On 3/1/07, Ray <> wrote:
> Greetings, All. I'm considering purchasing a Sony MZ-M200 portable MD
> recorder and would welcome opinions of list members who are familiar
> with Sony MD recorders in general and, better still, this particular
> model. Thank you in advance for any recommendations.
Hi Ray,
I wouldn't be surprised if the usual suspects chime in, but in the
meantime you may wish to search the archives for discussion of HiMD,
in particular of recent models including the MZ-RH1, which is the PC
cousin of the M200. This is an extensively discussed and recurring
topic here (too much so for many peoples' tastes :) ).
The short answer is that they are very highly regarded for sound
quality, which is remarkable for the price, but that they suffer the
same limitations of all small portable MD recorders -- miniature
controls, small display, and no phantom power or XLR connectors, for
example.
This particular generation of HiMD remedies many of the traditional
weaknesses of MD, including the ability to make uncompressed
recordings and improved abilities to simply upload via USB at fast
than realtime. Transers are still not as easy as with CF/harddrive
recorders however. Also this particular unit may require a homebrew
external battery sled for extended field use since it only has its own
rechargeable battery.
Personally I'm still an advocate of HiMD for reasons that are specific
to the way I typically record; you can read my thoughts here:
http://quietamerican.org/links_diy-MDvsDAT.html
Btw if you need to provide phantom power to mics in the field there
are several battery-powered units made by Rolls and ART that are
commonly recommended to pair with this generation of HiMD gear.
If you watch this group for a week or two you will probably quickly
get a sense of the other recorders people are considering in the same
price range, including the Edirol R-09, the M-Audio Microtrack 2496,
and the Zoom H4. A pair of newcomers with very short track records
are the new Korg DSD recorders. All of these have various strengths
and weaknesses depending on your needs.
best regards,
aaron
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