Diamante feedback

[Jayne Foreman]

Has anyone bought or used the new diamante? I have been using it a week and have mixed feelings, some pluses and minuses. I'm not sure if the minuses are me or the machine, which is why I was looking for reviews.

[Celeste Silva]

Can you tell me what your pluses or minuses are? I'm planning on placing an order in the next few days and I'm real curious to talk to someone who already has one in their hands. So any input you have are greatly appreciated.

[Jayne Foreman]

Celsete, you can read my reply to Olivia because it was quite a long, detailed reply. Stenograph are saying my experiences are not the norm, so we'll wait and see when I get the machine back from writer support if things improve.

[Celeste Silva]

Wow, I guess I should have proofed my three sentences before I hit the send button!! Please excuse my errors!!!

[Olivia Guerrero]

Hi. We had a demonstration at our school on the machine and we just ooh'd and awed over it. There are a couple of students who said they were definitely buying it. I got swept away by the feel of the keys and the large screen.

What are the minuses you're experiencing? Are they something that would give me pause in buying it? Thanks for your help!

[Jayne Foreman]

Well, first of all the machine doesn't tilt forward, as well as my writing doesn't seem to change regardless of adjustments (there only appear to be 3 settings) on the tension and depth stroke dials. Compared to the Mira, I found this machine to be extremely sensitive and if I didn't quite take my fingers off the keys between strokes or depressed them ever so slightly, it would record steno, so I had extraneous steno coming up. I was also stacking a lot. For example, if I quickly wrote "he is not" or similar quick phrases, they would come up as one stroke stacked. My Q or A symbol would also be stacked with the first word of the Q or A, and it was very frustrating because I knew I would be working harder on editing. I've addressed all of this with stenograph, who told me to contact machine support, who asked me to return the machine so they could check all of these issues and sent me a mira loaner. Now, bear in mind I have a very light touch so you would think this machine would work well for me. On the plus side, the machine is lighter to carry, the large screen and view is great, and the other day I wrote for 11 straight hours with a one-hour break and my fingers and arms were not as tired as they usually would be after writing this long. When you are writing and looking at your screen there is a one line delay on the english so you're not seeing it instantaneously as you are writing, although the steno column is instantaneous. This is the steno/english view. In the english only or steno only view everything was instantaneous. Of course I'm frustrated and figured the true touch intelligence would take care of my tendency to stack (due to my very light touch) , so I don't understand how this intelligence works. It just wasn't working to my benefit. Stenograph told me they were getting good feedback so I don't understand why I'm the only one having these problems, which is why I was looking for my own feedback and not just taking their word. Of course, the machine could be a lemon and this is what we are looking into.

[Deborah M.]

Jayne, would you mind giving me an update on this situation? I bought a Mira several months ago and have had nothing but problems with stacking or the opposite problem of words splitting between lines. My untran rate went from .30-.75% on my 20-year-old Smartwriter to sometimes over 2%, and that doesn't even count all the split words that don't come out as untrans because they make little words themselves. The sales guy is coming over on Tuesday to try to help me adjust the Mira better, and he's going to try to sell me on an upgrade to the Diamante. And if that does the same thing and yet you aren't able to make key contact adjustments, it sounds like a step in the wrong direction! I'd love to hear from you and anyone else who's using the Diamante now. Thanks!

[Kathy Nielsen]

Deborah,

A friend of mine has the Mira and she was having the same problem with the strokes splitting. She turned the Smart Stroking feature off and that seems to help. If you have Smart Stroking turned on, maybe you could turn it off to see if that would help with the split strokes.

Kathy Nielsen

[Deborah M.]

Well, I've done that and then I get a lot of stacking. So I get to choose stacking or splitting -- which are both terrible! But thanks for the suggestion.

[Tami]

Deborah,

I came off a Smartwriter to a Mira, and it's been a very frustrating transition for me -- for about five years now??

I honestly believe the Smartwriter was the greatest machine ever built. I also think until they duplicate the mechanics, we're going to have to live with stacks through no fault of our own.

I did get some great advice from the machine guy in Seattle, Otec. (I always blow the spelling.)

Start charting your stacks. Raise the number in all the letters that consistently show up in every stack -- so you are making it less sensitive.

I also agree with Kathy to turn the Smart Stroke off. That is one of the first things I did years ago, and it helped a little.

Also, I have a very soft touch, so I like the least tension, shallowest stroke. If I adjust it completely all the way down to the shallowest stroke, my Mira becomes a stacking nightmare, so I have it adjusted one up from the shallowest stroke. Not ideal, but it's too frustrating the other way.

Lastly, I started looking at my stack strokes and added some common stack outlines in my daily endeavor to write shorter. Kind of like killing two birds with one stone. :)

[Deborah M.]

"I came off a Smartwriter to a Mira, and it's been a very frustrating transition for me -- for about five years now??"

OH, NOOOOOOO. Not what I wanted to hear. I like the least tension also. I will try your suggestion about watching the stacking. What a pain. I hope this guy coming Tuesday can help me. Maybe I should have gotten the LS, but it scared me!

I think it's ridiculous that the choice is either stacking or splitting, grrrr.

[Tami]

I tried the LS, too, and sent it back.

[Mary Jo Cochran]

Stenograph is selling CaseCatalyst for $3,000 with the purchase of a new Diamante ($5,000).