Topic: AD on Microtrack, Edirol, etc vs. Denecke, external ad's

[lek]

How do you find the AD converters on the microtrack and current flash recorders compare with those on the denecke, mic2496, etc?

[yousef]

I've not got a wealth of experience to base this on, having only just used my AD-20 for the first time, but I have to say that I'm very impressed with the improvement over the Microtrack's own ADC.

I find that recordings made with the MT ADC seem can have a brittle, characterless and rather thin sound lacking in warmth. I would describe the AD-20 on the other hand as being warmer and more musical.

Obviously, this isn't a properly objective opinion, but no-one seemed to have an answer for you so I thought I'd chip in... I have heard at least one person here say that the AD-20 doesn't represent a worthwhile upgrade to the MT's native ADC, but going off my own (one) experience I think I'd have to differ.

I'd be very interested in hearing/doing a proper AD-20 vs. Microtrack comparision, just to make sure that it isn't my imagination trying to justify the purchase 

[jlykos]

Use the search function; this has been covered ad nauseum in the past.

I have used two of these machines and the A/D on the Denecke AD-20 is quite good, if a bit bright, but the preamp can easily overload when recording very loud shows.  The A/D on the Microtrack is awful and almost unusable in my experience.  Very tinny, bright, and harsh.  Everybody's opinion is different.

[illconditioned]

I like the Edirol R09 and Sony minidisc.  Both work great for me.  Go hear clips at http://Soundmann.com if you don't believe me.

*My* experience, I prefer any of the above to the AD20.  Never tried the Microtrack, but I'm suspicious of the analog on this.

  Richard

[guysonic]

A/D sound quality on various decks is best heard on recordings using high quality external preamplifier going LINE in on any of the recorders.  This bypasses the shortcomings of front-end analog stages that are often found wanting, and allows hearing ONLY the A/D process in the recordings, NOT low level analog quality mixed with A/D quality.

I and quite a few others have done many recordings using r-09 and especially MT1 using this tact finding both excellent sounding.

You can judge for yourself with giving a listen to the many posted recordings stating use of these model decks with external preamp in the specific gear notes of each selection on pages:

www.sonicstudios.com/mp3_2slp.htm for musical recordings,

and at www.sonicstudios.com/mp3.htm for natural/ambient sounds