Topic: Tascam DR100mkii Review

[dogmusic]

Has anyone posted m10 vs mk2 pics?   

Here's a pic of M10 vs Dr100mkii vs D50:

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Very helpful, thanks!

I wonder if they could have knocked an inch off by eliminating the speaker and mics up top?  I suppose the XLR's are up there and take a lot of room.

Can you open the Tascam up and take some shots of the guts? 

[jbou]

I wonder if they could have knocked an inch off by eliminating the speaker and mics up top?  I suppose the XLR's are up there and take a lot of room.

The xlrs are on the bottom aren't they?

[newplanet7]

I wonder if they could have knocked an inch off by eliminating the speaker and mics up top?  I suppose the XLR's are up there and take a lot of room.

The xlrs are on the bottom aren't they?

Yep.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

I wonder if they could have knocked an inch off by eliminating the speaker and mics up top?  I suppose the XLR's are up there and take a lot of room.

The xlrs are on the bottom aren't they?

Yep.

Oh, right.  It'll be interesting to see how they've packed things in there.

[dogmusic]

Can you open the Tascam up and take some shots of the guts? 

Sure. Just send me $330. 

[alpine85]

Well I picked one of these up last week, ran some tests at home (just to run a few tests & familiarize myself with it a bit) and then took it out for some real world festy experience this past weekend. 

A couple observations:

- Very logical and user friendly interface, menus, etc.   Display is great - I like the way it gives you a dB number for  the peaks every couple seconds AND has the peak light you can see from a distance.  The low/mid/high mic gain switch gives you a nice range.  I used the "mid" setting with the level between 4-6 on the knob most of the time

- Pres seem to be quiet and transparent.  Not quite as much so as the Oade R-44, but pretty damn good for a $300 unit.  Much better than the stock PMD-660 I had a while back.

- a little too easy to hit the 'STOP' button when bumping or handling it  (not a big deal, I just need to get in the habit of using the 'HOLD' function, which I should be doing even with the R-44)

- battery life is much better than I expected, after what I had read here.  I recorded a 2+ hour set running phantom and had 1 bar left on the Li-Ion.  It didn't switch over to the AAs until after listening to some stuff on the way home (probably another hour or so)

- it does NOT accept 24-bit from the Busman UA-5.  It DOES accept 16-bit, although that definitely limits its use as a bitbucket (until I can upgrade my preamp anyway).  I would be curious to know how it works with other pres / A/Ds

[dogmusic]

I would be curious to know how it works with other pres / A/Ds

It works great with the Sound Devices USBPre2: SPDIF out. I get 24/96.

[drchen]

Well I picked one of these up last week, ran some tests at home (just to run a few tests & familiarize myself with it a bit) and then took it out for some real world festy experience this past weekend. 

- Pres seem to be quiet and transparent.  Not quite as much so as the Oade R-44, but pretty damn good for a $300 unit.  Much better than the stock PMD-660 I had a while back.

My first listen-back after doing a comparison: the V2-> AD2k-> Dr-100 mkii  was *way-way* better than using the stock DR-100 mkii's pre and a-to-d. But then I'm comparing apples and oranges, money-wise. So no big surprise here.

- battery life is much better than I expected, after what I had read here.  I recorded a 2+ hour set running phantom and had 1 bar left on the Li-Ion.  It didn't switch over to the AAs until after listening to some stuff on the way home (probably another hour or so)
 
In my experience, the internal Li-Ion batt does just OK, not great (I got 1:45:00 including phantom power to 2x Schoeps CCM4s). Its the AA's that are *terrible*: I got about 00:10:00 from the brand-new Lenmar 2500ma rechargable AA's before it switched to the internal Li-Ion (powering the CCM4s). I hope this is a Tascam firmware "fuel-gage" issue that will be fixed in a future firmware update, as I believe someone has stated that the DR-2d has been fixes in its 1.03 firmware version. 

- it does NOT accept 24-bit from the Busman UA-5.  It DOES accept 16-bit, although that definitely limits its use as a bitbucket (until I can upgrade my preamp anyway).  I would be curious to know how it works with other pres / A/Ds

[/i]
Thats a serious bummer!!! as I just bought a UA-5 off the YS just for the purpose running of 24/48 into the Dr-100mkii for my minimal-system. !
BTW, I had no problem with DR-100 mkii locking onto a AD2k at 24/48 the one time I tried. I think I had problems locking at 24/96 but that may have been human error--I'll check that again and report back.
thanks to everyone for sharing your experience/information on this new product.

[dogmusic]

I think I had problems locking at 24/96 but that may have been human error--I'll check that again and report back.

Make sure you have set the correct mode in order to record at 96 kHz. You must be in HS mode. See pages 25-26 of the manual:

"Mode selection

You can set the operation mode used for recording and playback.

Setting the mode

1.   While pressing the ENTER/MARK button press the button to turn the power ON and open the MODE SELECT screen.

STD (default) Standard mode for using WAV files with sampling frequencies of 44.1 or 48 kHz and MP3 files

HS Mode for using WAV files with sampling frequencies of 44.1, 48 or 96 kHz

2.   Use the wheel to select the mode to use, and press the ENTER/MARK button to confirm the setting. The unit will start in the selected mode.

NOTE: The selected mode setting is retained and will be used the next time the unit power is turned ON."

[drchen]

Thanks Dogmusic! 
I'm sure that was my problem because I definitely did not put it into HS mode.

[jb63]

Just finished reading all the pages here.
Wow.
Fantastic review, covered most every question I could have!

I was just noticing that the the cost of R-44s is now up to almost what Doug charges for one he's modded:

http://www.oade.com/digital_recorders/hard_disc_recorders/upgrades.html

when I scrolled down to see that he does mods on the DR100.
do you think that also applies to the MKII?

I've been meaning to call him, but since I'm not ready to push the button any anything just yet, I haven't gotten around to it.
he lowest price I've found on these is $300, and if you add a $125 mod and some shipping, that's pretty good.

[jbell]

The DR100 mkII with the concert mod would be a nice deck.  Also has the Digi input.

Edit:  I emailed Oade and he isn't going to mod the DR100 mkii

Just finished reading all the pages here.
Wow.
Fantastic review, covered most every question I could have!

I was just noticing that the the cost of R-44s is now up to almost what Doug charges for one he's modded:

http://www.oade.com/digital_recorders/hard_disc_recorders/upgrades.html

when I scrolled down to see that he does mods on the DR100.
do you think that also applies to the MKII?

I've been meaning to call him, but since I'm not ready to push the button any anything just yet, I haven't gotten around to it.
he lowest price I've found on these is $300, and if you add a $125 mod and some shipping, that's pretty good.

[jibooer]

Great review tonedeaf...it's good of you to break down the features for us, especially relative to the way we use stuff. Much obliged.

[jb63]

I emailed Oade and he isn't going to mod the DR100 mkii

Too bad.
I was looking into it today and thinking that could be the perfect all-in-one with the mod.