Founded originally under the name of TakachihoSeisakusho, the name Olympus has now also become synonymous with top of the line voice recorders and accessories for the consummate businessman and attentive student.

Now, Olympus has combined this flare for voice recording electronics with the consumer's need for digital music players, with their line of digital voice recorders with music players

With the highest consumer vote of extreme popularity of all the Olympus lines of digital player/voice recorders, the Olympus WS-300M weighs in at only 1.6 ounces with LCD audio system built-in display. Its price ranges from $102.79 up to $149.99, with several online stores offering free shipping - such as buydig.com or Beach Camera.

A compact brush silver device, it is equipped with 256MB of internal memory, for up to 68 hours of recording time and stores up to 120 music tracks. It can plug directly into any PC or Mac, and then uploads or downloads files as chosen. The big seller for it is no cables, docking station, and no special software.

It is simply a mass storage device for music, dictation, images and data digital data files. No driver installation is necessary and its USB direct. The WS-300M is a high quality WMA/MP3 music playback function with WOW/SRS effect. It has a backlit, full dot, LCD display - with four recording modes (SHQ/HQ/SP/LP) and five folders for file management.

The second highest popular digital player and voice recorder that was chosen by the mainstream is the Olympus WS-320M. Basically the same as the WS-300M, it has the ability to store and play up to 266 songs, with the track and artist name on the LCD display. There is an average 277 hours of recording time, with a direct USB port link to upload or download immediately, and a built-in stereo microphone.

The real big difference between the two is the price: as stated above, the 300M has a price tag of $102.79-$149.99, while the price tag of the 320M has a price tag of $159.99-$179.99. There also seemed to be more merchants carrying the 300M (16) than the 320M (3) in the online stores.

The installed memory of the Olympus WS-300M is 256MB while the memory of the 320M is 1 GB. Both audio formats were WMA andMP3, with a USB interface, headphones, and microphone. Both had PC and Mac system compatibility. Neck straps are available on both devices, with a silver color on the 300M and black on the 320M. The power source for both is AAA type batteries, weighing .1 lbs, with dimensions of 3.7" x 1.5" x .4" for similar dimensions.

Olympus presents its WS-300M, WS-310M, and WS-320M for consumers needing more recording time with an easier transfer process. The WS-300M gives 68 hours of recording time and the ability to download approximately 66 songs, the WS-310M provides 138 hours of recording time and 132 songs, and the WS-320M is capable of recording 277 hours of audio while holding 266 songs.