Topic: iRiver sound quality question

[madman]

I still haven't replaced my minidisc setup since it died a few months ago.  I've been looking at the PMD-620, but I've been thinking about picking up one of the iRiver H120s and using that for awhile (and likely doing a CF mod).  I read the FAQ and it says the sound quality is comparable to DAT recorders, but I wanted to know what people here think.  Any input is appreciated, thanks.

[blastroknow]

Sound quality is fine and I would say it sounds similar to my old D8 input.  My SBM-1 input and A>D sounds tighter than the iRiver but not enough to outweigh the advantages of the safety clip feature in Rockbox and the ultra easy process of recording with a Rockboxed iRiver.  IMO the iRiver h120 is just a kick ass little gadget and you have the chance to buy one of those new old stock iHP120s right now.  The Marantz will only be cheaper later on but it sure looks cool and I think I will hunt down some recordings using it.

[rastasean]

I just became the proud owner of a iriver h120 rockboxed unit myself. 
Thank you very much, thank you.  and thank you Flintstone.

If you're going to get an h120, do yourself a favor and pickup a pre amp/battery box as well since the preamps in the unit aren't that great (such as many recorders) and most mics used with it probably can't power it well enough. I must say that the rockbox community is wonderful and if you ever have questions about any features of the RockBox, you can hop on the IRC and they will help you out. I originally started "taping" (not music by any means) on a minidisc recorder so coming from that to this is highly customizable, like the fonts, how long the blacklight stays on, how long of a pre-record buffer to have, etc.
Pick one up, you won't be let down.

[madman]

I use DPA4061s w/batt box which were enough to drive both of my MD units via line-in (I tape very loud shows in very small venues), but I also have a DPA pre.  I'll probably pick one of the iRivers up on EBay and use that until I decide if I need a PMD620 or not.  I appreciate the input.

[dano420]

I love the rockboxed irivers so much that I bought two, one for mic'ing and one for soundboard input. I can then mix down the two recordings into one very nice recording at a cheap price! And the footprint is small! Not to mention that they will also play back flac and shn files. You can't go wrong!

[Will_S]

In a pinch I find that the iRiver can power a pair of 4.7k modded AT853 mics just fine (no battery box), and the built-in premp is decent enough for moderately loud rock shows.  I dunno, heavy metal might lead to overload distortion and it's too noisy for acoustic performances, but for a lot of music it seems to perform pretty comparably to an R09.  Compare the first and second sets of this show, all that was changed was the recorder:

http://www.archive.org/details/gat2007-12-05.at853uec.flac16f