{"id":2648,"date":"2017-12-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepodcasthost.com\/uncategorised\/sony-icd-px470-digital-recorder-podcasting-review\/"},"modified":"2024-11-29T12:09:14","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T12:09:14","slug":"sony-icd-px470-digital-recorder-podcasting-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepodcasthost.com\/equipment\/sony-icd-px470-digital-recorder-podcasting-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sony ICD-PX470 Digital Recorder | A Podcasting Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There’s a plethora of entry-level digital recorders on the market nowadays. And whilst I usually find myself recommending the Zoom H1<\/a> or the Tascam DR-05<\/a> to beginners, I’m always open to trying out new models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Granted, the Sony ICD-PX470<\/a> probably isn’t designed to compete with the H1 or the DR-05, but it is<\/em> made by Sony, who are certainly no amateurs in this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of that, it’s also around \u00a330\/$30 cheaper than the other two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be more reasonable to compare the PX470 with the Olympus WS-853<\/a> – and it costs less than that model too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sony ICD-PX470 is currently available on Amazon for $46 and Amazon UK for \u00a344.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, price isn’t everything of course. Is it any good for your podcasting needs? Read on and find out…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look, Feel, & Design<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One big positive that was immediately noticeable to me is that the recorder can be operated with one hand, using your thumb, in the same way you navigate your phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The built-in stereo mics are on the top of the recorder, along with the 3.5mm headphone and audio in external mic jacks. There’s a tactile dot beside the audio in jack, as well as on the play button, which is great from an accessibility point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The display window on the front is always clear enough, and never too cluttered. It doesn’t have a backlight, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a built-in speaker on the front too for listening back to your recordings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t

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Other Features<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The recorder is powered by two AAA batteries. These are provided with the recorder, though they’re not rechargeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a micro SD card slot on the side. An SD card isn’t included with the recorder, though it has 4GB of built-in storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The slider on the back pushes out a USB connection that lets you plug the recorder directly into your computer to access your files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buttons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There’s the standard record and stop buttons on the front. The record button doubles up as a pause button too, meaning you can pause then resume your recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the front middle there’s the play button, surrounded by the four-way control button. Aside from toggling through the menus, you can also use this to access DPC (digital pitch control), repeat play, fast forward, and fast backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s 3 smaller buttons on the front. A back\/home button, a track-mark button for adding markers to audio inside the recorder, and an option button to access the settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the sides there’s a playback volume button, and a power\/hold button which switches the recorder on or off and can lock the device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recording<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There’s a little indicator light above the display window which comes on when you’re recording. This flashes when you pause a recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually this type of light will flash when you peak\/clip but this one doesn’t, though admittedly it’s hard to clip your recordings in any setting on the PX470.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can apply a low-cut filter to reduce unwanted wind, handling, and popping noises in your recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s also an auto voice recording option which optimises audio settings for vocal frequencies, and helps further reduce unwanted background noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

File Settings & Storage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You can record 4 different types of audio file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WAV 44,100, 16 bit stereo<\/a> – I’d recommend going with this unless you’re tight for storage space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two stereo MP3 settings are available, 192kbps and 128kbps<\/a>. These are good enough quality as-is, but if you plan on editing your audio it’s always better to record in WAV format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a mono 48kbps option, but I’d try and avoid that, especially if you’ll be doing any editing later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mentioned storage, and you can get nearly 60 hours of audio recording at 128kbps, whilst recording in WAV won’t get you much more than 5 total hours, so there might be certain situations where the former is the better option!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levels<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Setting your input volume levels is made pretty simple on the PX470.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can select from 4 options, low, medium, high, or auto, in the mic sensitivity menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a 6-bar input level meter on the display window during recording, and Sony advise that you look for that hitting around 3\/6 or 4\/6 for optimal results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scenes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The scene select menu is designed to let you pick a setting that fits your recording environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For podcasters, the two obvious ones here would be Interview<\/em> or Voice Notes<\/em> (solo) if you wanted to try something other than the auto voice setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s also Meeting<\/em> which might suit a roundtable discussion, and Lecture<\/em> which is designed to pick up (funnily enough) a lecture or front-room presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sound Quality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The PX470 is a low-cost device, but that’s arguably reflected in the audio quality, which is a little lower than I’d usually look for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a sample on the ‘auto’ setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n