Topic: Sony PCM D100 int mics vs Zoom H5 int mics

[Egor]

Good day! Sorry for my english

I'm a musician in "vocals + acoustic guitar" genre. I need a portable recorder, i want to record all my songs on it, in order to add some "feelings of deep life" in my recordings, to make them non-mainstream. Something like "Basement tapes" of Dylan, but with better quality. All i need is internal mics. I want to record only to them.

My choice is between sony pcm d100 and zoom h5

I know, that it sounds a little bit funny (zoom h5 250$ and sony d100 800$), but this question is not so easy. Price - is not a way to show quality.

Is there any big difference in mics of this two recorders? Will i get really more high quality recordings via sony?

[bombdiggity]

That's hard to say given few of us likely record that way or have compared. 

Sonys tend to have nicer sounding internal mics than most others but YMMV.  I assume a selling point of the H5 is the ability to change the mics to many configurations.  However if the tone of those choices is not up to your standard that may not matter. 

[fguidry]

Good day! Sorry for my english

I'm a musician in "vocals + acoustic guitar" genre. I need a portable recorder, i want to record all my songs on it, in order to add some "feelings of deep life" in my recordings, to make them non-mainstream. Something like "Basement tapes" of Dylan, but with better quality. All i need is internal mics. I want to record only to them.

My choice is between sony pcm d100 and zoom h5

I know, that it sounds a little bit funny (zoom h5 250$ and sony d100 800$), but this question is not so easy. Price - is not a way to show quality.

Is there any big difference in mics of this two recorders? Will i get really more high quality recordings via sony?

I can offer a comparison of similar recorders rather than those exact ones. Perhaps you will find the information useful.

This was not a well executed comparison because the recorders were not positioned carefully enough and the level matching then became problematic. But you can perhaps hear if you consider the difference between the PCM-D5 and the H6 with XY module is significant: http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2013/08/15/zoom-h6-acoustic-guitar-shootout/

Or more directly:

PCM-D50
Zoom H6

Please download these clips, they're 44.1/16 WAV files and won't stream well. To my ear the PCM-D50 needs about 1.2 dB of gain to match the H6 and when I apply that extra level they sound pretty identical.

If you're working with extremely quiet sources the PCM-D50 might have the lowest self-noise of any hand held recorder, but for vocal and acoustic guitar at 18" I would think the two recorders will give very similar results.

And I would think that these two will serve as useful surrogates for the PCM-D100 and H5.

Fran

[mitchellm]

To my ears the Sony D100 has noticeably quieter pre-amps than the older D50. I'm really impressed with the new device. However, I'm often recording ambient sounds and now using the Sony D100 for recording interviews/conversations away from my office. Thus in both cases the quiet pre-amps are very important. But in your case with music it may not be so critical.   

The D100 also records in 24 bit which helps with getting a richer sound and quieter background noise. But, again, this may not be critical to you.

I haven't used the Zooms, so I can't offer a comparison. But relative to the D50, the D100 is a big step up in many ways (not just the great pre-amps).

[yates7592]

Can't comment on the Zoom, although it's unlikely to be as good as the D100 (or the D50). Having said that, I sold my D100 to a nature recordist locally and he found the internal mics way too sensitive, even though he only records quiet sources (sometimes in noisy windy environments). I read on the main D100 thread several others who found the D100 internals not up to recording loud concerts as well.  The D50 however is proven for recording loud as well as soft.

[Egor]

Good day! Sorry for my english

I'm a musician in "vocals + acoustic guitar" genre. I need a portable recorder, i want to record all my songs on it, in order to add some "feelings of deep life" in my recordings, to make them non-mainstream. Something like "Basement tapes" of Dylan, but with better quality. All i need is internal mics. I want to record only to them.

My choice is between sony pcm d100 and zoom h5

I know, that it sounds a little bit funny (zoom h5 250$ and sony d100 800$), but this question is not so easy. Price - is not a way to show quality.

Is there any big difference in mics of this two recorders? Will i get really more high quality recordings via sony?

I can offer a comparison of similar recorders rather than those exact ones. Perhaps you will find the information useful.

This was not a well executed comparison because the recorders were not positioned carefully enough and the level matching then became problematic. But you can perhaps hear if you consider the difference between the PCM-D5 and the H6 with XY module is significant: http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2013/08/15/zoom-h6-acoustic-guitar-shootout/

Or more directly:

PCM-D50
Zoom H6

Please download these clips, they're 44.1/16 WAV files and won't stream well. To my ear the PCM-D50 needs about 1.2 dB of gain to match the H6 and when I apply that extra level they sound pretty identical.

If you're working with extremely quiet sources the PCM-D50 might have the lowest self-noise of any hand held recorder, but for vocal and acoustic guitar at 18" I would think the two recorders will give very similar results.

And I would think that these two will serve as useful surrogates for the PCM-D100 and H5.

Fran

Thank you very much for your message! Very interesting comparison...there is no extremely big difference between d50 and h5, so wav's speak about it! Yes, you are right about gain, but the quality is equal