Below are issues raised in initial reports by owners of the
new M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 (abbreviated MT below)
on the Taperssection.com discussion forums. I tried to
weed out the obvious user errors, but be aware that
some of these issues may be caused by failing to read the
manual rather than any shortcoming of the recorder.
Read specs for the Microtrack 2496 here
http://m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack2496-main.html
Street price seems to be $400, with a few dealers as low
as $350.=20
--oryoki
problems reported by owners
------------------------------
MT phantom power provides only 30vdc, not 48vdc
no digital to analog conversion when recording from SPDIF
(hence no headphone monitoring, no RCA out)
MT has unexplained crashes, requires you to hold the power button 20
secs to turn unit off, then press again to turn back on
Annoying sound/pop in headphones when saving a recording, and
sometimes also when starting a recording
must be recording to monitor or set record levels,
you can't change levels in record/pause mode
MT does not display record levels during playback
Owners report difficulties playing files on the MT. Workaround seems
to be to start any file playing, then scroll to the file you want to
play back and select it.
problems acknowledged by M-Audio
------------------------------
MT can't record 24 bit digital input (S/PDIF 16/44.1 and 16/48 work OK)
can't hear audio as you fast forward or rewind (audio "scrub")
can't record one channel only, MT always records two channels even
when you have a mono input. This uses up space on the Compactflash
card twice as fast as mono would.
recorder shuts down (properly saving the file) when 2GB file limit is
reached. Unclear if M-Audio plans to raise this limit, or to have
firmware automatically start a new file when 2GB is reached.
software controlling Line/Mic/High Gain switch works backwards
(i.e., Line setting really is High Gain, and vice versa)
kudos
------------------------------
meters work well, show peaks and clips as well
bit-accurate recording from 16/48 digital input
unit properly saves the file it's recording when the power gives out
unit will record when powered by external 5VDC USB battery ("CHG"
symbol shows in LCD display)
issues to be aware of
------------------------------
MT takes 20 to 30 seconds to power up
When using line-in, set levels high to record at the same volume as
the source material
1/8" stereo TRS jack does not accept line level signal, only mic
(use 1/4" mono TS jacks, or put 20dB pad on 1/8" TRS input)
Battery symbol will flash during charging, stays solid when finished
charging. "Charging complete" message is displayed for only a few
seconds.=20
High bit rate WAV recording uses more power than MP3. Users report
internal battery provides only 3 hours recording 24/96 WAV, without
using phantom power. Another user reports over 5 hours batery life
when recording low bit rate MP3.
MT stops charging when external battery box voltage drops only a
little. Battery box with 4 2500 mAh AA NiMH cells added only 2 hours
to record time (from 3 to 5 hours). AA cells still had plenty of
power. Owners report longer life using Alkaline and Lithium AA batteries.
RCA jack for S/PDIF input is very close to USB power connector. May
have to shave your USB and RCA plugs a little if you plan to record
digital input while using external power.
L/M/H switch can't be changed after the MT is powered up. You need to
power down, set the switch, and restart.
other interesting information
------------------------------
Analysis of the self-noise of the MT shows the noise level to be
generally better than -100dB. However, there were strange problems
with left channel of the 1/4" TS input on this particular recorder..
The 1/8" TRS results were much more consistent. It will be
interesting to see if these results can be duplicated.
http://home.rustradio.org/~rdvdijk/microtrack/
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