[LAU] Portable Digital Recorders

[Frank Barknecht]

Hallo Kevin,

as I have just bought myself a mobile recorder, maybe some of my research 
is of use to you as well. This is a very good introduction for potential
buyers of mobile recorders:
http://www.theatreofnoise.com/2009/11/summary-of-portable-digital-audio.html
http://www.theatreofnoise.com/2009/11/which-portable-digital-audio-recorder.html

It lists the popular devices like this (ASCII on)

POCKET                 DIMENSIONS       VOL  MASS  PRICE  XLR  MIC  EIN
-------------------    --------------  ----  ----  -----  ---  ---  ---
Sony     MZ-RH1         85 x  84 x 15   107   106  $ 350    -    -  124
Olympus  LS-10         132 x  48 x 22   139   165  $ 300    -    +  122 
Olympus  LS-11         132 x  48 x 22   139   165  $ 400    -    +  122 
Sony     PCM-M10       114 x  64 x 22   161   187  $ 300    -    +  122
Marantz  PMD620        102 x  62 x 25   164   170  $ 400    -    -  112
M-Audio  MicroTrack II 109 x  63 x 28   174   192  $ 200    -    -  106
Korg     MR-1          120 x  64 x 24   184   200  $ 500    -    -  117
Edirol   R-09HR        113 x  62 x 27   186   166  $ 300    -    +  118

HAND                   DIMENSIONS       VOL  MASS  PRICE  XLR  MIC  EIN
-------------------    --------------  ----  ----  -----  ---  ---  ---
Tascam   DR-07         151 x  81 x 35   212   130  $ 170    -    +  113
Samson   Zoom H2       109 x  64 x 33   230   172  $ 190    -    +   99
Tascam   DR-1          135 x  70 x 27   256   208  $ 250    -    +  115 
Sony     PCM-D50       154 x  72 x 33   365   366  $ 450    -    +  126
Samson   Zoom H4       153 x  70 x 35   375   190  $ 300    +    +  114
Samson   Zoom H4n      156 x  70 x 35   382   280  $ 300    +    +    ?
Tascam   DR-100        151 x  81 x 35   428   290  $ 380    +    +  113

SHOULDER               DIMENSIONS       VOL  MASS  PRICE  XLR  MIC  EIN
-------------------    --------------  ----  ----  -----  ---  ---  ---
Marantz  PMD661        165 x  93 x 36   552   410  $ 600    +    +  125
Marantz  PMD660        184 x 113 x 47   977   700  $ 550    +    +  120
Sound Devices 702      209 x 125 x 45  1176  1000  $1900    +    -  130
Fostex   FR-2LE        206 x 132 x 57  1550   907  $ 600    +    -  129
Marantz  PMD671        264 x 185 x 55  2686  1300  $1000    +    -  125
Tascam   HD-P2         260 x 200 x 63  3276   900  $ 700    +    -  127

Another good comparision is at wingfieldaudio.com: 
http://www.wingfieldaudio.com/portable-recorder-reviews.html
They also check battery life, which is where the Zooms seem to suck big time.
http://www.wingfieldaudio.com/portable-recorder-battery-life.html

A device not in these lists is the new Yamaha W24.

All of these devices will work with Linux, as they are USB-storage devices. If
you really need 4 channel recording, you don't have much choice: Zoom H4 or
Tascam DR-100 or bankruptcy. :)

Personally I chose the Sony PCM M10 in the end although I'm usually a SEGA guy.

Alternate choices for me have been the Yamaha W24 and both Olympus devices. The
Sony has very good battery life, little noise, nice mics, small size and weight
and okay prize. I like portable recorders to actually be portable without power
cords.  I usually don't record 4 channels on the go. For Ambisonics that would
be necessary, though. 

In situations where I'd want to use better microphones with XLR and more
channels than 2, I probably also wouldn't care about battery life or weight so
much and then I could just take my small laptop with a good USB card with me.

Of course that was just my reasoning when doing the choice. YMMV.

Ciao
-- 
Frank

Kevin Cosgrove hat gesagt: // Kevin Cosgrove wrote:

> I'm interested in getting a portable digital recorder, something
> that can run on batteries or ac power (presumably through a
> wall-wart?), that has built-in stereo mics, and something which
> will take 2-4 line external inputs.  I've seen a lot of such
> things come on the market in recent years.  Many have SD or SDHC
> cards for their audio memory, which is fine with me as I have
> an SDHC card reader in my computer.  If I get one with a USB
> interface it's my _requirement_ that it operate with Linux over
> USB.  The same would go for firewire, though I haven't seen any
> of those.  Some units record only in lossy compressed format
> only, while others have uncompressed formats available.  I would
> prefer the uncompressed format to be available.  I'd also need
> at _least_ 4 hours of stereo 44.1kHz at at least 16-bit, with
> something like 24-bit being more desired by me.
> 
> I'll be doing remote recordings, then bringing the audio home to
> chop up with Audacity and/or Ardour, then authoring the result to
> CDs.
> 
> So, what works well with Linux and works well in general?
> 
> Thanks people!
> 
> --
> Kevin
> 
> 
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