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Re: Which is better regarding gain and sensitivity?

Subject: Re: Which is better regarding gain and sensitivity?
From: "John_Blueyonder" lundsten_jo=
hn
Date: Sat Jun 13, 2015 7:02 pm ((PDT))

++ Re there being great info on
http://www.avisoft.com/recordertests.htm, by Raimund Specht .

Disclosure - my tests re the Zoom H4n were sufficiently rigorous for
Raimund to include.

I also did loads of tests re the Roland R44.

It's a fine piece of kit. And/But it has 2 ways to set gain applied to
Mics (etc).

1} multi pole switch; 'Switched Gain' ~ this is good 'old' proper
Analogue (analog) control, of 'negative feedback'.

2} the 'so called' gain controls, or the non-switched / continuous
'volume controls'  ~ these are *'digital*' -- if set to 0 (dB), the gain
you get is 'pure' analog.
IE has no 'Digital arithmetic done to it' ~ if you were to turn the Vol
/ Gain control fully clockwise this gives 6dB [well digital x2, or
approx 6.02dB gain]
Enough
J


On 13/06/2015 23:21, vickipowys 
[naturerecordists] wrote:
>
> i can speak for just one recorder and that is the Olympus LS10, for
> some quirky reason it has less self-noise when set on low sensitivity
> and high gain, as opposed to high sensitivity and lower gain. Even
> after matching the levels in post processing. This was figured out by
> Raimund Specht and is mentioned somewhere on his website. So "LOW 10"
> is my default setting for the LS10, it works better than "HIGH 3"
> which had been my previous default setting. Likely this does not
> apply to all recorders, but it is certainly worth testing various
> settings on whatever recorder you do have.
>
> Vicki Powys
> Australia
>
> On 13/06/2015, at 5:41 PM, Peter Shute 
> [naturerecordists] wrote:
>
> > I think I read somewhere that on some recorders, low sensitivity
> > just attenuates the signal, so why attenuate it just to amplify
> > again in the next stage? And on some, the high setting applies
> > digital amplification (which you can do more safely yourself
> > afterwards), while on others, no one knows what the controls do. I
> > may have misinterpreted what I read, but I took it to mean that you
> > need to try various settings out for yourself.
> >
> > Peter Shute
> >
> > On 13 Jun 2015, at 12:50 am, 'J. Charles Holt'
> > <>
> > [naturerecordists]
> <<
> > >> wrote:
> >
> > I've seen some people say it's better to use high sensitivity and
> > low gain, and other say low sensitivity and high gain, but never any
> > explanation of when or why. Does it vary depending on equipment or
> > situation (or both)?
> >
> > - Charles
>
>






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