Paul Jacobson wrote:
> I've also made up a wire mesh cage and fake "arctic fox" furry which
> has really helped with wind protection.
Would you be willing to post a photo or two of this? I'm pretty sure my
wind protection is a lot cruder than yours, and I could use an idea or
two.
> I've made a really short test file comparing the self noise at typical
> recording levels. Based on the figures on wildlife-sound.org I figure
> that at "17" on line in I'm attenuating the 60dB preamp gain by 7db so
> get 53dB effective gain. The same data would suggest that "22" on "hi"
> gives roughly 53dB gain. No guarantees on how accurate these figures
> actually are!! I've terminated all mic inputs with 200Ohm resistors.
> The file has the internal pre first and the external second.
>
> http://www.mactrix.com.au/files/recordings/preampcomp.wav
Thank you Paul. This confirms my own seat-of-the-pants comparison tests
with a Sony MZ-M100. The internal pre is much noisier than a quality
external pre (Sound Devices Mix Pre, in my case) feeding the line
input. This combination (Mix Pre > MZ-M100 line in) is frankly quite
impressive, though limited to 16 bits and, as you say below, somewhat
"fiddly" in the field.
"20" on line input seems to be pretty close to unity gain.
> That said and done I'm about upgrade to a HD-P2 as I have been finding
> the preamp/RH1 combination fiddly to deal with in the field. This
> mainly due to the preamp being quite bulky, but there are a number of
> things about the RH1 which I find less than ideal. The display is
> virtually impossible to read in any kind of sunlight, so
> it makes setting levels extremely hit and miss. I also find setting
> levels on the RH1 to be a bit clumsy when trying to make quick
> adjustments.
Unfortunately "yes" to all the above.
Curt Olson
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