First, have you explored the use of either an external mic using the VR 
Stream, or a wireless mic with the receiver plugged in the what ever 
recorder he winds up with.  It would be more complicated, the the results 
would be great, much less ambient room noise etc.  I got a Nady mini-cam mic 
for around $100 but that was maybe six years ago.  Don't know if they still 
make them but it has very adequate range for a classroom setting.  There are 
probably other similar wireless mic's available.    About recorders, Olympus 
has a variety of them but don't know the size of the controls so that could 
be problematic.  The PlexTalk Pocket has pretty well defined rounded buttons 
but he would have to check one out to see if he could feel them 
sufficiently.  I think all the devices have headphone jacks.  Jim WA6EKS


-----Original Message----- 
From: Pat Byrne
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2014 4:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Off topic - Digital Recorder

I am looking for a very basic digital recorder.  I know this subject
has been covered here before, but then I wasn't personally interested.
My wife has a student who is taking college level classes and wishes
to record the lectures.  He has a Victor Stream II and the recording
volume and quality are insufficient to meet his needs.  he is very
visually impaired as well as severely hearing impaired.  Not due to
the above but he is technologically in the early stages!  He would
like a recorder that would record two hour classes.  It should have
as good recording quality as possible and a lot of output audio.  It
would be better if it were larger with larger buttons and controls
since there is some manual neuropathy involved.  The possibility of
an external headphone jack would be good as well as an external mike
input jack.
To avoid cluttering the list, please send responses directly to me ;
[log in to unmask]

Thanks a lot.
Pat, K9JAU