These files are actually the first I've come across with mod/unmod r-44 comparison. Thank you for that! It's hard for me to tell a difference between the two recordings. First I thought I liked the "A" recording better, then others said "B" and at that point I couldn't tell. Are these uncompressed? Where can we get the key to the test? PM me?
Personally I'm stuck, money in hand, trying to decide between a mixed-mod R-44 (Super on 1-2, Concert on 3-4), and a stock DR-680. If I go r-44 it will definitely be modded.
Looking for input: I have a wider range of needs than the usual taper. I'm a videographer that does record live music shows and plays sometimes. For that I like the idea of concert mod for a board feed, and super mod for stereo mic to do matrix recording. But the real reason I want the super mod is for dialogue and nature recordings. My thinking is that these mods would cut the noise mostly, which isn't really a factor recording a band, but when recording nature, where you undoubtedly want to turn up in post to hear distant birds, or when recording dialogue for film - to turn up a line someone delivered quietly the quieter pres should help me out in post. I do have an SD MixPre, but that covers only 2 channels.
Then... In comes the DR-680. Many are singing it's praises, and saying the pres are nice and clean. But how clean? There is no Oade mod. Doug Oade says he isn't fond of the DR series of recorders and doesn't think he'll be doing a mod any time soon. I love the idea of more tracks as that can certainly come in handy for me, but can it deliver as quietly as an Oade R-44? There is on guy on the DR-680 part IV who says the 680 pres are better than the R-44 according to specs, but specs are just numbers written by the manufacturer. This is getting long so I'll wrap it up.
Simple test that would help me. Mono or stereo mic(s) plugged straight , at a decent stereo system. A-B-C between R-44 stock, R-44 modded, DR-680 stock. Play the same musical passage for each. Play the passage at loud volume, and at a very very quiet volume so we can normalize(same gain increase on each rather than normalize each) and assess the noise.
I know most likely nobody has all 3, or even just a modded R-44 and a 680, but if so please... Aside from that, can anyone speak to the quality of a 680 compared to a modded R-44? That's where I'm at. The extra tracks would be wonderful, but quiet pres trump that for me.