--- In Rob Danielson <> wrote:
>
> Hi Clay--
> As you are familiar with the MicroTrack and Zoom H2 and, if I recall
> correctly, you own a Hi-MD and do not find the former two up to your
> standards in terms of their mic input pre noise, you may be in for a
> wait.
Rob,
thanks as always for your thoughtful reply.
bummer about the wait. yes, I do have Hi-MD,
and had thought it was time to make the move
to SD cards exclusively.
OTOH, I guess 16 db self noise is not a horrible
limit for a pocketable solution.
I guess I'm surprised that no one are using
preamps of the quality of the minidisk in
a similar size package.
>
> As has been pointed out, recordists using mics with over ~16 dB(A)
> self-noise should be quite happy with the LS-10 and Raimund feels a
> high sensitivity mic like the ME-67 effectively lowers the LS-10's
> input noise to an acceptable level. Recordists wanting to record
> ambience in quiet locations, as quite a few do with Hi-MD, might not
> be as happy. Here's a list of noise specs for many mics
>
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/audio-art-tech-gallery/pages/MicSpecs-Cover.html
> . There's also a list with mics whose self-noise is under 17dB(A).
>
> Based on Raimund's input noise ratings
> http://www.avisoft.com/recordertests.htm , I was including the LS-10
> as a possible CF "replacement" for Hi-MD, but tests that Vicki and
> Lilly recently posted have convinced me that there are some
> significant audio performance compromises with this recorder. The
> noise produced is quite warm and noticeable, there are discrepancies
> in noise and level between the two channels of the two recorders I
> studied and the response under 125 Hz seems to be poor when using the
> external mic jack. Using Low-Sens and 24 bit recording mode did not
> seem to improve noise performance that much in Vicki's tests we
> further evaluated. There's also a peculiar time drift problem.
>
> "Surprises" like this remind that there is really no reliable
> substitute for side-by-side testing using very low self-noise mics if
> one is looking for a great recorder (audio performance wise) at a
> lower cost. Even creating a list of CF recorder "candidates" for
> such a task is quite a task!
>
> Number-wise, the next, most-promising candidate for testing might be
> the Sony PCM-D50 which some of us expect to match Hi-MD's input noise
> performance. Oryoki and others have pointed out that its not that
> much smaller than a FR2-LE,..
yeah, agreed,
>
> One, concise way to look at the options is, the new CF recorders are
> likely on par with MD recorders in terms of mic pre noise
> performance, BUT, if your mics are noisy-- ALL of these recorders
> area good match and you can freely compare them in terms of
> non-quality affecting factors like recording media, convenience, etc.
> Rob D.
>
thanks again, Rob
cheers,
Clay
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