Topic: TASCAM DR-680 portable 8-track #3

[kirk97132]

Format the card in the 680.

X2

[3mdk5]

if one battery fails, not runs out of charge - but actually fails, could the other battery take over and save the day? That would be an awesome confidence booster out in the boonies somewhere.

Always keep AA batteries loaded when in the field.  A nice feature of this deck is that if your external battery (/ AC power) fails for whatever reason (battery dies, cord gets disconnected, etc) the batteries take over seamlessly.  No power down first, no loss of recording, no stopping of recording.  This is your "fail safe" when in the field.  Another benefit is that AA rechargeables will power at least two channels of phantom for over 2 hours, so you really don't have to worry if your main battery fails towards the end of a show.

-Matt

[Chuck]

Well, I talked to the service department at Teac. The recorder has a one year warranty on the parts, which still applies to my recorder. The labor warranty (90 days) has expired. I shipped it to Teac in Montebello, CA for repair. They say I should have it back in two weeks. I'd like to have it back for the two moe shows the first weekend in February in Denver.

I also called Chris at the Sound Professionals where I bought it. He said he may be able to help expedite the repair process for me as he has a good relationship with the Teac sales rep. I'll report back on how it goes with Teac repair.

Update on my DR-680 repair:
It arrived at TEAC repair in Montebello, CA on 01-19
I called yesterday (01-24) for a status update. The gal on the phone told me the tech was looking at it.
I called today 01-25 and was told that the main board was bad. The cost (labor) to fix was $120. She said they can have it shipped out by Friday 01-28. They ship via FedEx 3 day. So, I will have it back for the Denver moe shows.  The technician didn't say why the main board was bad. So far, that works for me. I'll call Friday to make sure it did ship. I'll just be happy to have it back.

I'll update again when the recorder is in my hands.

[Todd R]

Good to hear it can be fixed quickly and at not too great a cost.

Any word on whether your Platinum card purchase provides additional warranty time to cover this?

[Chuck]

Good to hear it can be fixed quickly and at not too great a cost.

Any word on whether your Platinum card purchase provides additional warranty time to cover this?

Thanks Todd.
I forgot about that.
I'll look into it.

[Chuck]

I just called them. My credit card extends the parts warranty (one year) to two years and the labor warranty (90 days) to 180 days. Both warranties are doubled.
So, they won't pay the labor for this repair. But, if it breaks again, within the two years the parts are still covered.

Oh well. I'm going to call on Friday to make sure it really ships and ask why the main board was bad. I think darby had the same issue with his.

[darby]

I just called them. My credit card extends the parts warranty (one year) to two years and the labor warranty (90 days) to 180 days. Both warranties are doubled.
So, they won't pay the labor for this repair. But, if it breaks again, within the two years the parts are still covered.

Oh well. I'm going to call on Friday to make sure it really ships and ask why the main board was bad. I think darby had the same issue with his.

they never told me why the main board took a crap
I got my unit replaced free of charge, but did wait 2 months after sending it in to my retailer (Full Compass) and letting them deal with Teac
I also had a bad AC transformer (wall wart) so with the 2 problems on the original unit, it made it look more like a LEMON
as far as warranty on the new unit, Full Compass said they had no idea and that would be up to Teac

glad to hear yours didn't take as long Chuck

[Marcoscine]

A question about SDHC cards and the DR-680:

The current list from Tascam of tested SDHC cards includes several 32GB cards from various vendors, so I know there's no blanket lockout of that capacity of card.

But when I tried a Ridata brand 32GB Class 10 card (not on the tested list) in the 680 today, I get the message "Invalid Card Change Card". That error message cannot be cleared, and the unit cannot be powered down while that message is displayed. I had to eject the card with the machine powered up, which doesn't seem to have harmed the card but isn't good practice in general.

The card works fine and fast when hooked up to my iMac either via the provided SDHC slot on the iMac or via an SDHC card reader. The DR-680 manual offers no advice for a work-around for this error message other than "Something might be wrong with the card. Change the card."

I tested it originally in the DR-680 with its factory formatting of FAT-32. After the initial problem I reformatted it as FAT-32 on the iMac. Same result, invalid card.

Any suggestions?

Hi Dude.
I have this same problem and after testing all possibilities i've noticy that the unit was defective. I return to B&H, and got a new one.
Sorry about my poor english.

[Chuck]

glad to hear yours didn't take as long Chuck

I guess we'll see. I don't have it back yet.   I'm going to call TEAC tomorrow afternoon to make sure it really does ship back to me on Friday.

[Chadfish]

Quick question. Is the Hi Gain a boost of the gain on the DR-680? Or is Hi neutral, and the lo gain is a -10db cut?

[Chadfish]

Well nobody answered my question as to whether the Hi-gain setting is a boost or not. I posed the same question to Chris Johnson, the man who does the Busman mods on the DR-680. Here's what he had to say in case anyone is interested:

"Well the low gain is really a cut as it uses resistors like a pad but I feel that it should be left in low gain and only use high gain if needed. The noise floor in low gain is better. I look at it like this… If you need to turn the gain up past 20 in low gain then switch to high gain and use less gain to give the best noise floor and headroom.

I think that each person should do what makes them comfortable and gives them the best sound. I do not subscribe to the opinion of not running something through a couple extra resistors in because it “may give less circuit noise”, the difference is negligible in this case.

The stock unit has a much higher amount of noise in high gain than the low gain setting. The modified unit lowers the noise by -12db in high gain and -6db in low gain. The stock unit from my measurements has about 30db more noise in high gain at the 0 setting for gain.

Hopefully this clears the air a bit."

[Sockan]

Well nobody answered my question as to whether the Hi-gain setting is a boost or not. I posed the same question to Chris Johnson, the man who does the Busman mods on the DR-680. Here's what he had to say in case anyone is interested:

"Well the low gain is really a cut as it uses resistors like a pad but I feel that it should be left in low gain and only use high gain if needed. The noise floor in low gain is better. I look at it like this… If you need to turn the gain up past 20 in low gain then switch to high gain and use less gain to give the best noise floor and headroom.

I think that each person should do what makes them comfortable and gives them the best sound. I do not subscribe to the opinion of not running something through a couple extra resistors in because it “may give less circuit noise”, the difference is negligible in this case.

The stock unit has a much higher amount of noise in high gain than the low gain setting. The modified unit lowers the noise by -12db in high gain and -6db in low gain. The stock unit from my measurements has about 30db more noise in high gain at the 0 setting for gain.

Hopefully this clears the air a bit."

But if you look at http://www.avisoft.com/recordertests.htm and the column "Equivalent Input Noise (EIN) impedance: 150 ohm" they have a lower noise measurement (A-weighted) in high gain (-127dBu) than low gain (-112dBu)?
Can anyone more technical skilled explain?

For the interested... 
There was someone in here saying that dr-100 had the same preamps as dr-680. I asked Tascam about this and they said that they don't have the same preamps.

[Chadfish]

I think that was Doug Oade that said the DR-680 is just a DR-100 X 8. Really Dough doesn't offer a mod for the 680, for whatever reason, and I think he just throwes crap like that out as an excuse not to expand his services.

As for that chart, man I don't know. I did pass it on the Chris Johnson to see how it may relate to his findings. I'll post when I get a response. But in my experience more gain always means more noise, so that chart doesn't make sense to me. Then again I am not versed in the nerdly arts...

[Chuck]

glad to hear yours didn't take as long Chuck

I guess we'll see. I don't have it back yet.   I'm going to call TEAC tomorrow afternoon to make sure it really does ship back to me on Friday.

TEAC repair says my DR-680 shipped today via FedEx 3 day. They gave me a tracking number too.  I should have it by Feb 2. That makes me very happy.  Not sure if it was a mis-communication, but it sounded like I might be getting a new one.

[darby]

glad to hear yours didn't take as long Chuck

I guess we'll see. I don't have it back yet.   I'm going to call TEAC tomorrow afternoon to make sure it really does ship back to me on Friday.

TEAC repair says my DR-680 shipped today via FedEx 3 day. They gave me a tracking number too.  I should have it by Feb 2. That makes me very happy.  Not sure if it was a mis-communication, but it sounded like I might be getting a new one.

the reason I received a new one was because Teac was waiting for another bum unit to be sent in so they could swap out main boards
after waiting patiently for 2 months, I contacted Full Compass and they agreed that the wait was too long and that Teac should just send me a new unit
so who knows, maybe Teac just decided that the main board is not worth swapping out and they can just use your old unit for parts... but that's just my guess