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Re: Aliasing/noise problems with newer Sharp MDs?

Subject: Re: Aliasing/noise problems with newer Sharp MDs?
From: "digidandy" <>
Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 07:32:20 -0000
> When I raise the level to above normal gains, I do
> hear a sputtery quality to the hiss.  I guess my
> question would be: Do you hear any distortion on
> program material?

This is the noise I am talking about ("the sputtery quality").

Program material is not distorted, but, as I said in another post,
the noise is quite audible between loud program material (loud sound,
silence, then loud sound again, silence etc.) - and it will be there
when recording quiet sounds (depending, of course, on the program
material in question; sounds with strong mid-range presence will
naturally mask the "sputtering" very good, like traffic noise etc.).

The main reason for my concern is A) that the "sputtering" is
translated into a bigger problem when for example manipulating
recorded program material in my Mac afterwards (be it transposition
or whatever), and B) unfavourable comparisons with a Sharp MT-290
(tests under similar conditions)...and C) that Sharp, according to
the shop where I bought the 420 and the 580, seems to have admitted
(albeit very quietly) to some kind of design flaw in the mic pre-amp
of the 420 - which is also a 1-bit-player. That's why the shop told
me there would be no point in giving me a brand new 420, because the
noise would still be there.

I will post a couple of recordings made with the mic turned on (room
ambience) later today.

Thanks for all your help!

Oivind.


> Eric
>
> --- digidandy <> wrote:
>
> ---------------------------------
> I=B4m now on my second Sharp 1-bit minidisc recorder.
> First one was
> a 420H, which after
> eight weeks at the repair shop was finally "scrapped"
> after Sharp
> Sweden apparently
> admitted to an inherent design flaw.
>
> The flaw showed itself in the form of a "static" kind
> of noise in the
> upper mid-range,
> particularly strong in the right channel. It would
> appear even when a
> mic was connected to
> the mic input, but not turned on.
>
> Because of the hassle I got a very good deal on the
> Sharp top model,
> the IM-DR580 (also
> called IM-DR80).
>
> However, there is a similar kind of noise in "silent"
> recordings done
> with this machine.
> Take a listen to this sound file, recorded while the
> mic was off and
> the input mic level set
> to L18:
>
> http://home.broadpark.no/~oidso/Sharp580S_18.aif
>
> If you download this file and increase gain, even
> normalize it, you
> will hear the effect best.
> Turning up your volume loud will also reveal the
> noise.
>
> I have been comparing these noises with a friend=B4s old
> MT290, and
> there is as far as I can
> tell no similar noise problems.
>
> Is Sharp cutting corners? Why won=B4t their top model
> record better
> sound than a unit that
> costs about 1/4 of its price?
>
> Anyone done any similar tests? Anyone know what on
> earth this noise
> is?
>
> Oivind.
>
>
>
> "Microphones are not ears,
> Loudspeakers are not birds,
> A listening room is not nature."
> Klas Strandberg
>
>
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