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The Dictaphone is a dictation machine used to record speech and other sounds that can later be replayed. A dictaphone is primarily used for transcribing and allows you to record with ease without needing to manually take down every single word. Dictaphones are convenient for journalists, lawyers, office assistants, students, writers and musicians as well as other professionals.

Dictaphone is the name of a company that manufactures dictation machines. The name became synonymous with the machines and, later on, irrespective of the make and design, dictaphone became a generic name for every dictation machine. The earliest sound recording device was called the phonograph and was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. It used wax cylinders to record sound and was referred to as the “Ediphone”. Gradually, dictation formats such as the sound scriber, the Gray Audio graph, the Dictabelt, magnetic tapes and compact, mini and micro cassette recorders were introduced. The first digital dictation machines and voice recorders entered the market in 1990.

There are two kinds of voice recorders: cassette and digital. The former has been around for longer and uses regular sized or micro cassettes, which need to be rewound each time for playback. While they are good for archiving, these are comparatively bulky, are susceptible to heat and can easily be lost, recorded over, or physically damaged. Slim, stylish and compact digital voice recorders have now replaced these much larger cassette recorders. You can choose between a simple voice recorder or one with a built-in FM and MP3 player. The Digital Speech Standard (DSS) format, which most machines use, records data in compatible formats such as WMA or MP3.

Digital voice reorders have a multitude of advantages: they allow you to organise recordings into separate folders; consume much less disk space; can transfer data to a computer via an USB port; and allow data to be archived onto a CD or a DVD. Furthermore, supporting data for a presentation can be copied from the computer to the voice recorder.

Modern dictaphones come with a mono microphone and a set of headphones. Depending on your budget there are many additional features you can choose. These include hi-tech voice recorders with advanced features such as a zoom microphone; built-in speakers; ambient noise reduction; expandable flash memory; a colour LCD display screen; basic audio editing software; adjustable speeds; voice activation; voice recording software; FM tuner and MP3 player; USB connectivity and energy efficient batteries.