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Re: Marantz PDM 661 Vs Fostex FR2 LE - which one should I buy??!

Subject: Re: Marantz PDM 661 Vs Fostex FR2 LE - which one should I buy??!
From: "Rob Danielson" danielson_audio
Date: Thu Jul 2, 2009 10:18 pm ((PDT))
At 12:14 AM +0300 7/3/09, Marinos Koutsomichalis wrote:
>Well,
>
>if the soundscape is really quiet, yeah, the fr2-le will be slightly
>more quiet - but on the other hand even the fr2-le won' t be
>completely quiet.. so in both case you will end up with some short of
>hiss, You need to pay a LOT more to end up with no hiss at all..

Hi Marinos--
It certainly would cost a bunch because I think one would have to 
completely reinvent how audio is captured and delivered! :-)

If a FR2-LE is in proper working condition to the specification 
Raimund measured, and one uses the lowest-noise, popularly sold mics 
(Rode NT1-A's @ 5.5 dB[A] self-noise) at full pre gain, I believe 
that all of the noise one would hear would be generated by the mics. 
Think of it this way, the input noise generated by the recorder's mic 
pre in this example is so much quieter that it becomes inaudible in 
the much louder "hiss" that is the self-noise generated even by the 
quietest of mics. One can see why there is so much banter about mic 
"self-noise" because its the weakest link in the recording chain if 
prudence is exercised when selecting a recorder.

Should anyone be additionally curious :-[, Curt, David and I did an 
experiment that turned out to provide an excellent example of how 
this happens: http://tinyurl.com/ntzraj

How much more noise might the PMD661 have is an interesting question. 
Numbers can only tell us so much about these fine distinctions so we 
resort to equipment comparison tests. In this test by Tom Robinson, 
http://tinyurl.com/bw5wnl one can hear the self-noise of Rode NT1-A 
mics mixed together first with the input noise from a Hi-MD recorder 
and then with that of a PMD 661. You can detect a slight "bump" or 
increase pink noise in the lower mid-range, but they are quite close 
in noise performance. Note that this is a "worst case" comparison 
where maximum pre gain is used to record a distant clock in a quiet 
living room. In this test, http://tinyurl.com/pz78wz , the first 
segment presents NT1-A mics connected to a SD 722 whose input noise 
is slightly lower than an FR2-LE.  The slight "bump" you hear as the 
second segment starts should be a little less than the difference 
you'd hear between a FR2-LE and the PMD-661 (under the same max gain, 
quiet location conditions). If you are recording robust sounds like 
loud effects, urban presence, voice, music, then the pre difference 
could not be heard. Rob D.



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