Topic: Internal noise of HDD-based recorders: let's compare!

[Toki]

I have been doing a record in local philarmony yesterday, sitting very far from performers, and was trying to estimate the sensitivity of my recording system. My equipment was RODE Stereo Videomic attached directly to the line input of rockboxed Cowon iAudio X5 player. Recording was done in pcm wav 44k. I had to use maximum gain (+12db) on player since the sound was silent and no preamp was used. Listening to the results I found that the biggest problem of the record was HDD spinning noise. I tried to deattach the mic, but the noise remained in the records - thus it is not a noise picked up by the mic from player "from the air" but internal noise. It was possible to make this sound almost unnoticeable only when I lowered gain to about -7db.

So I have few questions:

1) is it a normal having such noise for all players of this type?
2) if it is a common problem of all HDD players? And if it is,
3) can we make a comparison test of a noise level of hdd-based recorders with gain set to a high level and wit/without mic?

Here are my samples:

HDD noise with +12db gain, amplified in post:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5fxb2xuxdb3

Original file of the same sample:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2jcm9wbt4yx

A sample of very silent vocal music with HDD noise:
http://www.mediafire.com/?a6c5yzhmd9x

(all samples are about 3mb wav files)

And the noise specter viewed in adobe audition:

[Roving Sign]

A lot of us that use these devices use outboard preamps and A/D converters - and thus negate this issue partially or completely.

Using onboard gain is generally the culprit...and is typically avoided.

Another factor is the HD itself - not every Nomad 3 has the exact same HD in it - more or less - but not the same...Some have reported HD sounds - others swear they dont hear a thing.

[nihilistic0]

I use a JB3

Looking at frequency response while playing my recordings, I can see intermittent noise up around 19kHz+, but I can't hear it