Hi
IMHO at your $200 price point I think you would be
hard pushed to beat the 'bang-for-buck' of the Sony MZ
RH1.
Here is a review of it:
http://www.wildlife-sound.org/equipment/himd/rh1.html
Downloading from Hi-MD is by propriety software which
some people don't get on with. So far fingers crossed
and touch wood I can report my experience as being
good.
The more expensive option at around $600 would
probably be the Fostex FR2-LE, which records to
compact flash card. There have been some very good
samples recently from Raimund Spech and Curt Olson, do
a search.
The current crop of 'modestly' priced Compact Flash
recorders all seem to suffer with noisy microphone
pre-amps.
Both the Sony Hi-MD and the Fostex would allow you to
use the highest quality microphones around due to
there very low noise. The disadvantage of the Sony is
there is no phantom power, it only supplies PIP, plug
in power.
But there are some very good non-phantom power mic's
you can use with it. None more so that the latest from
Klas EMK-23 omni's, hear them here:
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/audio-art-tech-gallery/pages/EMKS-23-WL183-WM-61A-=
EM158-NT4-35-0190-MicsComp.html
Or any of the Sennheiser range based around the K6
module for instance, as these can be powered by
battery or phantom, or the Shure WL183's.
The Hi-MD does have the advantage of being very
compact such you can slip it in your pocket when out
recording. That coupled with using pip or other
self-powered microphones can make for a very portable
recording kit.
For a really neat set-up I like Dan Dugan's where he
'wears' his Shure WL183's as 'epaulets', which I think
is excellent idea. Shove a Hi-MD in your pocket and
off you go instant recording 'outfit' :-)
And here he is wearing it:
http://www.dandugan.com/downloads/1647%20dan_vest_in_action.JPG
So if the price point of $200 is main the
consideration then I would suggest the Sony. But if
more money was available then I would plumb for the
Fostex. But either one will give very good results.
I hope the above is of some use to you.
(I must pass on my thanks again to Rob for his
excellent web pages I have linked to and to Richard of
The Wildlife Recording Society for his review of the
Sony MZ RH1.)
Phil
--- losangelesprofessor <> wrote:
> I need some advice, and there is so much material in
> the archive I
> need some "summary" opinion. I use fairly fancy
> equipment (Schoeps and
> SoundDevices), and even that was bought given advice
> from professional
> colleagues. But I want to recommend equipment to
> colleagues who want
> to get into recording, often urban sounds. I used to
> recommend a
> MiniDisc (pre-HiMD) recorder, often Sharp since AGC
> did not kick in
> automatically, and some Core Sound binaurals, but
> the world has
> changed with digital CF recorders, downloading by
> USB or Firewire,
> etc. I know there has been lots of consideration on
> the list-- Please
> help. My main concerns would be good preamps and
> ADC, that is accuracy
> and reasonably low noise. Keep in mind that these
> users are unlikely
> to read this list or any other. So it needs to work
> right, right out
> of the box.
>
> PS The microphone world has not changed so much. Let
> us say we want to
> spend $200+ if need be, no fancy setup.
>
> Thank you all for your considered advice. I am
> grateful to the list,
> to Rob Danielson's website, ...
> Martin Krieger
> Professor of Planning
> Univ of Southern California
>
>
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