Rob, you wrote:
> I think we have an influence on manufacturers. Most of them need to
> do a better job in making these small recorders that are introducing
> lots of people to recording for the first time. Unnecessarily,
> their poor quality mic pres are jeopardizing important recordings
> every day.
>
> Some recordists are happy tolerating the compromises of a slightly
> noisy mic pre but when we applaud it, we give manufacturers an
> opportunity to justify sloppy work. It wouldn't cost them any more
> parts-wise, and a talented and bored engineer somewhere might get a
> fun project and a raise. :-) Rob D.
Yep, there a few really bad examples for the ignorance of the manufacturers=
regarding the preamplifier noise performance (such as the MicroTrack II fo=
r instance).
However, from my personal experience in designing preamplifiers (for specia=
lized recording equipment), I must admit that it is not so easy to design v=
ery low-noise preamplifiers for such compact devices because it is difficul=
t to find suited low-noise op-amp chips that can be powered from small supp=
ly voltages and don't draw too much current. So, there is generally a trade=
-off between noise performance and power requirements. Sure, if the power c=
onsumtion of the recorder was not an issue, the engineers could just select=
the best availble chips and then add the additionally required supply volt=
age converters. But I'm afraid that such a noise-optimized recorder would e=
at the small batteries very quickly.
Considering these constaints, I'm curious if the new SONY PCM M-10 will exh=
ibit the same good preamp performace as the larger PCM-50.
Regards,
Raimund
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