Re: Advice for a beginner

["Raimund" animalsounds]

<My question is: How can I get high quality recordings without much self-noise, 
even if the birds are distant or quiet? I have done a bit of searching on the 
forum & I am considering a Sennheiser ME66 / K6 to start with. If I plugged 
this into my Zoom H1 would the Zoom's self- noise still be evident? If so, what 
would I need to spend on a recorder to get a significant improvement?>

Hi,

I'm afraid that the Zoom's self- noise would still be evident. We currently 
don't have any noise floor measurements for the Zoom H1, but the other Zoom 
models H2 and H4n are quite noisy compared to the self-noise level of the 
K6/ME66 (see http://www.avisoft.com/recordertests.htm). So, I would recommend 
to use a slightly more expensive SONY PCM-M10 or Olympuls LS-5/7/11.

Regards,
Raimund