Topic: Marantz 671 in the field...

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

you lost me here nick. with the m148 there are no adjustments, so i adjusted accordingly w/ the 671. is running the 671 wide-open a good/bad thing.

I didn't have a clue what he meant either.   

[Nick's Picks]

I was reffering to using a preamp in front that had adjustable gain, like a V2 or something.
sorry..I thought that was the innitial question.

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

I was reffering to using a preamp in front that had adjustable gain, like a V2 or something.
sorry..I thought that was the innitial question.

I was referring to this:

the "gain utility" is the knobs on the front.  they are used for mic and line input.  what I dont know...is if it acts as an attenuator durring line input mode ala DAP1.  If that were the case, youd want to run it as wide open as possible and adjust the preamp accordingly.

I'm sure Doug knows if the Line input is just a padded Mic input, if I remember correctly, he told me no, but I could be confusing that with the R-4. 

For those of you that don't know what we're talking about, some manufactures create a Line input by attenuating the Mic input so that it can handle Line levels.  With this design the Line input STILL passes through the preamp of the recorder.  Basically you have Mic input > preamp > a/d >media or Line input (which is a padded mic input) > preamp >a/d >media.

An example of a unit that does it the correct way is the PCM-M1 Line input and Mic input are 2 entirely different circuits.  Mic input > preamp > a/d > media and Line input is Line input > a/d > media. 

IMO I'd choose the most dirrect route and if using an external preamp, circumvent the units preamp.

Hope that makes sense.

[Chuck]

I'm going to be recording Ratdog in December with the stock 671 and a Warm UA-5.
How long are Ratdog sets now? At 24 bit, 48 Khz, my 4 GB card can record for 4 hours. Will that cover it?
Also, I'm debating whether to go line out of the UA-5 or S/PDIF out? Or maybe change it up between sets to compare the A/D converters? It'll be my first out of the living room recording I do with the 671.

[F.O.Bean]

I'm going to be recording Ratdog in December with the stock 671 and a Warm UA-5.
How long are Ratdog sets now? At 24 bit, 48 Khz, my 4 GB card can record for 4 hours. Will that cover it?
Also, I'm debating whether to go line out of the UA-5 or S/PDIF out? Or maybe change it up between sets to compare the A/D converters? It'll be my first out of the living room recording I do with the 671.

4 hrs should be PLENTY, remember, bobby is getting older

id say he played about 2.5-3 hrs MAX at the greensburg show i saw

[Chuck]

I'm going to be recording Ratdog in December with the stock 671 and a Warm UA-5.
How long are Ratdog sets now? At 24 bit, 48 Khz, my 4 GB card can record for 4 hours. Will that cover it?
Also, I'm debating whether to go line out of the UA-5 or S/PDIF out? Or maybe change it up between sets to compare the A/D converters? It'll be my first out of the living room recording I do with the 671.

4 hrs should be PLENTY, remember, bobby is getting older

id say he played about 2.5-3 hrs MAX at the greensburg show i saw

Yeah, I thought so. So it's like the GD were doing in the late 80's, early 90's. A one hour first set and 1 1/2 hour second set...

[Chuck]

So the 671 has USB out, and the new tascam unit has firewire out, no?  What kind of transfer times are you guys getting on the USB transfers with this?

i moved 2.75gb in 8 minutes via usb1.1. that may be long to some, but i just found something else to do while it x-ferred. couldnt be happier.

the "gain utility" is the knobs on the front.  they are used for mic and line input.  what I dont know...is if it acts as an attenuator durring line input mode ala DAP1.  If that were the case, youd want to run it as wide open as possible and adjust the preamp accordingly.

IMO, if you know the V2s normal gain settings w/your mics, then just adjust the 671s gain so that you are able to run the V2 in the usual manner. 

you lost me here nick. with the m148 there are no adjustments, so i adjusted accordingly w/ the 671. is running the 671 wide-open a good/bad thing.

FWIW, Doug told me the best gain structure would be to run the 671 knobs at "7" and run the outboard pre-amps knobs to get the appropriate levels on the 671 meters.

[Kindguy]

Well, I canceled my order with Oade. Going to wait & see what the Tascam unit is all about first. If it uses the same AD chip as the V3 I might prefer it. Time will tell.

[sygdwm]

let us know how it goes. when does that thing ship?

[Chuck]

Yeah, did Doug say anything to you that changed your mind?

[Kindguy]

Yeah, did Doug say anything to you that changed your mind?

Not really. He did say if I'm not in a hurry & I'm not. Why not wait. It looks like he may do more mods to the tascam unit. W/T/P mods on the pre. He said a bunch of others that I'm not going to post because I'll prob get them wrong.

Ship date is 2nd week in December. But take it with a grain of salt.

[sygdwm]

2nd time out w/ the 671. ran 140>148>671 using xlr>rca. im in love. thats all i can say. 

[Nick's Picks]

indeed.
i'm very happy w/mine to.  all packed up in a little camera case.  one battery.  ultra cool.
can't wait for the mod to materialize...that will cut my stuff in 1/2!

[Chuck]

I'm very happy with the way my stock PMD 671 performs in the field. I've used it with a w-mod UA-5 (coax in) and line in from my DAW. I'm especially impressed with the meters. They seem to be quite accurate and I am comfortable with the way they work.

I have my recorder set up, so when I turn it on, it is properly configured and ready to go. Fire it up, just push the record slider and away i go. I used an external battery pack to record RatDog recently. ( AA 2500 mAh Powersonic NiMH batteries. They recorded the whole three hours plus show with lots of room to spare. My Kingston 4 GB CF card worked flawlessly. I have noticed that the headphone output isn't very good, it's hardly able to drive the several sets of headphones I've tried with it. This isn't a big deal for me, but if you want to use headphones with this recorder, you should get a separate portable headphone amp.

Now, i just have to get it ACM moded before the Boulder ARU shows in January. I can't wait to use it with this modification!

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

I'm very happy with the way my stock PMD 671 performs in the field. I've used it with a w-mod UA-5 (coax in) and line in from my DAW. I'm especially impressed with the meters. They seem to be quite accurate and I am comfortable with the way they work.

+T Chuck, glad to hear it's working out for you.  Those meters are pretty sweet, probably the best out of all the CF recorders from what I've seen.