Topic: Best AA batteries out at the moment (R-09)

[Brennan]

Hey guys, I have a bit of money so I'm looking to solidify my rig more.

First step - clamp. (Buying tomorrow).
Second step - batteries. (Here's where I am)
Third step - better mics (I'll get there...lol)

So, batteries. What would you say is the best out there right now? Just looking for AA's to power the R-09 right now.

I'm looking at 2 different possibilities:
1 - http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Energy-Rechargeable-Batteries-4-Pack/dp/B000PHMN44/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274525756&sr=1-2
2 - http://www.amazon.com/SANYO-eneloop-Pre-Charged-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B000IV2WAW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274525756&sr=1-4

The Sony seem better from the reviews, even though they're just rebranded Sanyo's. What are you guys running?

THANKS!!

[fmaderjr]

It's possible that the Sony's are even better, but the Sanyo's are GREAT and have been frequently discussed favorably here. I don't remember anyone talking about using the Sony's, but maybe this will bring them out of the woodwork.

I love the eneloops. I've had some of mine for 2 years or so and haven't shown any signs of losing capacity unlike the regular NiMH's I used to use. They last plenty long enough for my purposes and it's great to be able to use them 2-4 weeks after charging them without having to recharge.

[batchain]

A second vote for the Sanyos. By far the best rechargeable batteries I've ever used.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Don't forget the importance of a good charger. That seems to be the important, and expensive, part.

[fmaderjr]

Don't forget the importance of a good charger. That seems to be the important, and expensive, part.

Good point. Probably my use of the highly regarded LaCrosse BC-900 charger has more than a little to do with how well my eneloops have performed.

[illconditioned]

Don't forget the importance of a good charger. That seems to be the important, and expensive, part.

Good point. Probably my use of the highly regarded LaCrosse BC-900 charger has more than a little to do with how well my eneloops have performed.

I've got the same charger.  I love the enerloops too, but it is fun for "geeks like us" to have a cool charger too.

  Richard

[dactylus]

Don't forget the importance of a good charger. That seems to be the important, and expensive, part.

Good point. Probably my use of the highly regarded LaCrosse BC-900 charger has more than a little to do with how well my eneloops have performed.

I've got the same charger.  I love the enerloops too, but it is fun for "geeks like us" to have a cool charger too.

  Richard

^

I'm using the Sanyo rechargeables with the Maha charger below.



MAHA MH-C801D AA - AAA BATTERY CHARGER
DELUXE 8 CELL PROFESSIONAL BATTERY CHARGER W/ FULL LCD DISPLAY

http://www.thomasdistributing.com/shop/maha-mhc801d-aa-aaa-battery-chargerbrdeluxe-8-cell-professional-battery-charger-w-full-lcd-displaybrbrfree-accessory-bag-2-free-eight-cell-battery-holdersbrspecial-price-6897-p-437.html?SP_id=&osCsid=c5u4raer5dscg60lksb51re4r0


Eight Independent Charging Circuits
Charges any combination of 1 to 8 rechargeable batteries. Mix and charge AA / AAA rechargeable batteries all at the same time
The MHC801D will also charge the new Low Discharge rechargeable batteries from all manufacturers with absolute precision and safety.
Normal Charge time of about 1 hr regardless of the number of AA or AAA batteries with the Maha MH-C801D charger.
Soft charge mode recharges in about 2hrs regardless of the number of AA or AAA batteries.
 
LCD Display
Displays charging and conditioning status of each battery independently. English Display showing “CONDITION”, “CHARGE”, and “DONE”.

Built-In Deep Battery Conditioning System
Cycle charges, discharges, and then recharges rechargeable batteries without requiring several repeat cycles.
Restores rechargeable batteries to their optimal performance level. Reduces any memory effect.

Selectable Soft and Rapid Charge Modes
Soft charge option for highest battery life, or choose the Rapid charge option for the shortest charge time.

Ultra Precision Microprocessor Controlled
0.001V voltage detection.
Recharges your batteries correctly each and every time. No over charge, no under charge. Just the right charge each and every time.
Maximum Battery Life

Heavy Duty International AC Adapter
Universal auto-ranging switching adapter assures Worldwide voltage compatibility.
Made to last in rough environments, and uses a rugged DIN style connector.
Great for home or travel.

Integrated Safety Protection Device
Battery Polarity Reversal Protection - Prevents Charger damage and operation in case a battery is inserted into the MH-C801D backwards.
Alkaline battery Protection - Automatically recognizes an Alkaline battery and Prevents Charger operation and damage.
Short circuited Battery Protection
Globally certified for safety.

[Brennan]

It sounded like the Eneloops were a good choice...that's what we bought my brother for his digicam just based on Amazon ratings and he's been happy.

I have a Sony battery charger, the one that came with my DSC-H1. I doubt there's that much room for damaging them by using that for a while ya think?

(Anyone going to Voxtrot on the 27th?)

[spyder9]

Kirklands.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

$70 for a charger is approximately 25% of the cost of an m10... that seems like too much profit.  Where's the green love when we don't even have good cheap battery chargers yet?

[boojum]

Consumer Reports said Kirkland (Costco) alkalines were the best alkilines.  It might be worth a cruise by the library to see what the results of CR tests indicate.  One test is worth a thousand opinions.

[12milluz]

Consumer Reports said Kirkland (Costco) alkalines were the best alkilines.  It might be worth a cruise by the library to see what the results of CR tests indicate.  One test is worth a thousand opinions.

We use them at the theatre I run sound for and they are truly great batteries for the price.

[fmaderjr]

$70 for a charger is approximately 25% of the cost of an m10... that seems like too much profit.  Where's the green love when we don't even have good cheap battery chargers yet?

It depends what you want out of a charger. Among other things, the LaCrosse BC-900 and those of it's ilk will often bring batteries back to life that have lost a lot of capacity and you can use it to see if your 2700 mA battery is providing anywhere near that or just 2100 mA, etc. You can also use it to pair your batteries with similar capacities to get longer runs times (if you are using multiple batteries in a device, they will normally only power the device until the one with the lowest capacity is expended).

For me and many others this charger is well worth the money.

[dactylus]

$70 for a charger is approximately 25% of the cost of an m10... that seems like too much profit.  Where's the green love when we don't even have good cheap battery chargers yet?

It depends what you want out of a charger. Among other things, the LaCrosse BC-9100 and those of it's ilk will often bring batteries back to life that have lost a lot of capacity and you can use it to see if your 2700 mA battery is providing anywhere near that or just 2100 mA, etc. You can also use it to pair your batteries with similar capacities to get longer runs times (if you are using multiple batteries in a device, they will normally only power the device until the one with the lowest capacity is expended).

For me and many others this charger is well worth the money.

^
Agreed.  You said it beter than I would have.  My thanks to Jason Sobel for recommending the Maha charger to me.  +T

[junkyardt]

what are the best 9 volts out there in everyone's opinion? both single-use and/or rechargeable?

[fmaderjr]

what are the best 9 volts out there in everyone's opinion? both single-use and/or rechargeable?

As for rechargeables, for his preamps Chris Church recommends only the Maha powerex 9.6 v shown here:
http://www.mahaenergy.com/store/viewitem.asp?idproduct=273

It does need a special charger to charge it to full capacity though. Many of the others are actually 8.4 volts and don't maintain a high enough voltage long enough. Several members have reported good experiences with them and I haven't heard of anyone with complaints.

[Gutbucket]

Powerex (Maha) seems to make good chargers and batteries.  I use their chargers and 9.6V's for my Church Audio preamps and their AA  IMEDION's (which are a low self discharge battery with similar performance to the Sanyo Eneloops AFAIK) in my R-09s and R-44.  One nice feature about their chargers is that they run on 12VDC so overnight fest-charging off a car battery via cig-lighter adapters is easy without a wall wart adapter.

I've been using the same batteries for the past 3-1/2 years and they are still going strong.

I keep thinking it's about time for me to pickup a charger that has some diagnostic functions to manage these as they eventually start to give up the ghost- something like the LaCrosse BC-900 or equivalent, maybe wait for  sale on the Maha one.

[rjp]

Consumer Reports said Kirkland (Costco) alkalines were the best alkilines.  It might be worth a cruise by the library to see what the results of CR tests indicate.  One test is worth a thousand opinions.

We use them at the theatre I run sound for and they are truly great batteries for the price.

Add another vote in favor of the Kirkland AAs. I've been using them for a while now and I'm quite happy with them.

[Since85]

Has anyone tried the NiZn batteries? Looks very promising....

http://www.thomasdistributing.com/shop/batteries--nizn-batteries-c-122_586.html?osCsid=a98rm8a91donrsllit8gi3gna7

[mmadd29]

I have eloops and the LaCrosse charger and it works great for me.

[sunjan]

Has anyone tried the NiZn batteries? Looks very promising....

Might be interesting for some because of the higher nominal voltage.
But for general taper applications, they are inferior because of lower energy density and lower cycle count compared to NiMH (and certainly compared to lithium).
Take a look at the graph, very informative:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery#Table_of_rechargeable_battery_technologies

[fmaderjr]

Has anyone tried the NiZn batteries? Looks very promising....

Might be interesting for some because of the higher nominal voltage.
But for general taper applications, they are inferior because of lower energy density and lower cycle count compared to NiMH (and certainly compared to lithium).
Take a look at the graph, very informative:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery#Table_of_rechargeable_battery_technologies

add this thread to the above negative review.
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=118840.0
Definitely not worth the risk for most tapers.

[HarpDoc]

The nizn batteries could be great for recorders that are picky about voltage, such as the Tascam dr-2d. If I hadn't just bought 8 eneloops (which are great), I'd give them a try, since they put out 1.6v rather than 1.2 from nimh.

[Brennan]

Wow I'm quite impressed with the Eneloops. I recorded for a good 3 hours last night and the battery meter hasn't gone down a tick.

[sunjan]

If I hadn't just bought 8 eneloops (which are great), I'd give them a try, since they put out 1.6v rather than 1.2 from nimh.

Just to set things straight, Eneloops are NiMH too. Just different blends of chemistry. MH stands for Metal Hydrid, meaning the composition varies, but they're still NiMH, and all put out the same nominal voltage, 1.2V.
Real life voltage is a different thing, but the average working voltage under load is pretty close.
Where Eneloop really shines is retaining the voltage after hundreds of cycles, but that's another topic of it's own. Check out some curves here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2786015&postcount=7

If you want to look into NiZn, the flashlight guys over at candlepower have dissected pretty much every aspect of them:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=274332

[HarpDoc]

Perhaps my post did not make clear that nizn puts out 1.6v, not nimh.

[yltfan]

I use Powerex AA's in my camera and love them. No hard data, but they seem to last forever.

[guysonic]

When using rechargeables, user do certain setup and routine things for getting reliable longest use/runtimes from these cells.

My battery sled/tips page has up-to-date information on all types of recorder/preamp batteries.

www.sonicstudios.com/batsys98.htm#tips

[fmaderjr]

The nizn batteries could be great for recorders that are picky about voltage, such as the Tascam dr-2d. If I hadn't just bought 8 eneloops (which are great), I'd give them a try, since they put out 1.6v rather than 1.2 from nimh.

Don't think so. Too Risky. Did you read the thread I provided a link to down to this post?

Update:  Just had a random "replace battery" message, and shutdown in the D50 after recording for 5 minutes.  Fortunately it was just a speaker in a meeting.  The batteries were freshly charged and even showed full before starting, and even when I turned the deck off and back on again.  The 5 minute file was intact, but obviously missed what I was there for.  Not sure I can trust them for a live concert from now on.   Anybody else got these and having any issues?  Gonna test them in my 09HR for awhile and see how that goes.

[hoppedup]

fmaderjr, I'm glad you posted that link. I'm looking for some AA rechargeables and was thinking about the NIZNs. Sounds like it may not play nice with my D50.

[fmaderjr]

I think there's probably a reason they've been out a year and nobody has posted having good results with them in taping equipment.

[junkyardt]

http://www.mahaenergy.com/store/viewitem.asp?idproduct=273

I haven't heard of anyone with complaints.

a couple people on Amazon reviews for this Maha 9.6v have complaints:

http://www.amazon.com/Powerex-9-6-230-mAh-batteries/product-reviews/B0002LAKOS/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R2UKKL8T0NY9E7

beyond just remarking that they didn't work and were duds, one guy specifically says the 230 mAh is not nearly enough and that a normal 9v is over 500 mAh, and he recommends the iPower lithium rechargables which are only a few bucks more than the Mahas:

http://www.amazon.com/iPower-Rechargeable-Lithium-Polymer-Battery/dp/B0035HCTZY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1275252929&sr=1-1

now i'm not sure what to think 

[fmaderjr]

Chris Church recommends the Maha specifically for his preamps. He says the fact that it is 9.6 volts has advantages when using his gear and does not recommend 9 volt rechargeable.. The 230 mA is not a problem for Church gear-will still power them for hours. I don't think anyone has had problems with them using Church gear.

Perhaps, from what you say, they might not be ideal for some other equipment that takes 9 volt batteries, but they do require a special charger. Is it possible that using them without such a charger caused some of the reported problems you found?

[junkyardt]

i'm not concerned about Church gear, i would be using it to power a PS-2.

[oudplayer]

I'm getting over 5 hours on my Edirol R09-HD with Eneloops, and I don't even have a Lacrosse charger at the moment (mine was lifted, but I plan on getting a replacement). It's possible I could go longer - I just haven't needed more than 5 1/2 hours between charges! The Eneloops also work great in my Littlebox preamp - I have the version with the 4xaa sled.

[HarpDoc]

I'm loving my Eneloops in my DR-2D and Maha 9.6v in a wireless vocal mic. In the mic, the Maha is better than any others I've tried, but I've never tried it in my CA-9100.

[yltfan]

Don't forget the importance of a good charger. That seems to be the important, and expensive, part.

Good point. Probably my use of the highly regarded LaCrosse BC-900 charger has more than a little to do with how well my eneloops have performed.

Was thinking about getting one of these, but there are lots of reports of the current model (9009) overheating, melting, batteries exploding...so now leaning towards the POWEREX MH-C9000

[fmw]

Consumer Reports said Kirkland (Costco) alkalines were the best alkilines.  It might be worth a cruise by the library to see what the results of CR tests indicate.  One test is worth a thousand opinions.

I think the Consumer Reports tests related to use in devices more like digital cameras, which have short bursts of high drain interspersed with longer periods of low drain.  This pattern of use is not typical of portable recording gear, where power draw is closer to constant over time. 

And shopping at Costco requires a membership. 

Also, if you look at the actual test results, most alkaline batteries were pretty close together.  In my experience, generic alkaline batteries all do just about as well as brand names.  Whenever I get a new type of alkaline, I monitor the voltage while I discharge one through an 8 ohm resistor to check them out.  So far they've all been pretty similar. 

I've seen good prices on generic alkaline batteries at a local supermarket, at a Harbor Freight Tools location, and at a Big Lots store. 

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Also, if you look at the actual test results, most alkaline batteries were pretty close together.  In my experience, generic alkaline batteries all do just about as well as brand names.  Whenever I get a new type of alkaline, I monitor the voltage while I discharge one through an 8 ohm resistor to check them out.  So far they've all been pretty similar. 

I find the lifespan of cheap alkalines is about half that of duracells (or energizer NiMH's) in my R09.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

The quality of stuff I buy at costco is generally excellent.  I think the kirkland batteries are good - and they are an excellent value.  The price is right, you just have to plan around their longevity.

I am much less inclined to trust other batteries.