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Gear / Technical Help => Recording Gear => Topic started by: mandoman on February 21, 2007, 01:32:50 PM

Title: Best FM recorder?
Post by: mandoman on February 21, 2007, 01:32:50 PM: Looking for a great all in one FM recorder. Requirements are:

16bit/44.1 linear pcm recording
Excellent FM reception
Small, portable, and decent battery life
Decent storage (>5gb)
Easy transfers to computer

I was thinking rockbox h120, but I've heard the FM reception is not all
that great. Suggestions welcome.

Thanks!
Mandoman
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: mandoman on February 21, 2007, 02:02:36 PM: Quote from: Moke on February 21, 2007, 01:39:15 PM
why not just go: fm walkman -> recorder of choice

I do that now. fm walkman->microtrack (previously minidisk).

However, I'm looking for a simpler all in one solution so I don't have to deal with
wires, setup, and recetion. My FM walkman doesn't get that great reception so
that'd need to be upgraded anyway, and I'll probably sell the microtrack soon for a
bigger unit with xlr ins. So I'm looking for something new and simple.

Thanks for the suggestion.
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: twatts (pants are so over-rated...) on February 21, 2007, 02:14:37 PM: FM Tuner > Line-out > Recorder

http://tinyurl.com/yrn2kv

T
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: Church-Audio on February 21, 2007, 02:19:57 PM: Quote from: mandoman on February 21, 2007, 01:32:50 PM
Looking for a great all in one FM recorder. Requirements are:

16bit/44.1 linear pcm recording
Excellent FM reception
Small, portable, and decent battery life
Decent storage (>5gb)
Easy transfers to computer

I was thinking rockbox h120, but I've heard the FM reception is not all
that great. Suggestions welcome.

Thanks!
Mandoman

What about the the Neuros does it as well but they are very hard to find.
Found one lol....
$120 bucks not bad and they make a pretty good recording device to it has a line in. I used to own one they were pretty good 48khz sampling rate.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/20-GB-GIG-NEUROS-MP3-PLAYER-RECORDER-w-128MB-Backpack_W0QQitemZ150091300761QQihZ005QQcategoryZ73839QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: mandoman on February 21, 2007, 02:52:27 PM: Neuros looks interesting. Can anyone confirm that it has good FM reception?
Doesn't look like it has an external antenna capability, but none of them do really.

So far, votes for h120 and Neuros. The question is, which has the best FM?

Thanks!
Greg
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: Church-Audio on February 21, 2007, 03:09:04 PM: Quote from: mandoman on February 21, 2007, 02:52:27 PM
Neuros looks interesting. Can anyone confirm that it has good FM reception?
Doesn't look like it has an external antenna capability, but none of them do really.

So far, votes for h120 and Neuros. The question is, which has the best FM?

Thanks!
Greg

I had one it was good I live out in Northern Ontario and it worked for me. I know that this product was tuned for the USA so I am sure it will work good for you. I believe this also has an external FM antenna jack but to be honest its been three years since I had one..

Chris Church
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: it-goes-to-eleven on February 21, 2007, 03:10:06 PM: There are fm->usb devices now.. Not sure how well they receive, etc.. But being able to set the timer on a pc, possibly remotely, would be slick.
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: mandoman on February 21, 2007, 07:03:54 PM: I don't think the neuros has an fm antenna (at least it doesn't appear to have
one from the user manual). Without more info, I'd still lean towards an h120 if
I can find one.

Too bad I don't need an fm mp3 recorder, there are tons of those.

This one looks super sexy:
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(2291)-SDMX6R-1024K-Sansa_Express_MP3_Player_1GB.aspx

Rip off of the old ipod shuffle + oled display + fm + micro-sd expansion. Supports .wav playback,
but highly doubt it will support fm .wav recording (but I'm sure it can do fm mp3 recording).
At a mere $60, might be worth trying, if for nothing else, to have a sexy mp3 player for the gym.
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: mandoman on March 02, 2007, 01:30:49 PM: So I secured myself an ihp-120 and rockboxed it.
Nice unit, and I can play my flac's and shn's to boot!

Anyhow, the surprising thing is, the line out jack doubles as a 2nd headphone jack.
That means there is a possibility of rewiring the primary headphone jack as a dedicated
fm antenna and use the line out jack for monitoring.
It could be as simple as stripping a 3.5mm cord and attaching it's
ground wire to an antenna (which I tried already with moderate success) or may need
to get a little more complicated with some sort of impedance matching network.

I'll experiment and see what works best.

Thanks for the tips!
Mandoman
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: thclevel on April 14, 2007, 08:57:23 AM: I just got a H320 that I would like to add an antenna too. Have you made much process in your experimenting with your H120?
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: petur on April 14, 2007, 09:45:29 AM: Quote from: mandoman on March 02, 2007, 01:30:49 PM
Anyhow, the surprising thing is, the line out jack doubles as a 2nd headphone jack.
ehhhmmm... NOT.

Line-out is what it says, line-out. The iriver H1x0/H3x0 use the UDA1380TT chip for audio output.
It has two outputs:
- headphone-out, connected internally to a headphone-amp, short-circuit protected and all.
- line-out, connected internally just before the headphone-amp

In practice this means that using the line-out to drive headphones *may* kill the audio chip, which will also make sure the headphone-out is silent. Reports have been posted on MR about dead audio chips due to attaching two headphones to the iriver.

So while it works for you, know that you've been warned...
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: mandoman on April 15, 2007, 01:47:47 PM: Thanks for the warning. I won't leave the headphones connected to the line in for long
periods of time, just to get the recording started.
Title: Re: Best FM recorder?
Post by: knoxmallette on April 26, 2007, 01:06:03 PM: I use the headphones that came with my h120 (sennheiser). Since the headphones double as the antenna, the vendor supplied ones may work best. I have recorded several of the Who shows on sirius by dialing my h120 into the channel used by my car unit's built in modulator and the results are really good.