We've long been fans of Olympus's superb LS-5 recorder - it's a stalwart of studio session and artist interview alike here at FM. The LS-3 offers perfect evidence as to what a further couple of years of refinement can do.

We've always loved the LS's pro-aimed 'proper hardware button for everything' policy. While the LS-3 is much smaller, it's still covered with buttons - and a big screen keeps you up to speed with easy to understand displays of vital info.

There's an incredible 4GB of storage on board, an SD card slot for more and the same full 24-bit recording as its bigger brother. Compromises come in the size of the mic capsules, but the difference in sound is negligible.