--- In Rob Danielson <> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the insights Mike. After-mod specs
> would be a useful indication of the relevancy of
> the mod for recording in quiet locations.
You won't find any hard specs from Oade. That's just the way he
works. He seems to market more on reputation than specifications, for
what that's worth.
> recording ambient sounds." It perplexes me at
> this juncture in recording technology that one
> manufacturer can turn out a "consumer" recorder
> with very high gain, very low noise, ample
> headroom and very acceptable sounding A-D, while
> another will turn out a recorder for the "pro"
> market with poor mic pre performance listed for
> double the cost.
>
It is rather mysterious isn't it? It certainly seems possible that
Sharp could take everything they learned from making minidisc
recorders and build a compact flash unit the same size and with none
of Sony's licensing issues.
I've been using minidisc since 2000, but this year bought a Marantz CF
recorder. It's bigger, more expensive, and the media is costly enough
that it requires a computer as the archival storage or to burn CDs as
the "archival" storage. I must be nuts, right?
I used the minidisc with a pair of small electret mics and a battery
box. Portability was great, but everything was very fiddly to connect
and use. I never had mechanical problems, but the 1/8" jacks for the
microphones don't inspire confidence. I had lots of issues from
handling noise along the mic cables. I found the external battery box
necessary for the mics to get some extra dynamic range at times, and
to filter out very low rumble many times.
I chose the recorder I did because it was relatively small, and should
do everything I wanted in one box, because it had XLR mic connectors
so I could use higher quality, and better mechanically isolated
microphones. The early 660 that I got in March did this, but the pre
was disappointing. I was able to make some good recordings with this,
but some aspects were rather difficult.
The Oade modified 660 I got last month solves the preamp issues and
keeps everything in one package. So far it works for *me*. I'm happy
with the sound quality and haven't had the mechanical sound issues
from minidisc.
So there's at least one version of why Marantz can find a market for
this thing...
> My testing methods are far from perfect, but I'd
> be happy to do a high gain, A/B "clock" test on a
> 660(s) if anyone has one they can spare for a few
> days. I'm still hoping to locate a R-1 & R-4 too.
> Rob D.
>
I could do that here on the stock and modified 660s. Might be
interesting. Valid only to compare these two units, of course, if I
set up in my conditions. If I ever get a quiet day at home, I'll try
to remember to do this.
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