At 7:53 PM +0000 8/15/09, Raimund Specht wrote:
>However, from my personal experience in designing preamplifiers (for
>specialized recording equipment), I must admit that it is not so
>easy to design very low-noise preamplifiers for such compact devices
>because it is difficult to find suited low-noise op-amp chips that
>can be powered from small supply 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 consumtion of
>the recorder was not an issue, the engineers could just select the
>best availble chips and then add the additionally required supply
>voltage converters. But I'm afraid that such a noise-optimized
>recorder would eat the small batteries very quickly.
>
>Considering these constaints, I'm curious if the new SONY PCM M-10
>will exhibit the same good preamp performace as the larger PCM-50.
>
>Regards,
>Raimund
>
Hi Raimund--
Thanks for the enlightening factors-- definitely deserving of a new
string for us to follow-up on.
As the PCM-D50 (4-AAs') can run 12+ hours on modest size external
battery sled, I do hope Sony isn't sacrificing pre quality for the
inconvenience of changing batteries more often. The PCM M10 is a
very interesting challenge for their engineers. It is listed in the
"Pro Audio" department with "nature sound" and "field" recordings
targeted. Its a good development to be cited there. :-) I couldn't
find any preview specs on the PCM M10 as yet. The reviews are
forecasting release in October (2009). Rob D.
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