Topic: Cheap Alternative to my iRiver that just died?

[DMBprez]

Any suggestions are very welcomed.  I'm not looking to spend a lot of money, funds are a bit tight right now.

Thanks in advance.

[nulldogmas]

My iRiver died in April (apparently dropping it on the floor was contraindicated), I bought a Sony PCM-M10, and I haven't looked back. At $200 retail it was a bit more than scrounging up a replacement iRiver, but the combination of 24 bits and insanely long battery life has been worth it.

[adrianf74]

+1 on the M10.  I run one of those because of it's crazy long battery life.  If you need something a little cheaper, check out aleal5687's post here:

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=169229.0

He's got a Tascam DR-2D for sale; great little recorder that's capable of recording 2 different sources via 1/8" inputs (so 4-channels total) but the battery life isn't as good (about 4-5 hours vs. 20+ on the M10).   It's also about 1/2 the price.  No fears dealing with that seller, either.  (Full Disclosure: I own a DR-2D as well as an M10)

[Cobiwan]

+1 Sony PCM M-10 is a great choice as stated in the above posts

[willndmb]

FYI
If you were using the I river digi in, the m10 doesn't have that

[ScoobieKW]

Team M10 here too.

[DMBprez]

It's very funny you guys mention the M10.  My taper-friend (Greg), I'm pretty sure he's on here, has been gracious enough to lend me his M10 for an inappropriate amount of time. It's been very good to me - perhaps I need to look into purchasing one. Thanks for everyone's advice.

Question since I have all you M10er's attention: when I'm taping line in, what decibel should I be aiming for?

I think I may have revived the iRiver, but I'm worried it's almost certainly on the fritz.

[Gordon]

Question since I have all you M10er's attention: when I'm taping line in, what decibel should I be aiming for?

running 24bit everyone will say to try and hit around -6db.  I like to run a little hotter than that but either way in 24bit you have the headroom to raise the gain as needed in post without adding noise.

I've only ran the m10 once but loved it!  very easy to use and for the price it's hard to beat.

[DMBprez]

Also: can I convert 24bit files to 16bit in Fubar?

[Cobiwan]

I haven't run FUBAR but I'd imagine you should be able to down sample/dither to 16 bit if you want

[yltfan]

While the battery life on the m-10 can't be beat, I prefer many of the features of the R-05 (SD cards, no gain wheel). It's also cheaper.

[DMBprez]

I'll be taking the M10 to moe.down.  What kind of battery life am I looking at with this?

I truly think I fixed my iRiver.  It would be nice to not have to spend the dough on a recorder, right now. Plus, having an extra recorder at moe.down is going to be really  nice, too. (thanks to Greg)

Thanks for everyone's insight, in here.  Have a good day, ya'll.

[ScoobieKW]

The M10 runs ~16 hours on 2AA alkaline batteries

[willndmb]

Question since I have all you M10er's attention: when I'm taping line in, what decibel should I be aiming for?

running 24bit everyone will say to try and hit around -6db.  I like to run a little hotter than that but either way in 24bit you have the headroom to raise the gain as needed in post without adding noise.

I've only ran the m10 once but loved it!  very easy to use and for the price it's hard to beat.

-6 ??
i thought people recommended -10, thats what I have been doing anyway

set your side wheel at 4
make sure the menu is set for whatever type of battery you use to give correct info on the screen
also set cross memory record in the menu if you have a card so if it fills up you seamlessly go to internal memory

[adrianf74]

-12 to -10dB is what I run - religiously.  Allows for some headroom should you need it (and a solo piano artist I saw on Friday night still managed to overload when she slammed the keyboard drawer about four or five times.