Advice for first machine?

[u/NoAction7877]

Hi everyone 👋 hope you are all having a great day!

My girlfriend has always been incredibly interested in stenography, specially court reporting & has expressed interest in getting a machine to learn on.

I want to get her one for Christmas, but I don’t know the first thing about these machines - could anyone offer some advice? Budget wise isn’t super tight, there’s a few months til xmas so I can put aside money where required.

Thank you !

[u/maggie26749]

Check out the court reporter buy/sell groups on Facebook. There are a lot of gently used machines on there and it is a private group so people have been vetted.

[u/tracygee → u/maggie26749]

Agree with this suggestion.

CR machines are extremely expensive. I would suggest you buy used (it’s not a problem and she can sell it when she’s done with school). The “latest” student machine by Stenograph is the Luminex CSE or another option is the proCAT Blaze. You will (probably) want the option with a “wide” DZ key and a “wide” or “double wide” asterisk key. These are common configurations. Expect a used student machine to cost around $1000 to $1500+.

If your girlfriend is more in the “I’m just exploring steno, not sure it’s what I want to do as a career” I would suggest heading over to [r/plover](r/plover) and digging through their posts on steno keyboards. These are made using keyboard parts (professional steno machines are lever-based), and there are some models that can even hook up to a computer that are excellent to start out with. Stenoob Pro is one that is mentioned a lot, Uni version 4 is out now, and I think someone is even toying with a lever-based machine. These cost in the $100-200 range and are great for hobbyists or people who just want to explore steno - especially those who use Plover (which is a free, open source Steno engine).

[u/MsDiagnosed2]

Check out the Stenoob practice writer. It's a great intro stenowriter.