returned both brands I tried.

91 of 116 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Poor design/good sound

Written by KA from Evanston

Oct 10, 2006

The sound quality is good and the autogain allows strong signal for lower volumn recording. In the off position it is fine for recording music without distortion. They need to design a better stand for this device. It is cheap and doesnt work well. Also poor design to have the USB connection in the bottom. Then the stand does not work at all.

52 of 68 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Great for lectures!

Written by JV from Old Bridge

Sep 13, 2006

I've had this product for two weeks now and have recorded every lecture so far and I must say, I am very impressed with the sound quality. The professor can be way in the back of the classroom and this little thing picks up her voice quite nicely.

The only minor complaint I have is that when you playback, you can hear the hard drive spin up every 15 seconds or so, which may be unacceptable to musicians and such, but for lectures, It doesn't really bother me. You can also attach an external microphone to avoid this problem. Oh yeah, and it drains a full battery in about 2 1/2 hours. But I don't usually record for that long anyway.

I say, buy it. It's a little expensive but if you're a student, you get a little bit of a break from apple.com

112 of 123 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

charging dilema

Written by CM from Stamford

Sep 9, 2006

The whole reason that I got this one is to charge and record for long lectures. It says records and charges with included CABLE. The cable only charges from a computer. Carrying my laptop to class to charge my tini iPod is a HASSLE. I can't find a charger online and now I have to hit the Apple retail store - doubtful.

59 of 85 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

great product, just a couple of nitpicks

Written by RJ from Waukesha

Aug 25, 2006

I found that the quality of the recording using the built-in mic was better than I'd expected and very clear, even at the low-quality setting. It's also very easy to use.

There were a couple of surprises, however. I wasn't expecting that external microphones (self-powered lapel mics) would record at only half the volume of the built-in mic, and the subtle background hiss reminds me of recording on cassette tape. Maybe this is simply not possible with any mic of this type, but it would be really nice to be able to monitor the recording through the earbuds and make any needed adjustments in mic settings or placement as needed, rather than having to play it back later and hope for the best.

Overall, though, for recording notes and podcasts, this is a great device, and never having to take my iPod out of its case to use it is a nice plus.

299 of 377 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

perfect for school

Written by DS from FREMONT

Aug 24, 2006

After long research I decided to buy this over micromemo.. here are the reasons:
1: It can charge while you record long lectures...
2: you dont have carry a microphone plus the recorder. Belkin's microphone is located inside the recorder.
3: Recording quality is very clear, its does pick up the hard disk noise once in a while but its not that bad.
I think if you are looking for a recorder for school purpose, definitely get this one over the micromemo because of the charging ability but if you are an artist and want nothing but clear sound with no hard drive noise then get the micromemo...... i hope this helps.

476 of 546 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

What a change from Gen 3

Written by CW from Ogdensburg

Aug 23, 2006

Just received my new Belkin Tune talk and am blown away with the quality compared to my old iTalk and 3rd gen iPod. Very clear and suits my purpose of recording pieces needed for my choir parts. Was pretty good on the Battery life of the iPod as well! FINALLY!

46 of 59 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Not impressed

Written by SF from Somerville

Aug 23, 2006

Adding this device to your ipod really sucks up the battery power. They do warn of this in their brief instructions. No speaker bummer--I should have read the information better. I had to force restart my ipod because I couldn't shut it down as a result of plugging it into the ipod. One good thing--the sound quality is good although, the recording range is questionable. My advice, try another product for your ipod or get a Dictaphone. I'm a student--I could have really made use of this--lesson learned.

51 of 74 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Cyrstal Clear Voice

Written by AR from Chicago

Aug 15, 2006

I bought this product a little skeptical because of my experience with other recorders quality but, this little device impressed me greatly. I use it for recording singers and instruments. What a great little invention.

51 of 58 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Great Recorder

Written by SM from San Antonio

Aug 7, 2006

I bought this last week and it has worked very well. I have been to a number of meetings and it is able to pick up the sounds with no problem. If you have to record speaches, meetings etc, this product does work. I only wish it came in White.

40 of 43 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Excellent quality, but totally unacceptable HDD noise

Written by MN from El Cajon

Aug 2, 2006

Overall the Belkin TuneTalk Stereo records excellent sound. I use mine for linguistic analysis of spoken languages.

Unfortunately, about 20 seconds into recording, the iPod HDD starts spinning, and the whir and click of the HDD are picked up by the "excellent" microphone, and render this product unusable. It then starts and stops spinning about every 20 seconds (I use the 5G 30gb).

PROS: excellent sound, line in, small, stereo recording, external power capability, fits iPods in cases, comes with power cable and stand (although kinda tacky).
CONS: horrible HDD sound interference, no built-in speaker for playback - imo, 2 very big cons.

Conclusion: if you want to use this mic to record information, but don't care about quality, it will work. If you care about the actual sound of the recording you're taking, steer clear. I could even hear the HDD during a recording of me playing guitar. My question is, why bother recording 44kHz stereo wav files if you don't care about the sound quality?

The only solution I can see is to buy a male/female dock extension cable so that the mic can be on a cable separate from the iPod. As useful as such a cable would be to many people (e.g., docking iPod without having to remove it from case, putting accessories like FM transmitters in convenient places while maintaining access to iPod), none exists (www.sendstation.com claims to have one in the making). Hopefully waiting for this cable isn't anything like waiting for a mic for the 5Gs....

110 of 120 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

I am amazed, this recorder is fantastic!

Written by JM

Aug 1, 2006

I am delighted with the outstanding performance of the Belkin TuneTalk Stereo: It is elegantly designed to coordinate with my black ipod video in a black leather case. The recorded sound quality is excellent in both high and low settings, with a clear and crisp natural tone. I have not detected any distracting hard drive noise. It is "feature rich", the feature I love is, being able to simultaneously charge and record at the same time, using the included USB cable with my IPod USB power adapter plugged into the wall, (no need to use my computer's USB port). Also, I have tried it with a small powered microphone - auto gain "on", the resulting recording was again, extremely crisp and clear. I also used the line in feature with my stereo, the results were the same excellent quality. The Belkin TuneTalk Stereo is a delight and very easy to use, it has enhanced the functionality of my Ipod Video. It is deserving of my "Five" stars.

70 of 81 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Hard Disk Noise (and Ugly)

Written by JF from Washington

Jul 27, 2006

This is one of three high quality audio recorders that are or soon will be available for the 5G iPod video: Belkin Tunetalk, Griffin iTalk Pro, and Xtrememac Micromemo. The best reviews, as always, are at iLounge.
The Belkin and the Griffin both have built-in stereo microphones. The stereo is useless and built-in means hard disk noise on the recording. Also the Belkin and Griffin lack speakers, and the Belkin has too many buttons and is just bug-eyed ugly.
The Belkin has two unique features. First, it can be used when the iPod is in a case (at least a Belkin case, and probably most others) – a big advantage. Second, the Belkin has a mini-USB port that can be used to charge, synchronize, or – most important – power the iPod while it is recording. This is critical for some users because, due to constant hard-disk usage, a 30 GB 5G iPod can only record 1.5 hours and a 60 GB model 3.5 hours of digital audio before the battery dies. On the other hand, for those of us are not going to carry around an AC adaptor anyway, this is a reason to be annoyed at Apple rather than to choose one iPod recorder over another. (Why couldn't they have kept a small-file, low-power recording option for those of us who just want to record lectures or conversation?)
(FYI, Apple has provided two voice recording quality options for the 5G iPod video: 'CD quality' at 1.4 mbps stereo and 'low quality' at 352 kbps mono – 5.5 times the bit-rate of an iTunes mono download.)
The Griffin is less ugly than the Belkin, but lacks the iPod-case feature and the mini-USB port, and like the Belkin has built-in stereo microphones (i.e., hard disk noise) and no speaker.
My choice is the Xtrememac Micromemo, both because it has a separate (detachable) mono microphone and because it has a speaker. The separate microphone means no hard disk noise on your recordings. (You can also attach better quality stereo microphones, as you can with the other two as well.) The speaker means that you can listen to recordings immediately without using headphones. Also, I would assume that you can use the speaker to listen to songs or podcasts as well as voice memo recordings – a whole new market for Xtrememac.
The main disadvantage of the Micromemo, aside from the lack of the Belkin's iPod-case feature and mini-USB port (and the fact that it's not for sale yet), is that the fools put an on/off button right in the middle of the speaker. This has to mean a lower-quality speaker – and anyway, why can't everything be controlled through the buttons on the iPod itself? (The ideal iPod voice recorder would have only a microphone input, a speaker, and a pass-through dock connector.) But for now, for me, it's the best choice.

448 of 555 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Way cool!

Written by AT from San Antonio

Jul 24, 2006

I have a similar device for my older generation iPod (plugs in top). This one has way batter sound quality!! Good job on Belkins part for finally producing one of these. I've been waiting for half a year for a video iPod compatible recorder. Great lil gadget for voice memos, recording music lessons, lectures, etc. Has a gain switch on the bottom, mic jack, and additional plug (assuming for firewire or USB charging/downloading).

If you were content with the older gen device, give this one a shot, you wont be disappointed. Unlike older gen models, this one doesn't play back thru a built in speaker. Must listen to recordings with headphones or thru iTunes.

39 of 44 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Impressive sound - it's about time!

Written by ND from Rexburg

Jul 22, 2006

It's about time this came around. I've been waiting a long time for a microphone for my 5G iPod.

I am a recording engineer, and I am very familiar with the performance of professional-grade microphones. No, I won't say that this little thing is comparable to them, but it sounds better than some condenser microphones I own that are twice as much money (which are pretty cheap for studio microphones).

I am very pleasantly surprised with the quality of this microphone. Granted, recording at 44.1 KHz at 16 bits in stereo is going to add a lot of life to recordings if you were used to the old recorder from Belkin that was for older iPods. It is a very pleasant surprise and will be used a great deal for field recording.

Be advised that it is limited to a recording time of one hour, which may negate the practicality of having it for those who record long lectures. That is the only down-side.

89 of 94 people found this useful

Belkin TuneTalk Stereo Microphones

Great sound!

Written by NG from Chino Hills

Jul 18, 2006

I just bought my TuneTalk at an Apple store today; it wasn't even on display yet. I had learned about this new device for the video iPods at the National Educational Computing Conference at the Apple exhibit earlier this month, so I asked about it at the store. The sound is great! The position of the "record" button makes it a little tricky to attach to the iPod without depressing that button, and the stand that comes with it is a little flimsy....but those are the only reasons why I didn't give it five stars. Now I see they are available here online. Go for it!

53 of 62 people found this useful