Topic: Marantz PMD 671 announced (on Oade)

[silentmark]

ive also been contemplating one of these as well, seems more stable and more pro than the MT could ever be

Heh I am starting to rethink things myself bean, only time will tell ...

[Brian Skalinder]

It's a good suggestion to call Doug tomorrow and I'll do that for sure. I should have called them today, but I'm a little worried about getting biased answers. I hope Doug is a cool guy and won't mind some "Columbo-like" questions... 'cause to MY ears it sounds like he's WAY closer to the mic when he's stating that he's on the unit with the mods. I'm very curious how he got rid of the room acoustics any other way? I've got on 7506's running out of a 24/96 computer and I had 'em cranked and I just hear more distance to the mic when he says he's on the stock unit...

These samples?

I hope he can answer that without thinking I'm a smartass.

Depends on how you ask the questions, I imagine.  If you come off as a smartass, you might get a smartass answer.  Just remain calm and it'll go fine, I'm sure.  Though a word of warning:  Doug generally doesn't give out nitty gritty specifics of the mods he does - part numbers, etc. 

At any rate, if you end up running comps, let us know what happens! 

ReFUND!  REFUND!!   

[MattinSTL]

Would you guys stop calling Doug for 10 minutes please! I been tryin' to get through all morning and busy... busy... busy.


Brian, yes those are the samples. You would laugh at my mic samples that I posted for other video guys, because you guys all have such great gear... but believe it or not a Panasonic DVX has pretty good sound for a camera and a lot of guys who are pursuing better audio for video have no idea what different mics sound like... and since I'm OCD about this stuff I'd always post a new showdown every time I tried a new mic... my little tests are boring, but they're split stereo recordings where you can tell exactly what the differences are in mics... even though the end recording isn't up to the standards you guys uphold here.

If you're curious you can have a listen to an example of what I mean by clicking HERE and you'll hear the identical recording split so it's about as scientific as I can make it.

Okay now if you're still curious about mics straight into a DVX... then click HERE and you can hear a buddy of mine singing and playing guitar on a song that he wrote. I need to tell you that he HAD A COLD and this was in my living room! So at about 1 minute you hear his voice getting vaclempt (how do you spell flemy?) But anyway I think this isn't too bad considering we're talking about a video camera here.

Hopefully this ALSO tells you why I'm so desperate to get some nice gear and learn from you guys! I have some pretty good recording opportunities in my personal life and I'd like to make the shift from "okay" to professional sound quality.

Okay I'm gonna' get back to trying to reach Doug!

[Kindguy]

+t for ya..

ys..  def give doug a call and ask him all those questions..  Im not sure on any "refunds"*..  but it will be a piece of gear you can sell easily Im sure..




* just makes me think of the scene in Breaking Away when Dave suggests giving the guy who bought the corvette a refund..  and the father faints while repeating "refund..   refund..   "    ..  then he wakes up at home (seemingly from a bad dream or something) shouting..  "Refund!    Refund! "   

great movie!



 

That was a great movie. I brought up a reference the other night & everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Then I started quoting it, trying to spark someone's memory & they all thought I was making it up.

[MattinSTL]

Holy Cow... I just got off the phone with Doug... after 20 minutes of me asking questions and him answering them! He is one really NICE and KNOWLEDGABLE GUY.

I can see where he got his reputation... I asked him everything I could think of and he answered it all.

He did say "no refunds" but he also said that I should put the ACM 660 up against the stock 670 and be prepared to be blown away! Doug even said that the 660 STOCK will blow away the 670 stock! He also advised me to dump the MixPre right away 'cause running a MixPre line in on a 660 would sound WAY worse then running the ACM 660 MIC-IN without it.

I then asked about getting the 671 stock and running that via a MixPre and he said the ACM 660 will STILL sound better... but he also said that if I buy the 671 from him that I can always send it back later to get the mods (once they're ready).

Then I asked about the room acoustics I hear in the test recordings and he assured me that those are low frequency artifacts and other electronic noise bringing out the room whereas on the modded units you don't hear that and THAT'S why the other recordings sound so much closer... and he said he gets asked about that a lot! I still think it sounds like the room, but the previous point that he'd lose reputation if the end user didn't also experience this effect is a good point... I'm almost totally sold on the ACM 660 JUST for that alone! Bringing voices up close and intimate is a powerful tool for somebody who just wants dialog!

So what to do, what to do. I got a lot of thinking ahead of me today... and probably tomorrow... and the first thing I'm thinking is I'm going to cancel my MicroTrack... so that once I decide I can get one of these other machines from Doug.

Thanks for all who put up with my shit and replied. Doug seems like a good guy to have on your side.

[sygdwm]

id do it if i were only interested in voice. do you really need 24 bit voice? plus if you dont like it you can unload it on here for damn near what you paid based on doug's legacy alone.

[MattinSTL]

The one thing he said about the benefits of getting vocals at 24bit is I can still save dialog at -20db down... with 24bit you can bring it up and still have basically perfect sound... whereas in 16bit whispers or other quiet moments (where I wasn't fast enough on the MixPre) would be lost.

It's a tough call for me. I can do 24/96 on my NLE now... so it's tempting THAT way also... but if I can have a super clean and intimate sound via JUST the ACM 660... and still be able to ride the levels enough... I may just do that.

Did I mention that it's a tough call?

[krebsy]

Glad to hear you were able to get your questions aswered. I have a UA-5 that I purchased stock and then had the T+ mod applied to it. The difference is quite a bit like what is heard in the 660 samples you mentioned. The sound after the mod is *much* more up front and detailed. The drop in self noise of the unit was dramatic. I could tell the difference on my first recording with the T+ just listening to crowd noise without any music. It seems  as though Doug's goals are similar with the ACM mods. A fully modded 671 is sounding better all the time...   

[Nick's Picks]

the ACM 660 is the nicest sounding 16bit recorder i think i've heard.
fwiw..thats imo on the PC.

<:-)

is that geek enough?:

the fully mod'd 671, I have very hight hopes for based on the 660.  I really like Dougs T mod sound, and these are just smokin' clean and very fat sounding.  I hate to copy Dougs words..but 3 dimensional !!  and its true.  If your stereo can render it, and you can hear it...you will notice.

[F.O.Bean]

Glad to hear you were able to get your questions aswered. I have a UA-5 that I purchased stock and then had the T+ mod applied to it. The difference is quite a bit like what is heard in the 660 samples you mentioned. The sound after the mod is *much* more up front and detailed. The drop in self noise of the unit was dramatic. I could tell the difference on my first recording with the T+ just listening to crowd noise without any music. It seems  as though Doug's goals are similar with the ACM mods. A fully modded 671 is sounding better all the time...   

+T mod 671 would be SWEET!

if that could be done, i think im sold!

[Nick's Picks]

I think the ACM is the full enchelada.  the + mod was specific for the UA5s.  I've never seen any other mod offered w/the "+" factor

[F.O.Bean]

thanks nick!

[MattinSTL]

So the question is ACM 660 or stock 671 (with the option of having mods applied later since I'll purchase it from Doug) 

[nic]

Glad to hear you were able to get your questions aswered. I have a UA-5 that I purchased stock and then had the T+ mod applied to it. The difference is quite a bit like what is heard in the 660 samples you mentioned. The sound after the mod is *much* more up front and detailed. The drop in self noise of the unit was dramatic. I could tell the difference on my first recording with the T+ just listening to crowd noise without any music. It seems  as though Doug's goals are similar with the ACM mods. A fully modded 671 is sounding better all the time...   

+T mod 671 would be SWEET!

if that could be done, i think im sold!

me too...I'm even contemplate selling the V3 for the all-in-one acm 671   

[RDunn]

Looking for the tapeless solution, but not wanting to spend the money on the SD units, and not needing the super small size of the Microtracker...... I decided on the Marantz PMD671.... At about half the price of a 722 (including 2 4gb cards and a reporter style case), I ordered one from the Oades and so far I think it's a pretty sweet recorder.   I knew going in the mic preamps sucked, but never intend to use them so that's no biggie.  I had heard the line inputs weren't great, but based on the testing I've done so far, they do seem to be as good the 16 bit gear I've used in the past (DAP1), so they should work fine as well.  It's also going to be a sweet tool for transfering the many DATs that I already have.  I haven't had a chance to use it in the field yet, but should get a chance this weekend and at next weekend's ABB show in Raleigh.  I'll keep you posted on things I find out during recording/testing.

If you have any specific questions, drop me a PM and I'll look into it for you.

RD