Topic: Marantz 620 speaker quality

[Robert Sands]

Has anyone heard the speaker in the Marantz 620? I am a songwriter and want to retire my Sony cassette recorder (YUK!). I need a little sketchpad recorder for when I'm away from my studio and am writing with guitar in hand. So many of these small dig. recorders only have headphone out and no speaker built in. Don't want to have to carry headphones so the 620 looks interesting. I'm not expecting any real fidelity but for those who have heard it, is the speaker about as good a quality as my Mac G4 14" iBook? Or is it even worse or better or whatever. Thanks.

[flintstone]

...is the speaker about as good a quality as my Mac G4 14" iBook...

The PMD620's speaker sounds worse than your laptop.
Flintstone

[aaronji]

What he said.  Good enough to hear the lyrics, but tinny and low volume and noisy (as you might expect)...You might as well just bring some cheap ear buds and it sounds better...

[Robert Sands]

is the bad sound of the 620's speaker any reason for me to consider the 660 instead? Is that speaker that much better or are they both pretty bad and I should just get the 620, use headphones and be done with it.

[radiovenice]

Nah, from what I remember of the times I've used the 660 speaker, it's good enough to verify that your recording is there and not horrendously messed up but otherwise a waste of space and weight.

[aaronji]

Nah, from what I remember of the times I've used the 660 speaker, it's good enough to verify that your recording is there and not horrendously messed up but otherwise a waste of space and weight.

That's what the 620's speaker is like too...

[Robert Sands]

Am I right - there really isn't any small Digital recorder that has a decent speaker - or really any speaker at all -  is there? That new Sony D50 doesn't have a speaker does it?

[Robert Sands]

one other question. If it didn't matter that the Sony was $100 more than the 620 and you just said - okay I'll where headphones - which would be the better unit - the Sony D50 or the Marantz 620.

[aaronji]

one other question. If it didn't matter that the Sony was $100 more than the 620 and you just said - okay I'll where headphones - which would be the better unit - the Sony D50 or the Marantz 620.

My guess is that, since they are both newly released products with low numbers in people's hands, nobody has done any sort of comparison as yet.  The Marantz is considerably smaller, if that is a concern for you.  From what I have read, the Sony (which is generating a lot of buzz, by the way) has better internal mics (which, again, may or may not be a concern for you).  The Edirol R-09 is probably also worth a look if you are in this general price range...

There are threads on both all three which you should check out:

Sony PCM-D50:  http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,92069.0.html

Marantz PMD-620:  http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,91816.0.html

Edirol R-09:  http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,71818.0.html