I decided I needed my own dictaphone when the one my office allocated me caught fire, possibly in protest at still having to work past retirement age ;)

I looked at several and decided on this Sony for a few reasons: first the price. It was just under £60 and that price for something with a good name was great for me. I like brand recognition for my own peace of mind. The next thing was the size of the dictaphone - it weighs less than 50g and is small, slim and elegant.

It holds 2GB of recordings - enough to record constantly for over 500 hours or two weeks - which is plenty for what I needed. It comes with a USB connector, and once attached to the computer it's a matter of drag and drop recordings into your computer, which plays them on your default media player. It records in MP3 and can play back in MP3 or WMA. It's compatible with Windows 2000 onwards and also with Mac software.

It can also filter out background noise, which is fantastic, and the sound quality is great. It also plays well with my voice recognition software, which my old one didn't because of the background sound.

It comes with a rechargeable battery, stereo headphones, USB cable, carry pouch, and in black, silver, pink or red. I'm really pleased with it, but in retrospect wish I'd paid the extra for the 300 model, which has twice the recording capacity and an FM tuner.

Recommended for anyone who has to record sound.