Topic: Zoom F8

[voltronic]

I just found a few that might work - looks like you've got to spend $60+ to get decent capacity with a 9V or higher output:

XTPower 10,000 mAh
ECEEN 16,000 mAh
Anker Astro Pro2 20,000 mAh
RavPower 23,000 mAh

[H₂O]

I just found a few that might work - looks like you've got to spend $60+ to get decent capacity with a 9V or higher output:

XTPower 10,000 mAh
ECEEN 16,000 mAh
Anker Astro Pro2 20,000 mAh
RavPower 23,000 mAh

That's better than spending $150 for a lithium solution for the hs-p82 or hauling around a 10lbs sla like I do

[stevetoney]

It ran for about 10hrs off one of my tekkeon 3300 batteries.  Phantom was on 24v (my schoeps mics only need 12v) recording two channels stereo, without recording the summed channels, but with the headphones plugged in and on the entire time.

It's been between 85 and 90 all three days of the festival and the recorder has run warm to the touch all weekend, but not hot.  About what one would expect.

[voltronic]

I just found a few that might work - looks like you've got to spend $60+ to get decent capacity with a 9V or higher output:

XTPower 10,000 mAh
ECEEN 16,000 mAh
Anker Astro Pro2 20,000 mAh
RavPower 23,000 mAh

That's better than spending $150 for a lithium solution for the hs-p82 or hauling around a 10lbs sla like I do

Yikes, I'd rather lug a 100ft extension cord than a car battery.  Have you tried running the HS-P82 off of one of the ones like those I linked?  The EXT DC jack says 9-18V / 2A in the images I'm looking at, and all of these would fit those requirements, at least on paper.  You'd need to make a custom adapter cable, obviously.  I'd guess your runtime wouldn't be as long though.

Since you brought it up, the review comparison I'm most interested to see would be your Tascam vs. the F8.  The price range is at least similar for the feature set.

[voltronic]

Fwiw, it ran for about 10hrs off one of my tekkeon 3300 batteries.  Phantom was on 24v (my schoeps mics only need 12v) recording two channels stereo, without recording the summed channels, but with the headphones plugged in and on the entire time.

It's been between 85 and 90 all three days of the festival and the recorder has run warm to the touch all weekend.

That's pretty impressive, even with the lower phantom voltage.  Sorry if this has been asked already, but can you hot-swap external power during recording, as is the case with many pro recorders?

[stevetoney]

Fwiw, it ran for about 10hrs off one of my tekkeon 3300 batteries.  Phantom was on 24v (my schoeps mics only need 12v) recording two channels stereo, without recording the summed channels, but with the headphones plugged in and on the entire time.

It's been between 85 and 90 all three days of the festival and the recorder has run warm to the touch all weekend.

That's pretty impressive, even with the lower phantom voltage.  Sorry if this has been asked already, but can you hot-swap external power during recording, as is the case with many pro recorders?

Yes, no problem.  Disconnect the external battery and the voltage indicator switches to show the voltage from the AAs.  Plug a new external in and it switches back to the voltage coming from the external battery.  Reminder that I'm using the 12v connection on the back not the hirose power connection.

[stevetoney]

How do the Zoom F8 preamps sound?

I recorded Lotus over the weekend from the same location on consecutive nights, with and without my AETA PSP-3 preamp.

Saturday night - Schoeps m934b/CMMT30 > AETA PSP-3 > Zoom F8
https://archive.org/details/lotus2015-09-05.m934b_24bit

Sunday night - Schoeps m934b/CMMT30 > Zoom F8
https://archive.org/details/lotus2015-09-06.m934b_24bit

[carlbeck]

Hmmmmm, very interesting comp. I listened to a few tracks of each randomly & while I think I prefer the PSP3 for various reasons I can't complain at all about the Zoom preamps. The one definite is that the Zoom is a touch brighter in the preamp section than the PSP3, the weight of the bass is also a little lighter BUT I think the Zoom was more than acceptable, in fact it sounds pretty damn good to my ears. Great recordings Steve, nice work!

[stevetoney]

Hmmmmm, very interesting comp. I listened to a few tracks of each randomly & while I think I prefer the PSP3 for various reasons I can't complain at all about the Zoom preamps. The one definite is that the Zoom is a touch brighter in the preamp section than the PSP3, the weight of the bass is also a little lighter BUT I think the Zoom was more than acceptable, in fact it sounds pretty damn good to my ears. Great recordings Steve, nice work!

At some point in the near future, I will do a side-by-side comp using the same basic mics recording simultaneously to separate tracks.  Since I'd just gotten the F8 though, I wasn't ready for that this weekend. 

For the recordings I did this weekend, I just wanted to get a general feel for whether I'd even want to consider using the internals and the answer is a definite yes.  I recorded 13 bands over the weekend.  I think I did five with the PSP3 and eight without.  I'll be posting more shows over the next day or two.

[pohaku]

I really need to listen to this on something other than my office computer speakers.  Phones and monitors I think.  Thanks Steve, preamp quality is kind of the leading make or break criterion for me!

[phil_er_up]

Hmmmmm, very interesting comp. I listened to a few tracks of each randomly & while I think I prefer the PSP3 for various reasons I can't complain at all about the Zoom preamps. The one definite is that the Zoom is a touch brighter in the preamp section than the PSP3, the weight of the bass is also a little lighter BUT I think the Zoom was more than acceptable, in fact it sounds pretty damn good to my ears. Great recordings Steve, nice work!

Thanks for the comparison. Agreed both are very nice recordings. Think carl made a good point with bass heavy mics if your looking for a brighter pre-amp section this would be a choice of a way to go. Though if you have bright mics the brightness in the preamp section may be too much.

Listening on home system and actually prefer the straight mic in to recorder (no pre-amp).  Not sure I could identify this source as a schoeps  (no pre-amp) sound.

[stevetoney]

Thanks for the comparison. Agreed both are very nice recordings. Think carl made a good point with bass heavy mics if your looking for a brighter pre-amp section this would be a choice of a way to go. Though if you have bright mics the brightness in the preamp section may be too much.

FWIW, the two recordings weren't really posted as a comp.  Since the two shows were 24 hours apart, I don't think any conclusions can be made from the tonal differences from one to the other.

I'm pretty sure alot of people here know the PSP3 sound, so I thought it might be useful to listen to the F8 preamps against those made with the PSP3 to form a conclusion of the general quality of the onboard preamps in the F8. 

I think they have similar detail and general quality of sound. 

As mentioned earlier, sometime soon I'll connect all four of my M934B/CMMT30 mics, one pair through the PSP3 and the other straight in, so that the comp is done using the same type of mics recording the same music.  I think that would be the comp to really make some conclusions about tonal differences.

 

[carlbeck]

Completely agree Steve, comp isn't the right term since it was two separate nights but that being said it's a general thought process of listening to two similar sources. Either way I found the Zoom impressive & happy I placed my bet, I mean order, on one. From these recordings I was pleased to hear that in this instance the Zoom held its own vs a very high quality preamp.

[bdasilva]

I run only matrixes.. I want this unit for its coolness factor but do I really need it over my DR-680 mkll?   Stage mics left and right...Fof and maybe straight vocals... I like a drum overhead... ok that's 5 channels... yes I can record  the guitar or bass or harp or keys.. but then to blend them in...

[mepaca]

They are in stock at Adorama. I just ordered one. It looks like they have plenty of them.
I put a dozen in my shopping cart and proceeded to checkout. They seemed ready to check
me out for $12,000. I then emptied my cart and put one back in. I should have it tomorrow.