I purchased this to record my daughter’s piano recitals. I researched the options and found this to give me the best feature set for the money. What was important to me was easy transfer of files to my PC, good battery life, cheap and expandable media, ease of use, choice of manual and auto record levels, and the ability to change recording levels once recording has started. And of course it should make good sounding recordings!

This device met all of these criteria both on paper an in actual use. To play around with it, I have been recording my daughter’s practice sessions. I was shocked at the sound quality even from the built in microphones. The resulting recording had no hiss, had good punch in the low end, didn’t audibly distort even when the peak light would light, and had great stereo imaging. Wow! Transferring files to my PC is literally drag-n-drop since the device appears as an external drive when connected to the PC. I’ve recorded about 5 hours along with about 3 hours of playback and the battery charge indicator still hasn’t dropped. This is using the provided alkaline batteries.

I upgraded to a 16GB memory card that cost me <. That’s what I call a cheap storage upgrade from the 2GB card provided!

To really put it through it’s paces, I brought it along to record my daughter’s school play. The resulting recroding sounded awesome and was very faithful to how it sounded live. I was afraid that the audience clapping would really overload the microphones since I set the levels manually for the performers. Though there is clipping during the applause sections, it is not bad at all. I didn’t even feel the need to round out the clipping during post processing. My daughter was very excited to hear the recording afterwards and agreed that it sounded great. As a point of reference, I’ve been making all of my recordings as stereo 16 bit 44kHz WAV files (aka CD quality/spec).

There is a little bit of handling noise, but that is to be expected with a device with built in microphones. But if you are careful, you can minimize this. I tweaked the levels at the start and you can barely tell I was pushing buttons on it. During the entire performance, I just laid the DR-05 on the empty chair next to me.

The only downside I can find with this device is that the input is really hot for line-in. If you do not have control of the output you connect to the line-in, you may have a problem. This is stated in the manual. From my reading, the more expensive models have a true line-in where this isn’t a problem. If you plan to use this device to record from the outputs of a soundboard or other device, you may want to move up to a model that supports a true line-in. I don’t plan on using this device this way, so it isn’t an issue for me.

Coming from using a Sony HiMD Minidisc recorder for similar tasks in the past, I can’t tell you how much of a pleasure the DR-05 is to use. It is so easy to use and produces great results straight out of the box. I highly recommend this device.

Customer Video Review Length:: 2:30 Mins

I own a few portable digital audio recorders and the Tascam DR-05 functions very well. It’s bigger than I think it should be, but the button layout is super simple to use and I was able to control most of the features without reading the manual.

I wish the onboard mics had an X/Y pattern instead of being spread out, but the Tascam DR-07 Mark II, that is coming out soon will have that feature, so I might be getting that, too.

I haven’t delved into the feature that slows down the audio playback yet or some of the other special tricks this device can do, but all in all, it’s a great recorder so far.

The other reviews are accurate so I won’t go into the details deeply except for:

1. The AC adapter Amazon is “recommending” for this unit (PS-P520) is not correct. You need a power adapter that works with the small female USB input. The model number for the correct one is PS-P515U based on the info in the owners manual. Good luck finding one. I would plan on using batteries.

2. The external mic input is a balanced mini which is looking for “mic level” input. If you are doing something like I am, which is bringing in a signal from a device operating at line level output, you will be coming into the recorder too hot resulting in horrible distortion. I purchased a Sescom SEL2MTDR100 LN2MIC-TASDR100 cable from B&H Photo which should alleviate the problem. Basically it is mini cable with a built-in attenuator that pads down the signal -35DB. I paid plus shipping for that. You can adjust the input levels on the unit but it won’t solve this problem.

3. Definitely get a mini tripod, they are cheap. The unit probably works best in the upright position. It stands up on its own but if you are like me and you have a guitar in your lap and you want to just reach over and press “Record” and “Play” with one hand the unit is going to fall over.

Other than that the sound quality is decent and it is pretty easy to use.