Gear / Technical Help > Ask The Tapers

How much quality difference does the recorder make?

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CaptainSumo:
Please forgive my ignorance. I'm trying to find my way around here, and I have much to learn.

I'm wondering what recorder/mic/pre-amp to get. At the moment I'm leaning towards the Church CA-14 with 9200 pre-amp, but I'm wondering what recorder to pair them to. A number of popular options around here, such at the Sony PCM-M10  and Edirol R05 are no longer available for a fair price, so I'm wondering what I can get for a reasonable price that would do the Mics justice. As far as I understand it, the mics and pre-amp should be doing most or the work.

For example, would I notice much quality difference between a Tascam DR-100MKIII and a Tascam DR-40? That's nearly a € 200 price difference. I can easily find what extra features I would be getting, but the quality at 48000Hz 24 bit is what I'm really interested in.

Thanks!

acidjack:
If you're using Church mics and preamp you don't need a recorder with XLR inputs. The short answer on difference in preamp quality is "near zero" with that rig. I'd avoid Trashcan products because they generally work poorly. For the same price as the DR-40 you can probably get a bunch of other options with a mini plug input that will better suit your needs. The DR-40 and DR-100MKIII will be unnecessarily large due to their XLR inputs.

nulldogmas:
What acidjack said. The difference in recorders at this stage of the game is mostly in features, not audio quality, and you don't need a ton of features with that mic/battery box combo. (Which is an excellent small rig, btw.)

You can still sometimes find M10s around for close to their original retail price — keep an eye on the Yard Sale here.

lsd2525:

--- Quote from: nulldogmas on October 20, 2017, 10:24:42 AM ---What acidjack said. The difference in recorders at this stage of the game is mostly in features, not audio quality, and you don't need a ton of features with that mic/battery box combo. (Which is an excellent small rig, btw.)

You can still sometimes find M10s around for close to their original retail price — keep an eye on the Yard Sale here.

--- End quote ---

^^^ This. A good clean M10 will provide years of quality recording. At rugged as you will find in this class, small, easy to use, insane battery life.

CaptainSumo:
Great to see such a consensus! Makes my decision a whole lot easier.

Will keep my eyes open for an M10. It seems to get a lot of love around here.

Does anyone have any experience of the Olympus LS-14? That's also an option.

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