Thanks. all, for the kind words.
I'll try to do more of these comparisons under different conditions,
but it depends on my ability to wrangle both the recorders and the
time to use them simultaneously (my students are using some of them in
my day job, too).
Thanks Rob for your analysis -- very helpful. I find the performance
of all these devices to be remarkable Although the self-noise is
audible in the worst of the recordings, it's still not *bad*. And
although the Sonys are the (clear) winners in terms of noise
performance, they are also the largest and heaviest of their class,
just a bit too big to live unobtrusively in a jacket pocket or
backpack. Essentially, these tests convince me that that my practice
of always carrying around the LS-10 or the ARES (the two smallest and
lightest of the bunch) -- just in case an interesting sound comes up
-- is likely not to make me regret my failure to have with me
something bigger and better. The best recorder, like the best camera,
is the one you have with you, after all.
The dog bark is definitely revealing, and a very different image from
the rest the recordings. When I started setting up, the dog in the
yard two houses to the right was having a heated exchange with the dog
in the yard of the house to the left, but by the time I was rolling it
was just ending, apparently with the left dog getting the last word in
and then shutting up. Oh well.
Best
-matt
On Jul 18, 2009, at 12:35, Rob Danielson wrote:
> At 7:28 AM -0700 7/18/09, Dan Dugan wrote:
>>
>>
>>> I finally got around to making simultaneous recordings (of a very
>>> boring suburban soundscape) with a sampling of current generation
>>> handheld recorders:
>>>
>>> * Nagra ARES-MII
>>> * Sony PCM-D1
>>> * Sony PCM-D50
>>> * Olympus LS-10
>>> * Zoom H4n
>>> * Sennheiser MKH-800 Mid-Side pair on a Nagra VI (OK, not exactly
>>> pocket size, but a useful baseline)
>>> * A mystery mic that I'll describe later
>>
>>> For whatever it's worth, the audio can be found at:
>>> <http://www.crypto.com/audio/shootout/>http://www.crypto.com/audio/shootout/
>>
>> That's worth a lot, thank you very much, Matt.
>>
>> -Dan Dugan
>
> Hi Matt-
> Same here!
>
> Matching background presence between the files (there were very small
> differences in levels from your peak matches), I found HF noise
> performance using the built-in mics performance decreased in this
> order:
>
> Sennheiser MKH-800 (reference)
> Sony PCM-D1 (tie with) Sony PCM-D50
> Zoom H4n
> Olympus LS-10
> Nagra ARES-MII
> Mystery mic (The HF response of this mic seems considerably
> compromised)
>
> The dog bark provided me the most useful medium range stereo imaging
> and overall tonal comparisons. The background ambience was most
> useful for detecting the self-noise of the mics and wide stereo
> imaging.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/m6vvcj (9mb QT movie)
>
> http://tinyurl.com/m7m6ma (mp3 with bark and pres samples in this
> order
> Sennheiser MKH-800 (reference)
> Sony PCM-D1
> Sony PCM-D50
> Zoom H4n
> Olympus LS-10
> Nagra ARES-MII
> Mystery mic
>
>
> A few things I noticed:
>
> (1) The LS-10's and ARES-MII's built-in mics are significantly
> brighter.
> (2) The built in mics have much less lateral stereo imaging than the
> M-S reference but among these, the Zoom H4n and the Mystery X-Y mic
> seem to be slightly wider.
> (3) The built-in mics on the H4n seem to be a little quieter than
> those in the LS-10. The LS-10's built-in mics are noisy enough to
> lose the advantage this recorder should have over the H4n based on
> input noise measurements of the mic preamps of these two recorders.
> (4) The D50 has better frequency response under 130Hz than the D1.
> The H4n also has pretty good response in the lowest frequencies
>
>
> I guess its predictable (though unfortunate) that one would be able
> to hear the self-noise of the built-in mics in surburban environment,
> but it is interesting to hear how much less audible HF self-noise
> there is in the built-in mics of the Sony units-- consistent with
> Raimund's comment of a few days ago.
>
> The stereo imaging of all of the built-in mics does seem to be
> minimal for distant subjects.
>
> I'm guessing the "mystery" mics are off the shelf DIY electrets
> perhaps from radio shack plugged into a H2.
>
> Thanks again,
> Rob D.
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> "While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
> sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie
> Krause
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
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