Greetings All,
I've been saving my pennies for a Sound Devices USBPre2, the only SD
device in financial reach for me, only to discover that the price has
recently jumped a couple of hundred dollars. Yikes. It no longer
seems reasonable given that I am not a pro. I use my recordings in a
professional capacity in a concert setting, but played over a concert
PA system, recording noise levels are not really an issue once we're
in the mid to upper echelon.
I only need this for powering a pair of AT3032 mikes in a PBBA. All
my other mikes are PIP or self-powered and not so quiet (NT4, ME66,
EM172). I am currently using a ART USBDualPre preamp because it is
what I have on hand. It has an EIN of about -120dBu, and it is
clearly adding noise to the mikes, but 3032/dualpre combination is
still a couple of dB quieter than my Rode NT4, which is the mike I
use most often.
For recorders, I have a LS-11 and a Sony MZRH1 Hi-MD. I sort of wish
I had bought the LS-100 instead of the LS-11, but I was saving
pennies for the sound devices, so that is as it is. My thinking also
was that recording technology, storage media, powering capacity, may
all improve. For instance, SD cards are clearly replacing CF, and may
themselves be replaced. But mike preamps are pretty much at their
theoretical limit. They are not going to get much better. Spend the
money on a good external preamp that will work with any recorder with
a line input, for a long time to come. That was my thinking until
this price jump.
So, what would you do in this case?
Stick with the ART USBDualPre and accept the 1 - 2 dB of extra noise
compared to the best?
Buy a portable Phantom unit (ART or Rolls) and use it with the LS-11
or Hi-MD?
Look for a used SD MixPre on eBay for <$600?
Buy a mid-cost recorder with decent preamps (LS-100)?
Continue saving even more pennies for a Sound Devices unit and hope
the price doesn't become an ever-receding horizon?
If you have experience with any of these, which do you think would
yield the best results for the price? My recordings run the gamut
from individual species close and at a great distance, to both noisy
and very quiet soundscapes.
I am somewhat inclined toward getting a Phantom supply and seeing how
much benefit that brings. I've also been happier with the EM172 array
than I expected to be and perhaps should stop questing after the holy
grail!
Thanks for any help.
John
John Crockett
Westminster, Vermont
Let us live in harmony with Earth
And all creatures
That our lives may be a blessing
"While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause.
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