Fo everyone interested in the Edirol R-4 issue, here is an e-mail I just
received from Doug Oade, the engineer extraordinaire at Oade Brothers:
HI!
The stock unit sounds like it uses the same chips used in in the R1 and
similar caps resulting in performance not much better than a stock UA5,
M Audio DUO, etc. Low level signals are noisy and carry too much
distortion, probably from low grade caps used to block the P48. We feel
that a mod will be needed to bring it to the level a professional
recordist that hopes to release the recordings would demand. If used
simply to document the presence of birds or insects, or with an external
HQ preamp (like the Grace V2), it is fine stock. A minimum of replacing
the op amps and capacitors is needed to satisfy the professional market
that expects HQ signal quality via the mic inputs for soft sounds. We
hoped they would use the INA163, used by Grace and Apogee but they did
not take it to that level of signal quality.
Our MOD FR-2 is significantly more quiet than the stock unit and does
use state of the art chips and parts to achieve the highest possible
fidelity with that circuit topology. We feel a preamp built on
transconductance technology, like the Apogee or Grace design is best
suited to very high gain applications like nature recording as current
feedback devices do not suffer from the same limitations as voltage
feedback designs do. An INA163 based mic preamp ( like the Grace V3,
modified by Grace for higher gain) used with high output mics like
Schoeps or AKG C480, etc. produces excellent results. If you need the
best for the lowest possible cost, our Pro MOD FR-2 is a great choice
and cost 1600.00 for the FR-2 plus the MOD.
I hope this helps.....>Doug
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