Author Topic: Sony D50 in the field ? (Read 14261 times)

Nick's Picks · « **on:** January 02, 2008, 07:08:48 AM »

so who's got one, who's using it ?

1. how are the mic preamps ? good enough to not run an outboard preamp (outboard phantom required, I know).

2. digital in stable ?

3. battery life ?

4. metering any good ?

5. whats it *sound* like ? good, bad, cheap, grainy ??

just curious. It would be nice to run a small(ish) deck w/digi in and good mic preamps...that is less than 500.

SClassical · « **Reply #1 on:** January 02, 2008, 10:09:35 AM »

I tried the mic preamps using the built-in mics and was not very happy. I will never use the built-in mics to record music. The hiss is very audible when the mic vol is set above 4.5. Never done a mic-in recording with external mics.

Regarding digital in...you have to be careful where the digital signal is coming from. There is a problem with this machine accepting 24 bit digital signals from a lot of AD converters. Many AD converters are not compatible with the D50. Grace Design is working on a V3 AD chip up-date so the D50 can be used with it (I will be helping them test the chip this week).

I'm planning to do a comp of the internal AD converter with the 722 and V3 later this month in a concert. If someone else does it before me, it will be great.

Metering is really good!

Are you planning to get it? If I were you I will wait for the fixes and the comp before getting it because it is sort of pricey if you consider the problem with the digital in. You might want to consider the MTII, too.

Nick's Picks · « **Reply #2 on:** January 02, 2008, 12:22:43 PM »

the MTII would be my bucket of choice probably. I just want to gut that sony.
:-)

spyder9 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 02, 2008, 01:23:16 PM »

I have a D50. Recorded with it last Friday. Flawless operation. Easy to set up and use. Metering is fantastic. Ran Aerco > D50. The show has not been pulled from D50 and worked on yet. Will have more thoughts of the AD later this week when I give the show a listen through some decent speakers. Headphones never tell me anything.

udo · « **Reply #4 on:** January 03, 2008, 12:04:22 AM »

I was too busy lately to post any more, so a delayed report on my experiences:
I am really happy with the machine, on of the best purchases for recording I have ever done!
Since it is so small, I have it with me most of the time and use it for "snap shots" all the time. (E.g. my kids holiday singing, some piano ideas, a strange siren here in our town etc.). I know, the microtrack could do the same (and it is even smaller), BUT the quality of the machine seems to be much better then the microtrack, I love the metering (Also the green light / red light indicators are helpful), the microphones are not matched but much better then I expected (good enough for these kind of snapshots). I tested the battery life once with 4 rather old maha 2500 AA (internal mics on 5, headphones on 4), and gave up after 6 hours, when the indicator showed still batteries half full.
I got my mixpre back and the sound of the line in is great, at least as good as the marantz pmd670. So it gives me the high-profile option with an external preamp as well. (not a bit bucket since the mixpre has no a/d but I am happy with the sound of the sony a/d - though I am curious to hear some comps of that).
But for me the biggest plus is to have a small, "stealthable" machine, that is not a "toy" as the MT - to put it with Doug Oade. The sony feels to me (and sounds so far) as a professional tool adequate for what I want and not like a cell-phone turned into a audio recorder.
I am still waiting for my Church audio omnis to arrive, then I can post some recordings with the internal mic-preamp with external mics.
To sum it up: the 300 $ Difference to the Zoom H2, and the 200 $ to the MT II for me are worth having the feeling of a professional audio recording tool in the smallest possible size. I believe sonically the Fr2-le is probably better (better preamps, phantom power, remote control etc.), but I really wanted to have something small, that still does the job adequately, and when I need better sound, I hook up the mixpre and go line-in (and hopefully beter mics then the C4s will come at some point as well.)
Hope that helps ...
Udo

mrsoul · « **Reply #5 on:** January 03, 2008, 10:51:19 AM »

I have not run the external mic preamp yet but so far, I am very pleased with this machine. I was in experiment mode at the Christmas Jam, which is perfect when there are a zillion other rigs flying high.

For the Derek and Susan Soul Stew Revival at the Fox, I think I got it right. I totally blew the same sweet spot location last year due to poor metering on the Sony RH1 (they are just too small to have value) and running too hot. I think I got it right this year. This recording really showcases the Busman mod on the card Avantones too. Metering is great and I really use that green and red for the peak levels, it's made all the difference for my level setting.

http://www.archive.org/details/dtb2007-12-31.flac24_soul_stew_revival_avantoneCK1b

The 16bit is up now too.

The battery life (even if it is 4 AA) is great, I am using the Rayovac 2000 mAh rechargeables that are a few years old and I recorded Scrapomatic, NMA and the 2 hour Soul Stew Revival set at 24/44.1 with 1/2 meter still showing on the battery.

Very quiet on the line input as you will hear.

I have used it to record my kids putting on a "rock" show in my living room with the built in mics and it serves that purpose without a hitch, they didn't even notice I was recording them because I didn't have any mics in my hand like the old days :-)

I have some decent little Audio Technica mini-omnis that I plan to run at the Jeff Sipe Trio show in Greenville to compare with the internals at the same show later this month.

So far, I agree with udo that it's the best recorder I have bought. I have had 5 Sony MD/Hi-MDs and I am glad to have made the upgrade. I don't have a digital preamp yet, so the optical input issue is a non-issue for me but YMMV. Might consider a UA-5 with digi mod one of these days...but for now, it's the cat's meow in my universe.

udo · « **Reply #6 on:** January 03, 2008, 06:09:50 PM »

Got my church audio omnis in the mail today, and made a quick entirely unscientific comp:
internal mics
church omnis
studio projects c4 omnis through mixpre (line in on sony)
The room is bad, I put the mics on a small table-top tripod, with lots of reflections from the table, and I am playing bad .... also its three times playing (I obviously have no three sonys do to a real time comp.).
Also, I normalized them all to 100%, but had to cut down the file-size several times to comply with th 516KB restriction, and so the gain is quite different on all three recordings. But one can get the idea ....
- The internal mics are not too bad.
- The church audio mics have audible self noise, but I bought them for outdoors, windy situations, so this will not be an issue. But they have a great frequency response, nice lows in comparison to the brighter (more metallic) sony internals.
- and then I realize once again, what great microphones the C4 omnis are, especially with the warm mixpre
Udo

Outrageous · « **Reply #7 on:** January 05, 2008, 11:16:03 PM »

Nice playing, and thanks for the comparison. I've recorded my wife playing piano with the internal mics on the D50 and thought the sound was quite good--perhaps a bit bright compared to reality, but with a very realistic presence. As one might expect, your result sounded very similar. I must say, I wouldn't be satisfied with the self-noise on the Church omnis.

shaggy · « **Reply #8 on:** January 07, 2008, 06:35:34 PM »

Anybody have any issues with this and a UA-5 outputting a 24bit signal?

SClassical · « **Reply #9 on:** January 16, 2008, 08:37:06 PM »

I'm preparing for tomorrow's first stealth recording with my D50. So I connected my mixpre/DPA4052 with my recorder. The problem is I can hear the hiss from the recorder at REC pause mode using my headphones. The noise seem to disappear when I set the REC vol at "3". So it is actually worse than I thought. Before I thought it was fine when I set the REC vol @4 or 4.5.

Has anyone here actually used the D50 in a live music event yet and was happy? I'm sure someone here must have recorded a concert rather than just recording room/street noise or people chatting. My problem is if I set the REC vol at level 3 the music turns out to be very soft during playback. Even if I turn up the phone vol to "10" (max).

I don't want to turn up the mixpre too high just in case I get brickwalling. BTW, how do I know what is the max I can go with the mixpre before I reach brickwalling?

If I end up recording at setting "3" and increase the vol at home I'm sure the background noise will increase, too. So what is the best thing to do? Use the D50 as a bit bucket with my V3 or just try out the Mixpre>D50 setup or forget about all this and take the trusty 722?

mrsoul · « **Reply #10 on:** January 16, 2008, 09:00:52 PM »

Quote from: scyue on January 16, 2008, 08:37:06 PM

I'm preparing for tomorrow's first stealth recording with my D50. So I connected my mixpre/DPA4052 with my recorder. The problem is I can hear the hiss from the recorder at REC pause mode using my headphones. The noise seem to disappear when I set the REC vol at "3". So it is actually worse than I thought. Before I thought it was fine when I set the REC vol @4 or 4.5.

Has anyone here actually used the D50 in a live music event yet and was happy? I'm sure someone here must have recorded a concert rather than just recording room/street noise or people chatting. My problem is if I set the REC vol at level 3 the music turns out to be very soft during playback. Even if I turn up the phone vol to "10" (max).

I don't want to turn up the mixpre too high just in case I get brickwalling. BTW, how do I know what is the max I can go with the mixpre before I reach brickwalling?

If I end up recording at setting "3" and increase the vol at home I'm sure the background noise will increase, too. So what is the best thing to do? Use the D50 as a bit bucket with my V3 or just try out the Mixpre>D50 setup or forget about all this and take the trusty 722?

Maybe my ears are burnt but I don't hear much hiss from my recorder and feel the noise level on the line in and the mic preamp to very quiet, almost non-existent. I have recorded some good shows and have posted a few on the archive but haven't had problem with the noise level running into the line input.

Do you think it might be the headphone amp and your headphones? I have found the headphone amp to very quiet as well. YMMV of course, just my experience...

SClassical · « **Reply #11 on:** January 16, 2008, 10:28:59 PM »

Hmm I don't know maybe something wrong with my D50 or maybe I got used to my old setup (DPA4052/Schoeps CCM2S>V3>722). What REC vol are you using? Total silence (rests in music) in classical music is important so it really has to be as noise-free as possible. Curious to know at what REC level can you start to hear noise from your D50 when your preamp and mics are connected and powered up? For me anything above 3.5 I start to get something. I know people posted some tracks but most of it is continuous music so the signal will always be above the background noise. Anyway tomorrow I will use it and see how it sound in a real life stealth situation.

guysonic · « **Reply #12 on:** January 17, 2008, 12:49:23 AM »

I've already done full input measurements on the D50.

LINE input allows up to +24 dBu full pro levels! Just like SD 700 series decks.

LINE input clipping level is getting max'd out 0 dB VU full scale overload indications with REC knob at or below 2.5. So if getting below 0 dB VU indications, with REC knob at or above 2.5, you're NOT clipping the input of the D50.

This means you can run your high output preamp AT FULL SCALE OUTPUT into the D50's line input without fear of ever clipping the input of the D50.

Same 2.5 or above knob setting for avoiding input clipping applies to the D50's MIC input.

arrowman · « **Reply #13 on:** January 17, 2008, 12:12:13 PM »

I tried out the D50 last night at band practice and had great results. We used the internal mics. They worked great.

We play loud folk rock, and it worked well for that. I could only set the level at 1.5 because of how loud we get.

I tried to post a sample, but it was too large.

mrsoul · « **Reply #14 on:** January 17, 2008, 12:15:56 PM »

Quote from: arrowman on January 17, 2008, 12:12:13 PM

I tried out the D50 last night at band practice and had great results. We used the internal mics. They worked great.

We play loud folk rock, and it worked well for that. I could only set the level at 1.5 because of how loud we get.

I tried to post a sample, but it was too large.

You might consider using the mic attentuator and the limiter for your loud sources. Look on the left side of the recorder or read the manual

And welcome to the forum!

arrowman · « **Reply #15 on:** January 17, 2008, 01:00:26 PM »

Hey Now,

I did read the manual, but didn't understand the attenuator or limiter stuff that much. I'm very new to all of this.

thanks tho, I'll try again.

mrsoul · « **Reply #16 on:** January 17, 2008, 01:06:31 PM »

If nothing else, turn on the attentuator. That takes the input from your band down so the mic inputs don't overload so easily and you can turn it up a little :-)

guysonic · « **Reply #17 on:** January 17, 2008, 05:34:24 PM »

Quote from: mrsoul on January 17, 2008, 01:06:31 PM

If nothing else, turn on the attentuator. That takes the input from your band down so the mic inputs don't overload so easily and you can turn it up a little :-)

Maybe a better way to understand the 'attenuator' function is to realize this is a first stage mic preamplifier GAIN switch. 20 dB setting is best considered the NORMAL setting, and the 0 dB setting is the 20 dB boosted gain position with a lot less headroom/frequency bandwidth, and higher distortion.

So ONLY use the 0 dB setting if absolutely needing more gain, like maybe for acoustic type recording. Otherwise, you're way better off in the 20 dB setting even if having to turn the REC level knob full up to #10 for adequate VU levels.

arrowman · « **Reply #18 on:** January 18, 2008, 10:35:07 AM »

Thank you. that helps a lot.

Outrageous · « **Reply #19 on:** January 19, 2008, 08:25:23 PM »

Quote from: guysonic on January 17, 2008, 05:34:24 PM

Maybe a better way to understand the 'attenuator' function is to realize this is a first stage mic preamplifier GAIN switch. 20 dB setting is best considered the NORMAL setting, and the 0 dB setting is the 20 dB boosted gain position with a lot less headroom/frequency bandwidth, and higher distortion.

So ONLY use the 0 dB setting if absolutely needing more gain, like maybe for acoustic type recording. Otherwise, you're way better off in the 20 dB setting even if having to turn the REC level knob full up to #10 for adequate VU levels.

It's hard for me to imagine that the "attenuation" switch is really a "gain" switch. Are you sure about this? Is this related to mike "trim"? Also, I am very unclear about what you mean about clipping above or below the 2.5 setting.

gearscout · « **Reply #20 on:** January 21, 2008, 08:45:15 PM »

Just got my PCM-D50 today and, alarmed by all of the "reviews" that said it didn't work well with external mics, I couldn't wait to test it.

Plugging in a Sennheiser ME66/K6 (K6 is the "power" module that provides 48v by inserting a single AA battery ) and I found it to be excellent. This is in line with what another user who has a Rode NTG2 reports -- shotgun mics work well with the D50. Brad Linder's blog had a review quoted (not his) that said a Rode NTG1 did NOT work well with the Sony recorder. There are more than enough variables for everyone to doubt either his...or my...results.

The 0-20 switch on the side of the D50 appears to be just a "pad." Engaging it at 20 will prevent mics that are too hot from overmodulating. But it's just a pad. I haven't tested it enough to see whether that actually lowers the noise floor. It will certainly vary from mic to mic, I would think...with better quality mics performing just fine whether you have the pad engaged or not. It may just make it easier to control the volume with the dial.

You guys are more technical than I am. I'm just listening to the sound and watching the levels.

So, there's a field report. I will provide some sample files.

P.S. Plugged the ME66/K6 into the H2 and it was very good. Maybe not as good as the Sony. But maybe I'm buying expensive wine and thinking it tastes better.

mrsoul · « **Reply #21 on:** January 21, 2008, 09:50:59 PM »

PCM-D50 with external mics. Great pull if I do say so myself, super quiet. I did have the 20dB attenuator on during this recording. I also found it very easy to control in the fanny pack during stealth operations. The green and red peak lights are irreplaceable for this type setting. Enjoy!

http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?p=779338#post779338

Ozpeter · « **Reply #22 on:** January 22, 2008, 12:10:45 AM »

Quote

Plugged the ME66/K6 into the H2 and it was very good.

Odd that the only mic I've seen anywhere that people say works with the H2 is that one. Presumably it has a huge output - to get results from the H2 with an external mic it seems necessary to use something close to line level.

spyder9 · « **Reply #23 on:** January 22, 2008, 12:40:37 AM »

Quote from: gearscout on January 21, 2008, 08:45:15 PM

Plugging in a Sennheiser ME66/K6 (K6 is the "power" module that provides 48v by inserting a single AA battery ) and I found it to be excellent. This is in line with what another user who has a Rode NTG2 reports -- shotgun mics work well with the D50. Brad Linder's blog had a review quoted (not his) that said a Rode NTG1 did NOT work well with the Sony recorder. There are more than enough variables for everyone to doubt either his...or my...results.

Couple things:

1) The ME66/K6 runs on either AA battery or P48 power. The K6 is incapable of providing P48, whether its on batteries or not. The P48 must come from a mic preamp.

2) Rode NTG1 runs on P48 only. NTG2 runs on either AA battery or P48. The NTG1 would not run at all without P48.

Mattyb123 · « **Reply #24 on:** January 22, 2008, 08:08:59 AM »

What is the deal with the digital input on this deck?

Would this work for going from my Sony DAT to D50?

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-MINI-90

mrsoul · « **Reply #25 on:** January 22, 2008, 10:53:02 AM »

Quote from: mrsoul on January 21, 2008, 09:50:59 PM

PCM-D50 with external mics. Great pull if I do say so myself, super quiet. I did have the 20dB attenuator on during this recording. I also found it very easy to control in the fanny pack during stealth operations. The green and red peak lights are irreplaceable for this type setting. Enjoy!

http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?p=779338#post779338

here's a link for some medium bit rate mp3z of the Marc Cohn show (it will be available for 2 weeks)
http://www.yousendit.com/download/www/eTJlTG05NmM0b0RIRGc9PQ

Belexes · « **Reply #26 on:** January 22, 2008, 11:34:35 AM »

Quote from: Mattyb123 on January 22, 2008, 08:08:59 AM

What is the deal with the digital input on this deck?

Would this work for going from my Sony DAT to D50?

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-MINI-90

That looks to be just the adapter and not the cable, if you need the cable as well.

Not sure what Sony deck you have, but my M1 has digi out only via the 7 pin.

Church-Audio · « **Reply #27 on:** January 22, 2008, 11:40:19 AM »

Quote from: udo on January 03, 2008, 06:09:50 PM

Got my church audio omnis in the mail today, and made a quick entirely unscientific comp:
internal mics
church omnis
studio projects c4 omnis through mixpre (line in on sony)
The room is bad, I put the mics on a small table-top tripod, with lots of reflections from the table, and I am playing bad .... also its three times playing (I obviously have no three sonys do to a real time comp.).
Also, I normalized them all to 100%, but had to cut down the file-size several times to comply with th 516KB restriction, and so the gain is quite different on all three recordings. But one can get the idea ....
- The internal mics are not too bad.
- The church audio mics have audible self noise, but I bought them for outdoors, windy situations, so this will not be an issue. But they have a great frequency response, nice lows in comparison to the brighter (more metallic) sony internals.
- and then I realize once again, what great microphones the C4 omnis are, especially with the warm mixpre
Udo

The self noise on my omni mics is quite low I have not measured it but its much MUCH lower then my cardioid mics. I would say if you are having noise issues its with the preamp on the Sony try an external preamp with my mics. Then you will see how good the self noise is on my omni mics. Dont get me wrong I am not going to compair these to DPA mics for self noise but when I use one of my 9000 or 9100 preamps with these mics the self noise is almost none existent.

Here is a link to me playing guitar into a himd mic input with a pair of my omni mics this shows the noise floor is very low. http://www.freedrive.com/file/fe239dc20857d3b957d45116c7dd486b

mozmoz8 · « **Reply #28 on:** January 22, 2008, 01:27:11 PM »

Quote from: Mattyb123 on January 22, 2008, 08:08:59 AM

What is the deal with the digital input on this deck?

Would this work for going from my Sony DAT to D50?

http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-MINI-90

Hi, S&H is expensive for this little thing.

Mattyb123 · « **Reply #29 on:** January 22, 2008, 01:57:28 PM »

I am going to use mine to transfer DATs from my Sony PCM R300........what kind of cable will I need.....optical S/PDIF? Mine apparently just arrived at my house!

Outrageous · « **Reply #30 on:** January 22, 2008, 09:42:09 PM »

Quote from: gearscout on January 21, 2008, 08:45:15 PM

Plugging in a Sennheiser ME66/K6...and I found it to be excellent.

The 0-20 switch on the side of the D50 appears to be just a "pad." Engaging it at 20 will prevent mics that are too hot from overmodulating. But it's just a pad.

Glad to hear you had good results with the ME66--thanks for the report. I'm not sure what to make of some other people having less than stellar results with external mics.

As far as the attenuation switch, this is what my understanding was as well.

udo · « **Reply #31 on:** January 22, 2008, 10:51:25 PM »

Quote from: Church-Audio on January 22, 2008, 11:40:19 AM

The self noise on my omni mics is quite low I have not measured it but its much MUCH lower then my cardioid mics. I would say if you are having noise issues its with the preamp on the Sony try an external preamp with my mics. Then you will see how good the self noise is on my omni mics. Dont get me wrong I am not going to compair these to DPA mics for self noise but when I use one of my 9000 or 9100 preamps with these mics the self noise is almost none existent.

Here is a link to me playing guitar into a himd mic input with a pair of my omni mics this shows the noise floor is very low. http://www.freedrive.com/file/fe239dc20857d3b957d45116c7dd486b

I do not mind the self noise, since I really only bought them for outdoors stealth binaural recordings - where I do not want people to come to me and ask what I am doing. And I have to say that I am totally happy with the product. I quickly recorded a couple of craws in front of our music school here, and believe the spacing, the depths and clarity of the microphones is fantastic. And the croackie mounts make a super easy binaural setup. Exactly what I wanted them for.
And of course, for recordings super silent "moves of ants in the grass" I will need microphones that are made for that job (and cost ten times as much) as the Sennheiser MKH mics. I would never expect a very small 120 dollar mic to give me that kind of noise floor. And by the way, the noise floor and overall sound is so much better then OKM binaural mics, or some of the other mics of that size and price range I have heard.
Here is the file:

Outrageous · « **Reply #32 on:** January 23, 2008, 12:26:45 AM »

Quote from: udo on January 22, 2008, 10:51:25 PM

I quickly recorded a couple of craws in front of our music school here...Here is the file:

I had to listen to the file to see if that's what you meant by "craws"--sure 'nuf, them's craws. I'd say the self-noise of the mics is safely embedded in the background traffic noise.

Sloan Simpson · « **Reply #33 on:** January 27, 2008, 01:34:02 PM »

Picked up my D50 on Friday and did 5 bands' sets with it this weekend. I'm in love

I run Neumann 184's> Lunatec V2. I've been using a JB3 with no external A/D the last several years (due to inertia and most of my exhaustible income being redirected to vinyl acquisition). I ran the D50 at 24/48 this weekend, and don't know if the improvement I hear is the 24-bit (tweaked and then dithered in Wavelab) or just plain superior converters over the JB3, but I'm happy.

Super-easy to use, no surprises to report. I'll post a track or two later if anyone wants to take a listen to the A/D quality (don't have the means to run any comps).

auroboros · « **Reply #34 on:** February 05, 2008, 02:57:21 AM »

A quick question. I have a D50 and have just recieved a 4gb sony HG pro duo memory stick as a present. I have one question regardin the memory stick. When recording to the 4gb internal memory, when this memory becomes full (for example after recording for 2 hours with 96kHz/24bit) will the recording seemlessly jump to recording on the memory stick? I really don't want to test this myself cause its a waste of batt unless some awesome mofo can answer me here.

cheers

dogmusic · « **Reply #35 on:** February 05, 2008, 07:09:43 AM »

Quote from: auroboros on February 05, 2008, 02:57:21 AM

A quick question. I have a D50 and have just recieved a 4gb sony HG pro duo memory stick as a present. I have one question regardin the memory stick. When recording to the 4gb internal memory, when this memory becomes full (for example after recording for 2 hours with 96kHz/24bit) will the recording seemlessly jump to recording on the memory stick? I really don't want to test this myself cause its a waste of batt unless some awesome mofo can answer me here.

cheers

No, unfortunately, the D50 will NOT automatically jump to recording on the memory stick when the internal memory is full. That would have been convenient.

You have to change the setting in the menu.

-Phil

auroboros · « **Reply #36 on:** February 05, 2008, 08:39:07 AM »

I feared that. Damnit they designed the thing why wouldn’t have that crossed their minds? Thanks for clarifying my curiosity and saving me the leg work.

WiFiJeff · « **Reply #37 on:** February 05, 2008, 08:54:12 AM »

The only "fix" for this will be to use 8GB and 16GB HG cards when these become available. The 8GB pro duo (non-HG) works, but Sony says it is not reliable, and that you coould get flaky performance. I have run an 8GB card without trouble at home, but have not been brave enough to take it into the field.

Jeff

Sloan Simpson · « **Reply #38 on:** February 05, 2008, 11:02:07 AM »

Quote from: WiFiJeff on February 05, 2008, 08:54:12 AM

The only "fix" for this will be to use 8GB and 16GB HG cards when these become available.

I haven't been paying close attention, is this something that's been announced as upcoming, or are we just assuming they will make the larger cards?

WiFiJeff · « **Reply #39 on:** February 05, 2008, 12:12:39 PM »

At AES in October the Sony Rep said the 8GB HG pro duo was coming, just about now. But I haven't seen one yet.

Jeff

Tony B · « **Reply #40 on:** April 08, 2009, 07:33:48 PM »

Quote from: scyue on January 02, 2008, 10:09:35 AM

Regarding digital in...you have to be careful where the digital signal is coming from. There is a problem with this machine accepting 24 bit digital signals from a lot of AD converters. Many AD converters are not compatible with the D50. Grace Design is working on a V3 AD chip up-date so the D50 can be used with it (I will be helping them test the chip this week).

I'm planning to do a comp of the internal AD converter with the 722 and V3 later this month in a concert. If someone else does it before me, it will be great.

Metering is really good!

Figured I'd bump this, as I'm thinking about maybe checking one of these out...looking for a lower-price 24/96 option that accepts an optical signal. Will this fit the bill?
Any reported problems running 24 bit from a V3?

johnw · « **Reply #41 on:** April 09, 2009, 08:32:59 AM »

works great with the v3, but you'll need to upgrade the v3 firmware. this is pretty easy though and only takes a few minutes. I think this is the only 24/96 recorder that takes optical in regardless of price. Regardless it is a very well built, well designed compact recorder. And it goes for well over 14 hours on 4 AAs.

Tony B · « **Reply #42 on:** April 09, 2009, 09:05:34 AM »

Awesome. Now to find a place that isn't trying to charge $499 for one.....

Thanks for the info on the firmware upgrade, as well!

(Evan) · « **Reply #43 on:** April 09, 2009, 09:18:20 AM »

Quote from: Tony B on April 09, 2009, 09:05:34 AM

Awesome. Now to find a place that isn't trying to charge $499 for one.....

http://www.etronics.com/p-38795-sony-pcmd50-sony-pcmd50-portable-linear-pcm-recorder.aspx

$439.11 shipped.

I bought mine from there.

Tony B · « **Reply #44 on:** April 09, 2009, 10:30:52 AM »

Sweet. Next paycheck or so!

Danke, y'all.

guysonic · « **Reply #45 on:** April 10, 2009, 08:18:36 PM »

Lowest price possible for many decks is ONLY known by email/phone contact with authorized venders offering full warranty sales conditions.

Many manufacturers demand minimum 'advertised' price' and threaten to cut off those who advertise lower pricing, but retailers do work unadvertised special deals on 'open box' and 'overstock' most often with free shipping even though these be new with full accessories/warranty.