question about new Olympus LS-100 purchase

["Jon M." tanyet]

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to learn as much as I can about nature recording the past =
couple of years and I'm on the verge of a new purchase that I wanted to ask=
 you guys about.

I was able to purchase a Neumann KU-81 dummy head at a reasonable price awh=
ile ago and I paired it with the Fostex FR2LE because my budget went mostly=
 to the KU-81 and I couldn't afford the sound devices gear.   I've been fai=
rly happy with the Fostex but I have a few issues with it that is making it=
 difficult to keep.  The main issue is that I don't think it really has eno=
ugh gain for my tastes.  I don't like the preamp section (the trim knobs an=
d the recording level) and the overall workflow is starting to get on my ne=
rves.  It is extremely quiet for the price though.

I tried in vain to find a used sound devices 702 for a decent price but I h=
aven't been able to do so.  This led me to take another look at the lower e=
nd recorders.  The olympus ls-100 seems to be the one I keep going back to.=
  Here is my question.

The ku-81's mics have a self noise rating of 16 db and a sensitivity of 10 =
mv/pa.  This means I would need a preamp with at least an EIN of -126dBu fo=
r it to not introduce added noise.   According to Raimund, the preamps in l=
s-100 have an EIN of -125dBu a-weighted.  I'm not sure at what sensitivity =
level that measurement was taken at though.

With my current setup I realize I would gain 1 db of added noise at max gai=
n but I was wondering if this was a real world concern or just numbers.  Wo=
uld I really notice that much of a difference with mics with a self noise o=
f 12 to 16 db?  Also, what are the gain numbers with the ls-100?

Any replies would be greatly appreciated.  I've learned a lot from group an=
d hope to continue to do so.

Jon