I got my Songcatcher PMD660 yesterday. All I can say is: Oh. My. Gawd. What the hell was I thinking even considering buying another f-ing MiniDisc recorder? This thing just plain rocks! It took me all of ten minutes to set it up the way I want it (I'd read the manual before in PDF before I even placed the order) and actually recording with it is a one-touch affair (or two touches if you choose to use the pre-record buffer).
It took one "run" (record, dump CF to computer, open WAV in Audacity) to figure out that I need to run with some headroom (the meters are dead on - the "clips" are really clipping). Still sounded pretty good. The first recording was just a band rehearsal so not a big deal. But then I took it out on the town.
The community college had its Juneteenth celebration/concert last night. So I went there without changing the battery (Sanyo 2000 mAH Eneloop cells fresh from the package - factory charged). Rehearsal was more than two hours and I got a little over an hour of recording (the machine was on for longer than that) on the remainder of the charge. It should be noted that I was supplying +48 VDC to the NT4. When the battery ran out, I didn't even notice. I had the cans off and was busy watching the band. When I looked down, it was dead. The last time I'd looked, the battery meter read "full" (and yes, it's set on NiMH in the menu).
I swapped the battery and recorded for almost two hours straight. Then I played back half an hour or so in the car. Track splits are inaudible. Still reading a "full" battery. When I got home, I popped the card into the reader (still haven't used the 660's USB capability). With the levels (rarely) peaking at -2dB and sitting mostly in the green, the recording is crystal clear and plenty loud enough (though the 660's headphone amp is a little weak to drive my cans well). It really has to be heard to be believed. I haven't heard sound this good out of anything that wasn't 24 bit (or analog - but that's a different flavor). I put the card back into the 660 to format it (unit was displaying half battery at this point) and left the machine on. The battery died (with the beeping warning) a few minutes after formatting the card.
I now completely understand see why Oade Brothers Audio recommends the PMD660 so highly. I have a ~6 hour gig tomorrow and I'm not even sweating it. I have a 4GB card, two Eleloop batteries and some 2700 mAH cells that came with my BC900 (charger). I'm thinking that an external battery for longer shows (especially if I'm running +48) is not at all a bad idea, though, and I'll be looking in to that. I'll do my best to get some rig pictures up next week (my weekend's booked solid).