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Equipment advice

Subject: Equipment advice
From: roglet ivan <>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 22:40:55 +0100 (CET)
Hi All,



I use for some years now a deck recorder(marantz PMD 430)  added to the

Sennheiser K6 Mics and seriously think to go for the MD format.

Although not the perfect combination(the marantz pre amps are not that quie=
t),

it gave me a lot of fun and taught me a lot about sound recording.



I read already your threads(big thanks to all of you,they really help) and =
some

equipment reviews on the web but do have some questions.



I was thinking to buy the HHB portadisc or the Marantz PMD 650.

In a review about the HHB portadisc,the author of the review wrote the foll=
owing:

"Judging by the Portadisc's sturdy XLR inputs and HHB's professional pedigr=
ee, I expected good performance from the Portadisc's mic preamps. To my sur=
prise, the analog electronics were the Portadisc's weakest link.

Some of my field-recording work involves capturing quiet sounds from nature=
, often recorded from a distance. For premium results, that requires a quie=
t (not to mention accurate) mic preamp. Though the Portadisc's mic preamps =
were acceptable for recording close-miked dialog or amplified music, they a=
re noticeably noisy when recording quiet sources.

Even more annoying than the noise level from the preamps is a subtle whine =
that appears in recordings when the deck's phantom power is engaged. After =
I discovered that problem on the original review unit, HHB kindly sent anot=
her deck for me to test. The second machine was something of an improvement=
, but it did not entirely resolve the discouraging problem.

So, I was quite surprised when I read that some of you used this machine.

What do you think about this problem?

Was it an early generation issue? Did they fix this problem ?

Do you use separate mic preamps then?

Using the K6, the mic preamps are one of my main concern.

The phantom power is not a problem(with the K6) but if I give an update to=


my mics too, it will become one.

What about the marantz PMD650 mic preamps then?

If someone is using one...



And I do have a stupid question ;o)

Using the PMD 430,one of the nice thing was the off tape recording possibil=
ity,

allowing me to listen to what I was recording (because of the 3rd head).

Is it possible with the MD recorder then?

I didn't find the answer yet...



Any advice is welcome, and many thanks again to all of you

Have a nice evening

Ivan



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