Hi all. My first post!
I took delivery of my MixPre 6 last Friday. I shoved in four AA batteries and started exploring. I quickly became concerned at the rapid decline in the battery indicator so I've done some tests. My findings and some other observations are below. All settings were in advanced mode.
BATTERY TIMES
All these tests are using tracks 1 and 2 to record the input from a stereo microphone.
TEST ONE
Maplin Extra Long Life Alkaline Batteries - 4 new batteries used.
MP6 set up for MS Stereo on inputs 1 and 2 with phantom power to a Pearl MSH 10 microphone.
All recording was at 24/96.
I pointed the microphone at a radio and monitored on headphones
The red battery warning started flashing after 15 minutes.
About 6 minutes afterwards there was a warning message to expect automatic shutdown soon, and there was an intermittent bleep on headphone but not recorded on the track (like the SD702).
About 4 minutes later the MP6 shut itself down.
A valid file was recorded on the card about the same length as the recording time.
Total recording time: 25 minutes
TEST TWO
Using 4 newly purchased Duracell Plus Power AA batteries
Same set up as above but without headphones and with Bluetooth switched off
Total recording time: just over 33 minutes
TEST THREE
Same set up as above (Duracells)
but with both brightness settings turned down to 2
Total recording time: 37 minutes
TEST FOUR
Rechargeable Duracells 2500mAh
4 freshly recharged batteries
Total recording time: 73 minutes with red battery warning about 65 minutes
TEST FIVE
As above but set up changed to record stereo via a Sanken CSS5
Total recording time: 76 minutes, so no significant difference.
Other power sources tried out
[UK] mains plug with three USB outputs, using supplied MX-USBY cable
No problems
Maplin 12000mA Power Bank with 2 USB outputs 2.1A and 2.4A
Fully charged
Connected via supplied MX-USBY cable
Seems to work OK. I did a trial recording and after just over 2 hours the battery indicator was still on full. Didn't continue to discover maximum time.
SD CARDS
Some people have been reporting problems with some SD cards.
My experience is that sizes up to 32GB seem to work well.
Sizes over 32GB may result in the MP6 hanging with the green channel lights flashing intermittently on and off.
There may be a work around.
1. Start the MP6 with the battery sled removed and with no card inserted. You'll need to use a USB power source to do this.
2. After the MP has started insert the SD card.
The card should now be recognised, and you can replace the battery sled.
I have tried and used a 64GB Lexar (150 MB/s), a 64GB SanDisk Extreme, and 256GB SanDisk Extreme PRO - and all worked when loaded like this.
You may have to repeat the above loading procedure each time you reuse the card. I understand the people at Sound Devices are working on a fix.
The above is now redundant if you upgrade to firmware v. 1.01. Well done, Sound Devices!
The MP6 is very fast at reporting the remaining recording space available on a card. Formatting is also very fast.
Files are stored in date named folders. I just noticed today that I couldn't see the details of the files I recorded yesterday when using the MP6 today. This may be a bug (or a feature). The files are still there and can be accessed via a computer. But it looks as though you can't access them or delete them on the MP6. Perhaps someone could look at this and confirm this.
RECORDING LEVELS
Lots of people were worried about whether or not they would be able to set the gain level for individual channels. In fact this is easy to do via each channel's menu. The default is 6dB and you can change it using the up and down arrows on the screen when you press the channel dial in and tap on the visual gain icon.
HOWEVER, if you turn off the MP6 the channel gain levels will all default to 6dB. You can get round this by storing your settings as a preset. However, you will have to reload your preset every time you turn on the MP6. I can see this being a potential problem for me when I record at long events when I often switch my recorder on and off to conserve battery power.
The fader levels for each channel are set using the channel knobs. They are not stored with presets and are maintained and defined by the position of the dot on the channel knob. Fader levels are maintained if the MP6 is switched off and on.
Otherwise everything people are saying about the MP6 is true. It is easy to operate and sounds great. The headphone output is the best I've heard on a portable recorder (better than the Marantz 661 mk ii, the Tascam DR-100 mk iii, and the Sound Devices 702).
I doubt I would have any quibbles about the AA battery issues if the MX-L Mount had been available to buy along with the MP6. However, here in the UK they are not yet available. From my experience with the 702 it is the obvious way to benefit from extended recording times in the field.
I hope this is of some help to people.