I've had my new Sharp MD-DR7 now for a week and have been able to put it
through it's menus, learned the titling procedures, edited lots of samples,
etc. The recordings I've made with it seem at the outset to be comparable
to recordings made with the Sony MZ-R30 and -R50 recorders - no big
surprises there. Self noise seems about comparable with the Sonys.
Things I like about this recorder:
1. Adjustable record level while recording - like all Sharps
2. No need to be sure you've hit "End Search" before recording - like all
Sharps. New recordings are always started at the end of the last track.
3. Recording and mode-setting are all done by default - I tell the recorder
what the default settings are and every recording is started with those
settings upon the press of one button. With the Sonys you press the
"Record" slider and the "Pause" button at one time, hold the "Record"
slider in one position until the record mode changes to "Manual Record",
then press the "Mode" button to switch to Mono recording - you have to do
this every time you start recording! All these settings are set as the
default settings on the Sharp.
4. Track and disc naming utility is much easier with the Sharp - no more
wearing out the reed switches picking the letters in a track name.
5. The battery, although it is NiMH, not Lithium Ion, is tiny and gives
10.5 hours of record time, 27 hours of playback on a 3-hour recharge. The
recorder also comes with a AA "outrigger" caddy that holds one AA battery -
it will supply 13 hours of recording and more than 40 hours of playback!
This guy is energy efficient.
6. Finally, I LOVE the "Trace-Back Recording" feature. This allows you to
set (as default) a 5-second, 10-second, or 30-second pre-record. No need to
reset it each time you turn the unit on or start recording. I've kept mine
on 10-second trace back and it has worked flawlessly. This will get me that
Cooper's Hawk that suddenly flies into the tree just above my head and
calls while the recorder is in record-pause.
This that I dislike:
1. There is no Day/Date marking of tracks. Sonys automatically mark each
recording with the day and date of each track. No such utility with the Sharp.
2. This unit is still a Japan-only unit. The instruction manual, except for
a very condensed section, is in Japanese. The English manual is available,
though, at MiniDisc.org, so I downloaded the .pdf file and printed it. No
biggy.
All in all (and very preliminarily) I like this unit a lot. If anyone would
like a particular test, let me know.
I know Martyn has one too, by now, so did I leave anything out, Martyn?
Doug
Doug Von Gausig
Clarkdale, Arizona, USA
Moderator
Nature Recordists e-mail group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturerecordists
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