Topic: Zoom F8

[MakersMarc]

The headphone amp lack of quality is weak. Cut corners one place, there are more.

[Life In Rewind]

The headphone amp lack of quality is weak. Cut corners one place, there are more.

Isnt the "quality" of the headphone out - more - linked to the specs of the headphones...(in general) - rather than some broad statement of the headphone out?

(and the environment you are recording in)

All headphones are not created equal!

The most useful set of cans I have for live rock is a 5 dollar KOSS set from K-mart...just the mids...trying to judge bass live 30 ft from a PA is pointless!

That said - I never use headphones!

[WiFiJeff]

Unfortunately if it does have a poor headphone stage, that alone may scare away the serious mobile sound professionals they are targeting, if comments on JWSound are any indication. 

Monitoring through the headphone amp in my SD722 always sounds distinctly worse than when I get the recording back home and listen through a good headphone amp.  It used to make me very nervous.  The question is, how bad is the F8 headphone amp compared to the SD722?  So far, very little hard info on the F8 vs. other things we use.

Jeff

[MakersMarc]

Yeah, in fairness the Fostex fr2le is a good deck with a bad out. And the same is true of my d5 dat decks, great decks with crappy headphone outs. Forgot abut that. 

[pohaku]

So far the only "report" on the quality of the headphone amp is a second hand hearsay report from a vendor.  I have yet to see, on any forum, a first hand report that the headphone amp is bad, or at least any worse than the headphone amp on the 680, 722 or other popular recorder. 

[vegeta_ban]

The headphone out does the job for me, but I'm not as picky as some people on here. I won't be able to give a good review on that portion of the recorder.

[404 Not Found]

I have had no issue with the headphone amp as well.  I had used my headphones only to assist in adjusting the MS setting I had run.  When I was happy with feel I was getting as far as the Mid and Side settings, the headphones where off.  It did the job for me and was much better than the Marantz PMD661 I have. 

Will be running the F8 with permission this weekend (Sun) for the Ed Palermo Big Band with Napoleon Murphy Brock at the Sellersville Theatre.  This will be a better test for a controlled environment.  Great acoustics and sound system at the venue as well.

This run I will be using a Shure VP88 in MS but I will pre/mix through my SD MixPre-D before the F8.  Telefunken M60/TK62's will run direct to the F8.  May run the Miktek C5's with the Neumann KM143's and compare a few mic's and paired mixes.  This is the fun part of the 8 ch.  

[ArchivalAudio]

Will be running the F8 with permission this weekend (Sun) for the Ed Palermo Big Band with Napoleon Murphy Brock at the Sellersville Theatre.  This will be a better test for a controlled environment.  Great acoustics and sound system at the venue as well.

^^^ Looking forward to hearing the results!

[pohaku]

Thanks for the first hand reports on the headphone amp!  Not a make or break issue for me, but I did want to know what our intrepid early adopters actually experienced. Good to know that it is not as terrible as suggested by hearsay accounts.  I wonder how long the wait for a unit is now?  Anyone who ordered recently been given a delivery date?

[bdasilva]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?sku=1178107&Q=&O=&m=Y&gclid=CjwKEAjwjYCvBRC99sSm_frioAwSJACrKuPCR9JrsbJeV9nxj2cBJWi5rqGyivZ87e6II02c3ysj-xoCJ37w_wcB&is=REG&A=details

case looks pretty cool....

[stevetoney]

Anyone who ordered recently been given a delivery date?

No, but I got an email from B&H on Friday saying it's still back-ordered.    I just ordered a few weeks ago though so realistically I haven't expected to see it until the end of September, but the only reason I have that date in mind is the info on the B&H website. 

[acidjack]

I'm heading to pro sound to have a look at one this week. ....

[Life In Rewind]

If this rig is a winner...might be a SD killer...

[pohaku]

I think it will need to prove its reliability before the pro crowd really picks it up.  In addition, so far, the feature set isn't quite what the film crowd appears to think essential.  Currently the comments seem to run towards it possibly being a backup to their main recorder.  Zoom, to their credit, appears to be listening to their comments and has indicated that they would make responsive changes.  Folks in our little niche might find it just fine, however.  It does look promising for what we do.

[H₂O]

If this rig is a winner...might be a SD killer...

I wouldn't think so - but it may create a wrinkle in the market by forcing other brands to come down a little bit in price


The 788 has many more features then this unit and again we are talking professional sound people not hobbyists - as us hobbyists are are not big enough market for SD or other big players to make changes to our needs (including price)


I don't see people swooping in to buy a bunch of these to record a major feature film that is going to pull in 100's of millions of dollars - these are for the small time professional just starting out or maybe as a backup recorder for a seasoned pro.


I do not see the market for the 7xx series anymore with firewire dead and so much other better competition out there now (i.e. Zaxcom Nomad Lite/Maxx, 633, etc) - I really don't think the F8 is taking the 702/722/744 etc out - these units days have been numbered for a number of years