7 Tips for Choosing a Telephone Recorder
If you search for the term “telephone recorder” on any Internet search engine, you’ll find millions of results. If you go to any web site selling such recorders, you’ll find cassette recorders and digital recorders, machines using microcassette and standard cassette, landline and cell phone devices, and a range of prices from a few tens of dollars to a few hundred dollars.
It is almost impossible to compare the lowest-priced telephone recorder with the highest-priced device, because the features are so different on the two machines. Both will record telephone calls, but beyond that similarity, they are two very different pieces of equipment.
In order to choose the telephone recorder that suits your requirements, you need to know what you want to do, and how you want to do it. Then you will know what type of machine you need and how much you can expect to pay for that device.
These tips will help you narrow down the selections and choose the best recorder for your situation.
- Know what you need to record. If you intend to record business conversations so that you can review the details, you need crystal-clear sound quality, first and foremost. You may also need a lot of storage capacity, if you intend to record many conversations. If your conversations tend to run over one hour, a digital phone recorder will capture the whole call without changing tapes.
- Know how often you intend to record phone calls. If you plan to use your recorder every day, will you have time to clean the heads on a cassette recorder weekly? Will you be saving all of your conversations, and if so, how much will it cost to archive conversations on tape? Do you need the extended storage time a digital recorder provides? Will an inexpensive recorder hold up under the amount of use you require?
- Know where you’ll be recording calls. If you’re planning to record cell phone conversations, you will need a telephone recorder designed to work with a cell phone. Traditional recorders attach to the phone between the handset and the base, and this obviously won’t work with cell phones.
- Consider the power source. Some telephone recorders use only batteries, while others can be plugged into the wall. A device that can use either batteries or an AC adaptor will be more flexible, allowing you to record using the adaptor if your batteries die, or run on batteries if a plug is not available. Also check the type of batteries. Rechargeable batteries are cheaper and often last longer than disposables.
- Find out whether the recorder is detectable by the other party. You should always let someone know they’re being recorded and get their permission. However, some phone recording devices emit a noticeable beep or other sound to let people know they’re being recorded. While you don’t want to hide what you’re doing, the beep can be distracting during a conversation.
- Know how you intend to archive your conversations. If you use cassette tapes to record phone calls, and you intend to keep some or all of your conversations on file, you will soon have an enormous number of tapes to catalog and store. If cataloging and retrieving your phone conversations is important to you, consider using a digital telephone recorder that lets you upload your files to your computer and burn them to CD or DVD for storage.
- Think about how many copies you will need. To duplicate a cassette tape, you will need to keep a master, and all copies must be made from the original tape. Playback quality will decrease with use, and copies of copies will not sound as good as the original. When you use a digital recorder, every copy will sound just like the original, and the file will not deteriorate with use. If you need copies, get a digital device.
Buying a telephone recorder involves several decisions, but simply thinking about what you intend to do and what features you need for those uses will help you make the right decision.
Tags: conversations | telephone | recorder | record