Anyone here insist on a external A/D with the 7xx series?
there are very few people who run an external A/D in front of a SD 7xx unit (off-hand, I can only think of one person, who runs b+k 4011 > v2 > ad2k > 722). that's mostly because once you start talking about external A/D converters, the overall size of your recording gear matters less than the sound. and once you take the nice small size of the 722 out of the equation, it just doesn't make any sense to own one if you are going to run an external A/D converter. For less than half the cost (think Tascam HD-P2 or Marantz PMD-671), there are other recorders that will take a digital input and very reliably record the files.
while I have heard many MiniMe tapes, I've never run one myself, so I won't comment on how it compares to the 722.
however, I did recently ran a comparison between the A/D in the V3 against the A/D in the 722. (see this thread:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,81297.0.html). while Bean prefers the 722 A/D over the V3 A/D (and he definitely talks it up a lot
), I'd say in general, the V3 A/D and the 722 A/D are pretty much on par with each other, with some people preferring the 722 and others the V3.
maybe someone with a V2 can run a similar comparison between the 722 A/D and the MiniMe A/D. (I say the V2 because it has two sets of analog outs - XLR and RCA. so it would be possible to run mics > V2 > 722 and V2 > MiniMe > some other recorder simultaneously. the V3 only has the XLR outs. the RCA outs were sacrificed to add the digital outputs on the V3).
so, there you have it. my advice would be to run a real comparison between the MiniMe A/D and the 722 A/D. you could probably borrow another recorder to do the comp. if you like the MiniMe better and don't need the small size of the 7xx recorders, sell the 722 and buy a tascam HD-P2. rock solid recorder and takes a digital input. if you like the 722 better, than sell the MiniMe.