Topic: All In One Using Internal Mics: PCM D1 or PCM D50

[bilco]

I am seeking advice from those of you who have actually used both of these.  If any of you (like Guysonic) have benchtested both of these units and can offer input, I would really appreciate it.

I am going with Sony.  I have read enough to know that both of these are well built machines that will last.  I have owned a portable high end Sony cassette recorder back in the early 80s and it was a great machine. 

No stealth, no preamp in, maybe binaural mics plugged straight in eventually, but for now I want to go with internal mics only.  Living room or church or hall recording of acoustic musicians in a sem-circle singing and playing straight to a stereo wave file.  Point and shoot, maybe 24/96 to be dithered and mastered down to 16/44.1 for CD.

At this point in my life, I don't want to mess with plugging great external mics into great preamps into recorders.  I have a bunch of Pro Tools LE and external accessories multitrack gear like that that I am not using and will probably sell.  At 53, what I value most of all now is the best quality I can get and simplicity.  Overdubbing, editing, mixing and mastering is just more time consuming than I am willing for it to be.  I want the audio equivalent of an excellent Polaroid Land camera.  Point, shoot, high quality.  What you aim it at is what you hear.

So, pretending that money is no object, (although the D1 is pretty pricey,) if you had to pick one of these machines to do what I am wanting to do, which one would it be and why?  Any personal experience or stats comparing the preamps, mics and ease of use of these would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
bilco

[flintstone]

Here are some sound samples of recorders with built-in mics
http://www.wingfieldaudio.com/portable-recorder-sound-samples.html

Flintstone

[shaggy]

The D1 is a work of art.  The built in mics are very nice indeed!  I think the D50 is worthwhile but may not be in the same league as the D1 as far as the internal mics (noise and transient/spatial detail).  The only advantage that the D50 has over the D1 is the fact that it has a digital in (optical).  But since you are after an all-in-one and do not want to mess with an external mic pre or external A/D, the D1 is the better choice for your requirements (no stealth, ease of use, no extra bits and pieces to connect or lug around, just point and shoot, price no object).

[bilco]

Thanks guys

[WiFiJeff]

The only advantage that the D50 has over the D1 is the fact that it has a digital in (optical). 

The D50 has at least three other advantages.  It has a much longer battery life, it is much smaller and
lighter, and it seems to be able to use ordinary pro duo memory sticks with bigger capacity (in spite of
warnings to the contrary).  The built in mics are clearly worse than the D1's, but I haven't seen any
good comparison of the line-in electronics and A/D, which is what matters to me.  I am in the middle
of testing a Sony 16GB pro duo "mark2" card in it, it seems to be recording alright and making new files
every 2GB or so.  I this works, it will run untended at 24/96 for 8 hours or so, a huge advantage.

Jeff

[Belexes]

An obvious D-50 advantage is price. Never owned the D1, but really like the D50.

[WiFiJeff]

A quick follow-up.  The 16GB pro duo "Mark2" card ran fine in the D50, seemingly stable (ie I could divide files on the run and it kept recording, got a full 7 hours 51 minutes).  Start up a bit slow for the "accessing memory" step.  On the D1 this card showed only 1 hour 38 minutes available space (an 8GB card showed around 1 hour 45 minutes if I recall correctly) and start-up was even slower.  So for now the D50 has the longest autonomous run time at 24/96 of any pocket recorder (my Sonosax MiniR82 gets under 5 hours from internal batteries; and the D1 lasts only about 6 hours on internals, so even with a pro-HG duo 16GB card, if those ever are available, it will be power limited).  This is not usually a big deal, but once in a while is an issue for me.

Jeff

[bilco]

I just bought the PCM-D50 "kit" from Wingfield Audio.  I like buying from any company that competes with GC and when I called sales to ask a few more questions, she personally took the call.  I love that kind of customer service and it is getting harder to find.

That is good to know that the 16GB pro duo "Mark2" card will work with the D50.  I am really looking forward to the simplicity of a high quality point and shoot recorder.  I sold my RNP preamp the other day and I may sell my Digi 002 Rack along with some other gear as well.

I am sure I will be back with more questions once I start using the Sony.

Thanks again everyone,
Bill

[digifish_music]

Here are some sound samples of recorders with built-in mics
http://www.wingfieldaudio.com/portable-recorder-sound-samples.html

Flintstone

Nice find, the D1 mics certainly have a real 'condenser' sound about them, lost of transient detail.

digifish

[mattrix]

Here are two files form The Cure show I was at Friday the 13th in Fort Lauderdale, they we recorded handheld with internal mics on a PCM-D50 (by accident - long story). 44/16 converted to MP3 with Audacity

The direct download link is: http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/ptt8m7
The download page link is: http://www.sendspace.com/pro/ptt8m7