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Re: Sony HiMD questions

Subject: Re: Sony HiMD questions
From: "Curt Olson" flipov411
Date: Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:43 am (PDT)
I'll add my observations to what Rob has already said:

> I have an old Sony MD recorder (MZ-R55) that I use as my
> always-in-your-pocket-recorder. The noise floor of the mic preamp is
> terrible and useless for natural ambiences but okay for louder sources
> like busy train stations.

I have several Sony digital recorders going way back to the NT-1
micro-DAT and TCD-D7 DAT. They all sound darned nice to me. I don't
hear much difference from model to model over the years. Like Rob and
others have said, your mics will make a bigger difference.

> Now I want to get one of the Sony HiMD 'pro-line' recorders, like the
> MZ-M100. I have checked some information in this group and on the web,
> but a few questions remain:
>
>
> 1) How about the headphone levels? Can you boost them more than an old
> consumer-type headphone out ? I have Beyerdynamics DT 770 which is a
> great set of headphones but needs more level than most others, my
> MZ-R55's maximum output is not enough for decent monitoring.

I recently picked up an MZ-100. The headphone amp is more than powerful
enough for any phones I have.

> 2) There already is a new series of HiMD's like the MZ-RH1. The big
> advantage for recording that I found was that finally you don't have
> to dive into the menu any more to set the record mode to manual gain.
> The recorder will remember your last setting.

Yup. Oh to have the recorder start up in "manual" mode! If the RH1
supported USB file transfer to Mac, I would have chosen it for that
reason. Metering on the side of the unit looks nice too, but immediate
Mac support was the deciding factor for me. (And it's great! A full
disc, an hour-an-a-half of PCM audio, transfers to the Mac in about 20
minutes. That might not seem like much to those with the new high-end
CF recorders, but for me it "kicks the can" far enough down the road
that it temporarily reduces my yearnings for a costly SD 7XX.)

> The disadvantage (in my idea) would be that they don't have the
> 'outboard' AA-battery-holder any more that you can add when the power
> of the internal battery is down. Any other essential differences for
> ambience recording that I'm missing here?

So far I'm reasonably happy with the gum-stick batteries, but it's nice
to be able to quickly pop on the AA side car. It doesn't feel terribly
solid or secure, however, even when it's on nice and snug.

> 3) Sony HiMD recorders are praised for their low-noise mic preamps. I
> have read that this is possible because of a digital preamp, which
> probably means that there is a fixed AD-conversion-level (or maybe
> two, hi-sens and low sens..?). That would mean that at a certain
> volume the signal might clip at the input of the DA-converter. Of
> course the point when this occurs depends on the microphone too. Can
> anyone give an indication about the SPL or type of source when
> clipping starts to happen with a common mike that can handle high SPL?
> Or am I just too clip-phobic here and there's nothing to worry about?
> (Well actually the noise has given me more trouble than clipping in
> the past, so I just ask this to make myself feel certain I don't buy
> the wrong thing.. ;-)

I've been pleasantly surprised with both the MZ-NH700 and the MZ-100
that sudden high SPLs don't clip as badly as I would have expected. It
seems to sound more like a running hard into a brick-wall limiter than
ragged clipping of an input -- at least in the few cases I've observed
lately.

You raise an interesting question here that I've had for a long time.
Exactly what does the high- and low-sens switching do? And exactly
where in the signal path does it happen? You also have me wondering
about the signal flow of mic pre and AD conversion. Knowing the exact
flow might help isolate the cause of the occasional low-end "bottoming
out" some of us noticed.

Curt Olson





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