Topic: TASCAM DR-680 portable 8-track - announced at NAMM

[philper]

I e-mailed Tascam/Teac earlier this week with some questions about this recorder. Mr. Chang (Teac Engineer) just called me at home with the answers!

I asked him about the Recording Trim adjustments and some other things...

On the Recording Trim knob if you dial one click away from "0" you get a reading of .5 or -.5 depending on which way you turn the dial. But, above 1 and below -1 you have to dial two clicks to get to the next number, 2, 3, 4 etc... I thought it was a firmware glitch that the assumed .5 increments between the whole numbers didn't show on the screen. Mr. Chang confirmed that there are .5 dB increments between the whole numbers. He said there wasn't enough room on the display to show 13.5 or example, so the .5 increments don't and won't show between the whole numbers. He did say there is a firmware glitch that doesn't allow the .5 dB increments to be saved when the recorder is turned off though. That will be fixed in an upcoming firmware update.

Mr Chang did say that they are considering making the <2 dB from clipping indicator more customizable. For example showing an actual clip rather than a <2 dB from clip. Personally, I'd rather know when I actually am clipping, rather than knowing when I might be clipping.

He confirmed that the DR-680 does not re-sample when using the SPDIF input. He was proud to say that the DR-680 uses the AK4612 http://akm.com/prod_brief/AK4614_pb.pdf chip for the A/D section.

He didn't comment on what chips (instrumentation amps or op-amps) were used for the microphone pre-amp section. I'm sure someone will crack one open before I do to report what they are.

Chang's a good guy--he helped me a lot in the early days w/ the HDP2 and time recording, particularly autostart recording and other esoteric features.  Keep his number--he's one of the people at TEAC who really knows how the gear works.  His involvment w/ the DR680--gives me some confidence that any issues will be worked out (he personally sent me several HDP2 firmware fixes back in the day).

Philip Perkins

[Chuck]

I've only owned a few pieces of Tascam equipment over the years and never had to contact them. After reading that some folks had negative experiences with Tascam customer support, I wasn't very hopeful about getting a reply to my e-mail. But, Mr. Chang was very helpful. I got the idea he would have stayed on the phone with me for as long as it took to answer all of my questions. I have to say that I was impressed.

[headroom]

Thanks for sharing and your effort to inform us Great!

[mattmiller]

I've only owned a few pieces of Tascam equipment over the years and never had to contact them. After reading that some folks had negative experiences with Tascam customer support, I wasn't very hopeful about getting a reply to my e-mail. But, Mr. Chang was very helpful. I got the idea he would have stayed on the phone with me for as long as it took to answer all of my questions. I have to say that I was impressed.

Is Mr. Chang well versed on service-type issues, or just how to use the gear?  I wonder if I should try to contact him about my rusting HD-P2.  The service manager (Jim) never got back to me about it (though he was on vacation last week -- he said he was going to try to get it resolved before he left for vacation).  If I don't hear from him next week, maybe I'll try Mr. Chang.

[Mikkel Nielsen]

Hello all,

First post here.
Thanks for a great forum.

Has anyone tested how long the DR680 will work, when using phantom power and internal rechargable batteries?

Im using an ancient FR2, that sucks the life out of the 8 AA´s in 1,5 hours, without the phantom on. The unit has some power issues too, when working with certain mics. So Im on the lookout for something new.

Best wishes,

Mikkel

[Chuck]

Hello all,

First post here.
Thanks for a great forum.

Has anyone tested how long the DR680 will work, when using phantom power and internal rechargable batteries?

Im using an ancient FR2, that sucks the life out of the 8 AA´s in 1,5 hours, without the phantom on. The unit has some power issues too, when working with certain mics. So Im on the lookout for something new.

Best wishes,

Mikkel

I plan to do some torture tests on mine this weekend, if I can get all my honey-doo's done...
I'm going to run sine waves and noise into it and figure out it's gain structure. Then the battery test. I want to find out at what voltage it switches over from external to internal batteries. I'll test my Eveready 2500 mAh batteries in it too...to see how long it runs.

[Mikkel Nielsen]

Looking forward to that.
Thanks alot:)

Best wishes,

Mikkel

[Chuck]

These are the results of the tests I did this afternoon. I ran white noise, 1 kHz & 100 Hz sine wavs into it and monitored with the coax output connected to my PC in WaveLab.

There were really no surprises at all.

The Recording Trim control works in .5 dB steps the one step between the whole numbers is .5 dB, but it does not show that on the display.

The channels track together very well. I assume that's because of digital controls, rather than analog pots. On my box all the inputs matched each other well within +/- 1 dB. Channels 3 & 4 were +/- .1 dB in the MIC (LOW) setting.

There is a 23.5 dB step between Line In & MIC In (LOW)
There is another 23.5 dB step between MIC In (LOW) & MIC In (HIGH)
The "Clip" indicator does show when you are <2 dB from clipping. I hope they can make that user selectable to show a real clip in a new firmware release. The meters on the DR-680 matched up very well with the readings I was getting in WaveLab. I also tested them against the meters on a Rockboxed iHP-120. Which I have learned to trust. They matched up very well.

The optional Limiter kicks in around 4 dB from 0, and acts like a brick wall. It just chops the top off of the WAVs. It wasn't pretty. Needless to say, I won't be using that function.

Knowing that the way you wired the TRS inputs on the MicroTrack II for unbalanced input was so important, I made two sets of cables. One set tied Pins 1 & 3 together at the input, Pin 2 hot. The other cables ran pin 3 to the ground on the unbalanced cable, Pin 2 hot and Pin 1 (Ground) not tied to the unbalanced ground, "floating".

As Mr. Chang had told me it really didn't matter which wiring to use, I confirmed that there was no difference in the noise when using either set of cables. < I would defer to someone that has the proper test equipment on this one though. I used my ears and the meters in WaveLab to make that judgement.

I'm testing batteries and external power now...

If anyone has any other ideas for tests, let me know.

[Ozpeter]

The "Clip" indicator does show when you are <2 dB from clipping.

Maybe they were thinking of preventing intersample peaks which don't necessarily show on the meters.

[Chuck]

I loaded the DR-680 with (8) fully charged 2450 mAh Energizer NiMH batteries.
I ran (1) pair of AKG C-480's, (1) pair of AKG C-460's and a pair of Naiant MSH-1O's. So, I had phantom power on for three sets of mics. Low gain with all channels recording.

The recorder shut off after 2 hours and 22 minutes.

[philper]

I'd like to take a look at a DR680 sound file recorded as BWF filetype, if you can post it.  I'd like to see what TC apps like WaveAgent and BWAV reader make of it.

Philip Perkins

[Chuck]

I'd like to take a look at a DR680 sound file recorded as BWF filetype, if you can post it.  I'd like to see what TC apps like WaveAgent and BWAV reader make of it.

Philip Perkins

I recorded a one minute file and uploaded it here:

http://www.filesavr.com/100425039st12

100425_039_st12.wav

It saved as a .WAV on the SDHC card. I expected it to save as .BWF... but it didn't.
Let me know if that works for you.

[Mikkel Nielsen]

I loaded the DR-680 with ( fully charged 2450 mAh Energizer NiMH batteries.
I ran (1) pair of AKG C-480's, (1) pair of AKG C-460's and a pair of Naiant MSH-1O's. So, I had phantom power on for three sets of mics. Low gain with all channels recording.

The recorder shut off after 2 hours and 22 minutes.

Thats quite impressive for 6 mics on phantom, isnt it?

Thanks for testing.

Mikkel

[stevetoney]

I loaded the DR-680 with ( fully charged 2450 mAh Energizer NiMH batteries.
I ran (1) pair of AKG C-480's, (1) pair of AKG C-460's and a pair of Naiant MSH-1O's. So, I had phantom power on for three sets of mics. Low gain with all channels recording.

The recorder shut off after 2 hours and 22 minutes.

Thats quite impressive for 6 mics on phantom, isnt it?

Thanks for testing.

Mikkel

Marginal.  It's probably not long enough that people would want to rely solely on the internal batteries for 6 channel recording, however most probably wouldn't do that anyway, so probably no big deal.

[Chuck]

I loaded the DR-680 with ( fully charged 2450 mAh Energizer NiMH batteries.
I ran (1) pair of AKG C-480's, (1) pair of AKG C-460's and a pair of Naiant MSH-1O's. So, I had phantom power on for three sets of mics. Low gain with all channels recording.

The recorder shut off after 2 hours and 22 minutes.

Thats quite impressive for 6 mics on phantom, isnt it?

Thanks for testing.

Mikkel

Marginal.  It's probably not long enough that people would want to rely solely on the internal batteries for 6 channel recording, however most probably wouldn't do that anyway, so probably no big deal.

I got between 5 and 6 hours on my 9v Wally DVD batteries. So, 5-6 hours plus 2+ from the internals is plenty for any taping situation I encounter.