In this section, we publish letters submitted by AccessWorld readers on a range of topics. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, you can do so by sending an email to the Editor, Aaron Preece or by activating the "Comment on this article" link at the bottom of any article.
This month's messages are all in reference to Jamie Pauls's September 2020 article, Victor Reader Stream, a Product Worth Considering—Or Reconsidering.
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
I have had the 2nd Gen Victor Reader Stream for 7 years now and I love it! It is the one piece of technology I can honestly say I use every single day, even when away from home. It is so handy! I love its ease of use. I use it to listen to NLS books, podcasts, and Internet radio stations. I have also used it to record short notes and to download music. I appreciate the ability to use Wiktionary and Wikipedia using the Stream when I am listening to a book and want to look up the meaning of a word or to find out additional information about a particular topic. It is totally worth the cost, and if mine ever stopped working I would immediately purchase another one.
Candy L.
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
I was lucky that there were Amazon resellers that may sell the VR Stream, for a little lower than $350, which was how I was able to get a hold of the 2nd generation VRStream over a year ago, after I found out that you can't get battery replacements anymore for the 1st generation VR stream.
As much as I love my iPhone—and it's great to access BARD and other services through iOS—I still prefer to do my talking book reading using the Victor Stream, with no interruptions from notifications that you have to reach over and make shut up.
And yes, I am a proud supporter of keeping physical buttons alive too—they are more accurate than the tapping and swiping over a smooth surface, and more direct.
One thing I like to do...is, if I'm on hold with some company and I know the hold time is going to be quite some time, I'll put my phone on speaker and grab good ol' reliable Vicky, and enjoy reading whilst at the same time monitoring for that representative to finally get to me.
Joy
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
I love my Victor Reader Stream! It's now got 70 books on it, and I can read them without interruptions from Facebook, or Messenger, or Apple News telling me something I can eventually find out anyway I can relax and read at night without interruption. I love it, and don't plan to get rid of it. The Victor's already on its second battery! Thanks for this article. I'm glad there are others out there like me.
Sharon Geddes
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
For me, the Victor Reader Stream is not worth the price. I demand higher audio quality for that price. Its frequency response is only down to 50HZ, and the top I think stops somewhere around 10K, maybe 12.
Yes it's nice that it records in .wav but again it's not worth the price for what you get.
If they put better audio components in it, then it'd be worth a second look.
I tried this thing and my first thought was, "Wow…. $395 for this kind of audio?" I can get an MP3 player from talkingmp3players.com with better audio than that. I can get an iPod, which will have better audio than that, for less money (if I only need 32GB.)
Nah. No good. Give me high quality audio, then let's talk. If it's gonna be a music player and recorder on top of playing speech recordings, then its audio section needs major improvement. I think I would have kept it or at least considered keeping it if the audio was better. That means the DAC, the mics, etc.
That being said, most would not notice, and the only way I got these specs was through calling Humanware and asking.
This device is great for some, but not for anyone who cares about audio. It is a specialty blindness product whose primary function is spoken-word audio with that extra stuff included as niceties.
John
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
I am in strong agreement with this article. The Victor Reader Stream is definitely my go-to device when accessing audio/text content. For me, having a dedicated device for reading/listening meets my lifestyle.
I would like to see the device receive more updates/features. My wish list would include the ability to perform voice dictation in text entry fields and the ability to pair to a Bluetooth keyboard.
Jeff Harrington
