Hi John,
I wondered if you have done a comparison between the mic pres in the Nagra SD and those of the more expensive Nagras. Do they measure up to the Nagra quality standard?
No, I have not done a comparison - I don't need to as they obviously won't be as good.
That Nagra VI is over £5,000 and the EMP is two Nagra VI mic. pre-amps. and costs £1,200 - So a £600 recorder with two mic. pres will obviously not have pre-amps anywhere near as good as the far more expensive machines.
Having said that, however, Nagra analogue circuitry is excellent and the old unit had excellent mic. pre-amps and I would expect the SD to be better than the old one - just not as good as the top models.
Thanks for that, John.
It makes me wonder if the Sound Devices USBPre2, which has the same preamps as the expensive 788T, would probably have higher quality preamps than the Nagra SD.
In which case, the USBPre2 going digitally into the Tascam DR100mkii makes for a better recorder at about the same price.
Of course, it's a two-box solution, and not as portable, but you'd need something extra for phantom power into the Nagra SD anyway.