Portable recorder with decent built-in speaker

[massimo]

Hi,
I am in the market for a portable digital recorder. Main use: sketch recordings of music ideas on guitar.

One year ago I made the mistake of going the cheap way. I bought the Swissonic MDR-2. A waste of money. Main con: horribly noisy when handheld, the kind of scratching noise you get when you touch the capsule of a microphone with your fingertip skin, but the whole damn plastic box acts like a mic capsule, producing very loud noise!
Odd as it may seem, the main feature I am looking for is a decent, and sufficiently loud (so to speak), built-in speaker. I used to use a Sony walkman with built-in speaker for recording my fresh ideas on guitar - the main use I foresee. Listening back and forth freely without headphones and their cable was priceless, so this is my priority. Bought the Swissonic also since it was the only one with buit-in speaker at the time. Big disappointment in this field, too: it is far too weak (i.e. too quiet, even at maximum volume), to the point of being practically unusable.
Now, I've seen the Olympus LS11, Tascam DR-100, and Zoom H4n have a speaker.
Are their speakers at least usable in your experience? Do they make noise when handheld (if I want to use it for things other than recording myself?). Yes I know these are expensive for the use I mentioned, but discovering that I can do acceptable field recordings (e.g. rehearsals etc.) with it as well wouldn't hurt for sure - I once heard the quality of an Edirol 09 recording through big studio monitors at a friend's place, and was very impressed...

Thank you
best regards
Massimo

[massimo]

Help anyone with first-hand experience with these little toys?

[rumleymusic]

Are their speakers at least usable in your experience?

No. They are not usable for any practical application other than checking to make sure something was actually recorded. The sound quality is not much better than your average cell phone loud speaker.

[massimo]

Thanks, Daniel-

no, I am not looking for any "quality" with those speakers, obviously. Just that they can be "loud" enough so I must not wear earplugs. My old trusty (25 years) Sony walkman, R.I.P., had a tiny speaker that did the job perfectly, sort of old-fashioned battery-powered FM pocket radios, while my Swissonic is far too weak for some reason.

best regards
Massimo

[rumleymusic]

I have the Tascam. The included speaker in not very loud. Even with the volume all the way up, you need a quiet environment to really hear anything clearly. I'm not sure abou the zoom or olympus, but I would assume the same thing.

[massimo]

Daniel-

that's unfortunate! I've had an eye on that Tascam...Speaker aside, how does it work for you?

best regards
Massimo

[rumleymusic]

It is excellent. I know people with the Zoom, and the Tascam is a definite step up. It is pretty durable also, my 1 year old just pulled it off my desk and dropped it onto the hard tile floor and it operates fine, mics and all.