The thing with 24 bit is 24/48 wav needs about 1gb/hour and 24/96 needs double that (I don't know of any of these machines supporting FLAC). So 30 hours at 24/48 needs 30gb of media which with CF flash cards is around $1500. It's a lot less with microdrives but it's still a bundle.
most people don't record for 30 hours on a night out taping. I'd say probably 3-4 hours max for most, maybe 5-6 if you've got an all nighter.
I guess you could carry some kind of upload gizmo (hard drive media player with cf slot) but that's more junk to carry around and you still need at least two cf cards (so you can upload one while using the other).
if i'm taping for 30 hours or a whole festival, i'd probably bring more than just my normal setup, gotta be prepared for anything afterall. it wouldn't be that big of a deal to have a laptop or a hdd on hand to dump the files to...making the expense of flash cards much less.
And external batteries while tolerable are still a nuisance.
personally, i'd think 5 walmart batteries would be less of nuisance than 20-30+ AA batteries, but thats just me.
Finally the MT's mic preamps are supposedly not all that great by 24 bit standards, so you don't really have all-in-one if you're taking 24 bits seriously.
thats a fair argument, but i already have a v3, so i only need a 24bit recorder, i could care less about the preamps or the adc stage. and there are other options to 24bit...there's the pmd671, the new tascam recorder, and then the 722. quite frankly, if i wanted a 24bit all in one, i'd get a 722 and be done with it. plus, i wouldn't even have to buy flash media, i could just record to the hard drive.
With 16 bits I'm recording in 128 kbit mp3 (I know, I know) on the 660 so 30 hours fits in under 2gb. Although I'd sure rather use 192kbit if the stupid thing supported that.
you can record 16 bit and mp3s on the mt, and some of the other 24bit recorders and get 30 hours under 2gb as well. however, if i'm buying a 24bit recorder, i'm going to record in 24bits, not mp3s. same with a 16bit recorder, recording to mp3 doesn't really interest me.
What were people using for 16 bits before the 660 came along? Mostly DAT? How would you say the stock 660 compares sonically to something like a PCM-M1?
if not dat's then jb3's, and i wouldn't trade my jb3 for a 660. i run optical into it, and it just records a wav file, no need for the internal preamps or a/d stage. if i didn't have a preamp/adc, then i'd look into an acm 660 if i wanted to record in only 16bits.