At 8:36 AM -0500 4/13/09, Curt Olson wrote:
>Richard Hess wrote:
>
> > Hi, Curt,
> >
>> Interesting. With the gain set to 50, the preamp seems to clip at
>> about -12 dBFS (rough estimate from memory)
>>
>> I found this the hard way as the Mackie CR1604VLZ mixer in our
>> church has RCA jacks that are hotter than I thought.
>>
>> From what I have seen so far, I think you might have preamp clipping
>> in the H2 before you get to 0 dBFS with it set for 60 =3D -18
>> dBFS...based on my having 12 dB or so of clipping at 50 input
>> setting. You may remember this from the Sony D8.
>>
>> What I guess we need to know is the lowest setting on the line input
>> which allows us to reach 0 dBFS in the file without preamp clipping.
>>
>> I solved the immediate problem with an approx 20 dB pad in a little
>> Hammond diecast box. Set input to 100 and levels looked good.
>
>So I guess the moral of the story is to watch your levels and allow
>plenty of headroom. By doing that, I've had pretty good results so far.
I think as long as the peaks at the softest moments in your
background sounds produce -55dB saturation in your 96dBFS wave
editor, you're taking full advantage of the H2's A-D circuit in
producing the digital file. This might be another way to determine
what H2 input setting will give you maximum headroom when recording
at 16 bits without adverse impact on quality.
>
>> More later when I get a chance to test. These are the subtleties
>> that are solved better in the Sound Devices recorders and now with
>> cost-effective 32 GB CF cards, the 702 is becoming more attractive
>> compared with the 722 which I have. BUT, the H2 is an amazingly good
>> device for <10% of the cost pf the 722 and the built-in mics sound
>> as good as the Audio Technica AT822 stereo mic which may have a more
>> ragged high end but might have a better low end.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Richard
>
>I use my H2 only as a cheap "bit bucket" to capture the output of the
>MixPre. It seems to be reasonably good for that purpose.
>
>Once, out of idle curiosity, I did a listening comparison between the
>H2 and Sony Hi-MD, using a pair of WL-183s as the source. To my ear,
>the H2 seemed to be considerably noisier.
Whoa. At ~22 dB(A) self-noise, input noise from the H2's mic pre
audible above the self-noise of the WL-183's would not be up to
1990's MD mic pre noise performance standards. Rob D.
>
>Curt Olson
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