Topic: Marantz PMD 671 announced (on Oade)

[Nick's Picks]

disagree!!
the preamp section on the 660/671 will rival any outboard preamp.

 

damn' straight!
it will.

[Nick's Picks]

and...
its too small for my gear bag.  I'll have to get a camcorder case for it.
little bitt neumanns...small cables...small single deck (small to me).  its like a dream..
:-)

plus, lets not discount the fact that there are no moving parts in this deck.
reliability should not be an issue...assuming all the lights work, there is nothing else to go wrong.

[John Kelly]

there is nothing else to go wrong.

Famous last words.

[Nick's Picks]

well, then just call me Custer.

[Nick's Picks]

fuck portable DSD.
someone needs to provide a way to duplicate the masters and be able to listen to them easily.
then i'm on board.

[nic]

this is a email question/answer I received from oade yesterday regarding the ACM 671.

will the ACM mod disable any of the inputs like previous mods to other units?

oade>> yes

after mod, would the xlr inputs still be able to take a pro level sbd feed?

oade>> (no answer)
^^I wish he had been a little specific as to which inputs would be disabled. 

I would be using one primarily with the AKG c414b-XLS as a stand-alone
pre/adc/recorder. I am looking for something that would be relatively transparent.
in looking through the brief synapsis of the mods, none say if they are
warm, transparent, etc...

oade>> yes, it is a 24/96 version of the adv concert mod for the 660. it is a transparent MOD style design
^^exactly what I wanted to hear! 

as for powering, I have heard that it will run on a 12V SLA.
is there a cable for this or would the stock AC power cable have to be
hacked to support both ac or sla?

oade>> We do not supply the battery or the cable but the DC plug is easy to come by.
^^again, specifics would have been helpful. guess I didnt word the question correctly.


still looks like a great unit once the ACM mod is complete, but (imo) I would like to still have a functional xlr line input...

[Brian Skalinder]

after mod, would the xlr inputs still be able to take a pro level sbd feed?

oade>> (no answer)
^^I wish he had been a little specific as to which inputs would be disabled. 

as for powering, I have heard that it will run on a 12V SLA.
is there a cable for this or would the stock AC power cable have to be
hacked to support both ac or sla?

oade>> We do not supply the battery or the cable but the DC plug is easy to come by.
^^again, specifics would have been helpful. guess I didnt word the question correctly.

I'd try again, with more specific questions.  If in a rush, it's easy to forget details like the above unless someone asks very specific questions.

[Nick's Picks]

i hear ya.  dsd is the best thing since R2R.


but its just not a workable solution for me.

[Brian Skalinder]

Discwelder Bronze will be cheaper quickly, and can convert dsd to dvd-a for a "digital resampling".

Ahhh...interesting, I did not know DWB could do such a thing!

And with a high-res pcm recorder like this marantz, or the 722, the 24/96 let-downs of the dsd stream are going to be breathtaking, regardless of the slight analog blip in the lineage. The dsd signal stream is just so fat, that the downstream version is gonna be plump full as well.

So, what noise-shaping does the analog > DSD conversion, or DSD > analog conversion employ?  I feel like it's gotta perform noise shaping of some kind, else it wouldn't sound better (as several have claimed) than a pure analog > 24/96.  It doesn't get any fatter than pure analog feeding the 24/96 ADC.  Now maybe the "bypass analog gain" thingie (Mr. Technology, here!) makes a difference, but I gotta learn more about that.

[zowie]

disagree!!
the preamp section on the 660/671 will rival any outboard preamp.

 

damn' straight!
it will.

Hope so.  ACM 671 + media will probably cost a bit more than an R-4.   Those preamps will have to be awfully good to justify giving up the hard drive storage capacity and two extra tracks.

[zowie]

I see that Doug has lowered the price of the ACM 660 to $709 FROM $749 about a week ago.
http://www.oade.com/digital_recorders/hard_disc_recorders/PMD-660MODS.html

hmm, are you sure about this Chuck?  i've always had the $709 figure in my mind for the ACM 660.  actually, i'm pretty sure i have an email from Doug back in August about just this, and i believe he wrote $709.  i don't have it with me now (it's at work), but i'll check tomorrow. 

either way, +t for all the info you've been providing us!

Well, I don't have a screen shot, but I do have a file on this with the price as $749 plus $15 shipping.
Either way, it's a good deal.

I guess the question is...
Is the ACM PCM 671 worth the $449 difference, if the ACM PMD 671 goes for $1150? (the price is estimated, based on what I've seen and heard from Doug and others)

I remember the price being $749 for the ACM mod also

And so it is again.   

[TenoRichards]

disagree!!
the preamp section on the 660/671 will rival any outboard preamp.

 

damn' straight!
it will.

Hope so.  ACM 671 + media will probably cost a bit more than an R-4.   Those preamps will have to be awfully good to justify giving up the hard drive storage capacity and two extra tracks.

fuckin' A. Color me STOKED. I can't WAIT for Doug to get modding this thing, then.!

Uh, Moke....+t to you for usage of "fat" and "plump" all in the same post. Talkin about this 671 is making ME fat and plump, if ya get's my drift....

[Nick's Picks]

ewe..

for pure sonics, I dont think the R4 will come anywhere near the ACM671.  not within a mile.
the analog section of the R4 is decent, at best. 
the ACM 660 *fucking smokes it*.  so I expect the 671 w/its 24bit res to be even better.

[MattinSTL]

Wow... the latest member is the President!

Nick... could you venture an educated guess as to which would sound better?

The 671 stock with a MixPre... or the 671 with the ACM mod? I kind of need the MixPre for other stuff that applies to audio for video (like splitting the mic to a wireless and recorder simultaneously) and I'm hoping that the 671 fed line-in by a MixPre won't be too far off a modded 671 fed mic-in.

Would you mind giving me some input on that?

As I already stated the safe advice is to buy from Doug no matter what... 'cause then the mods are an option! But in my case, figuring in that I want to run line-in with a split to wireless... what do you think?

[F.O.Bean]

Wow... the latest member is the President!

Nick... could you venture an educated guess as to which would sound better?

The 671 stock with a MixPre... or the 671 with the ACM mod? I kind of need the MixPre for other stuff that applies to audio for video (like splitting the mic to a wireless and recorder simultaneously) and I'm hoping that the 671 fed line-in by a MixPre won't be too far off a modded 671 fed mic-in.

Would you mind giving me some input on that?

As I already stated the safe advice is to buy from Doug no matter what... 'cause then the mods are an option! But in my case, figuring in that I want to run line-in with a split to wireless... what do you think?

get the ACM 671 and get a pair of HQ XLR splitters and split the mic signal