At 11:00 AM -0800 1/30/07, Dan Dugan wrote:
>I've just received a Nagra ARES-M, Nagra's smallest, lowest-cost
>recorder and the first Swiss/Chinese collaboration for them. See:
>
>http://www.nagraaudio.com/pro/
>
>Right off it's just the right size and has all the features nature
>recordists need, including quiet PIP preamps (critical tests to
>follow).
>
>It has a serious defect in the mounting of the 3.5mm jacks (mic, line
>in, headphone, line out) a little below the surface of the case
>(.75mm for the inputs, 1.2mm for the outputs) so that the plugs don't
>insert far enough to lock securely. I think I'm going to have to
>grind down the plastic around the jacks.
>
>The human interface is fine but not very intuitive; the learning
>curve is steep but short. There are very helpful things like
>pre-record buffer (only 2 seconds max) and ten presets for mic types
>and levels. Loading a preset includes a default gain setting for that
>mic, and record gains can be locked, something that would be useful
>for survey work.
>
>The menu for the set-up of the presets is intentionally a bit hard to
>get to; I think the idea is that an engineer sets it up and hands it
>to a reporter who isn't that technical.
>
>There's a bewildering array of choices of encoding schemes, all
>16-bit max; PCM, MP2, MP3, and weird phone encodings like u-law.
>
>Tested so far with its snap-on stereo mic (looks like M-S, Nagra USA
>supplies it with the lower-noise Sennheiser capsules, not the stock
>model), Shure WL-183s, and Telinga EM-23s. Sounds great with all of
>them.
>
>I'm really busy right now, so if Rob Danielson has time to do
>comparisons before I do, I'll be happy to ship it out. Rob?
>
>-Dan Dugan
I'd love to, but not for a few weeks. We'll communicate. We might be
able to combine the ARES-M test with few other recorders in the less
than $500/channel club. Get Klas's EMKS-23 in there too? Never
thought I'd be reading about PIP in a Nagra. Rob D.
--
Rob Danielson
Peck School of the Arts
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/audio-art-tech-gallery/
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