Topic: Marantz PMD 671 announced (on Oade)

[MattinSTL]

I wonder what would happen when the 671 is pumping 48v into the transmitter... rather then simply giving it a signal?

[F.O.Bean]

I wonder what would happen when the 671 is pumping 48v into the transmitter... rather then simply giving it a signal?

what? just split the mic sugnal so one pair goes into the 671 and is powered w/ phantom, and the other pair of signals goes into your transmitter

or simply run the mics>671 w/ 48v on and run rca's out of the 671

[Nick's Picks]

i've never heard the miniMP, so I can't comment.

[MattinSTL]

Does anyone know what the line-out situation becomes after the mod? I'm guessing that with a larger box you don't lose the line out like in the 660 right?

[d5]

Does anyone know what the line-out situation becomes after the mod? I'm guessing that with a larger box you don't lose the line out like in the 660 right?

Can't speak for 671, but with the ACM 660 you lose the line-in, not the line-out. Speaking with Doug, this was due to the menu based switching mechanism in the 660, not due to the size. It looks like the input selection on the 671 is also software based, so it may have the same issues for the mod.

[RDunn]

Got to put my new 671 to use last night at the Allman Brothers Band show in Raleigh, NC.  Ran Schoeps MK4 > Lunatec V3 > Marantz PMD 671 at 24/48 from 10th row dead center.  The deck worked great and was so easy to use.  And to make it even better, this is probably the best ABB recording I've made in my many years of recording them.  Must be the 24 bits as the recording is incredibly dynamic.  Crank it up and it sounds like you're there.

[Nick's Picks]

nice!  +T

[F.O.Bean]

damn, i think i want one of these instead of the MT

any bugs i should know about? im pretty sure they were all corrected but just wondering

[Nick's Picks]

nothing i'm aware of

[MattinSTL]

RDunn... this is still the bone stock machine we talked about before right?

I finally got my 671. I'm just using this for location sound (dialog for video)... my setup is 480b/ck63>fp24>671 running 24/96.

While I'm really happy with it I'm not 100% happy. I'm surprised that I can still hear some low level hiss with this setup.

Try taking your machine into a quiet room or studio and crank that rig up... get your phones up too. What do you think? Is this still considered to be really quiet on hiss? I don't know why Doug took two of his recordings down... but he had one of the pmd660 with no mic and gain maxxed... the clip went ACM, Basic, and Stock... and you could clearly here the hiss come in just a tiny bit on the first jump... and lots when it went to stock. What I'm hearing isn't as bad as the stock 660... but it's more then I expected.

I definitely got the feeling I should have just got a modded 671 from Doug in the first place.

Also I should add that in this machine I'm surprised that running it line-in with the FP24 doesn't make more of an improvement... it's better, but it's not even as dramatic as the difference in Doug's ACM versus stock 660.

I know I have a lot of points going in this post... but I really feel any comments you could make would be very helpful to people trying to decide on a 671... and the ACM 671 from Doug.

[Chuck]

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

Today, the price is back to $749 

[RDunn]

I bought the stock machine because I wanted to test it to see if I wanted/needed the mods, plus the mods aren't available yet.

I'm not familiar with the fp24 and in most cases I'll be using the SPDIF input from a Lunatec V3....... but I just did a test of the analog inputs to check for excessive noise and here's what I found.....  First I took the analog outputs from my Linn Mimik cd player and ran those into the analog inputs of the 671.  I put in a cd and set the levels on the 671 so it would be peaking near 0 (which was at 3 out of 10 on the input knob).  I recorded about a minute of this and then paused the cd player while continuing to record on the 671.  I then increased the record level one number every 10 seconds, while continuing to record silence, until I maxed out input record level at 10.  I then played back the recording on the Marantz and there was no noticeable increase in noise at any point in the recording..... it actually stayed very quiet.  I then copied the file to my PC using a PC card reader and opened the file in Sound Forge 6.0.  Looking at the wav file, you see the initial signal I recorded and from the point I stopped the playback cd, the wav file flat lines and remains quiet.  I don't know how scientific this test is, but I definitely didn't hear or see evidence of noise through the analog inputs.

Hope that helps....

RDunn... this is still the bone stock machine we talked about before right?

I finally got my 671. I'm just using this for location sound (dialog for video)... my setup is 480b/ck63>fp24>671 running 24/96.

While I'm really happy with it I'm not 100% happy. I'm surprised that I can still hear some low level hiss with this setup.

Try taking your machine into a quiet room or studio and crank that rig up... get your phones up too. What do you think? Is this still considered to be really quiet on hiss? I don't know why Doug took two of his recordings down... but he had one of the pmd660 with no mic and gain maxxed... the clip went ACM, Basic, and Stock... and you could clearly here the hiss come in just a tiny bit on the first jump... and lots when it went to stock. What I'm hearing isn't as bad as the stock 660... but it's more then I expected.

I definitely got the feeling I should have just got a modded 671 from Doug in the first place.

Also I should add that in this machine I'm surprised that running it line-in with the FP24 doesn't make more of an improvement... it's better, but it's not even as dramatic as the difference in Doug's ACM versus stock 660.

I know I have a lot of points going in this post... but I really feel any comments you could make would be very helpful to people trying to decide on a 671... and the ACM 671 from Doug.

[MattinSTL]

RDunn... thank you very much... yes you have put my mind at ease... I just got this thing yesterday and haven't had much chance to play with it so I'm guessing this is operator error.

Actually I've been REALLY surprised at how good even the mic-in sounds... yes it is a little hissy... you music afficianados will surely NEED the ACM mod... but for what I was used to this sounds really really good. The only issue that's still haunting me is the one I started a new thread for... and since I see that you (RDunn) also use Sound Forge 6 there is no reason why I shouldn't be able to easily get the 24/96 files into that app.

BTW are you just piping the files through USB or do you put the CF card in a reader to get your files in? WinXP doesn't want to recognize the 671... how did you get around that?

[d5]

I definitely got the feeling I should have just got a modded 671 from Doug in the first place.

I didn't think the ACM 671 was available yet, but if you bought the stock 671 from him, then he'll mod it later. Seems like the low risk way to go.

[RDunn]

BTW are you just piping the files through USB or do you put the CF card in a reader to get your files in? WinXP doesn't want to recognize the 671... how did you get around that?

I've actually done both, but normally just use the card reader.  I also run Windows XP and it recognizes the 671 just fine..... although it's not as simple as plug and play to get it to work.  You have to conect the 671 to the computer via the USB2 connection.... then power off the 671.... press and hold the USB MENU/STORE button while you slide the POWER switch to the right.  The display on the Marantz should then read USB Online.