Topic: Ready to buy a Hand Held Recorder - too many choices

[Gutbucket]

They sell an optional cover and tripod for the R09HR. I don't believe they did this for the r09.

They have a similar case, & probably the same tripod for the R-09.  A bit pricy though so most use a cell phone case like the $20 BodyGlove.

[spyder9]

So......Stay away from the Olympus?

http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2008/05/22/olympus-ls-10-recorder-review.html

Here is a Review: Olympus LS-10 WAV/WMA/MP3 Recorder
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2008/05/22/olympus-ls-10-recorder-review.html

Stay away from the Olympus if you intend to use it for music.  Very hissy and absolutely thin sounding. 

Plus its price of $399.00 is ridiculous.  If it was priced for $199.00, then it would be different.  Engineered  for doing interviews (ENG), capturing lectures, board meetings and such.  Capitalizing on their wildly popular cassette handheld recorders, Olympus is using its "name brand" recognition to draw in buyers.  So Buyer Beware.

The Olympus LS-10 is the weakest sounding in its market, IMO.  Makes the Zoom H2 sound like a baby SD 722 at twice the price.  Yikes!       

[aaronji]

Why don't you buy one of the following and return the ones you don't like. btw, most people would recommend the use of external mics. how much are you willing to spend of them?

edirol r-09
edirol r-09hr
Fostex FR-2L
Zoom H2
Zoom H4
Sony PCM D50
Tascam DR1
Marantz PMD 660
Marantz PMD 671

These are all portable recorders capable of your needs.

There is also the new Yamaha (don't know anything about that one) and the Marantz PMD620.  I have a 620, and like it pretty well.  Sounds good and has a nice system of pre-sets for quickly changing configuration.

For $500 I bought a lightly used Korg MR-1.  Try that route.  You can get some great deals if on ebay or on the Yard Sale. 

There is a good deal on this in the Retail Space right now too.  $200 rebate.

EDIT:  Here is the URL for that thread:  http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,104868.0.html

[flintstone]

For people other than Spyder9, the Olympus LS-10 can be regularly found for around $300.  Here's one offer I found today from an established company that is an Olympus dealer, not some "it fell off the truck" eBay deal.

http://www.royalbusiness.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=olympus+ls-10

[bilco]

The suggestions above are used by many and well tested to be quality, dependable units.  That's why you get those suggestions when you ask which is recommended.  Personally a metal case is way down on my list, far below dependability, high quality sound, ease of use, non-proprietary memory and battery power, and cost in that order.

Gutbucket, your criteria is what I am looking for, except I am adding good sounding, uncolored internal mics and a quiet mic input for using binaural mics to my list of needs.  I am looking for a recorder to be used in a house concert scenario to record singer/songwriter with small acoustic ensembles, no PA and stealth is not needed.  I am not going to mess with external preamps going into the line input.  I want to keep it simple.

In a perfect world, the recorder I get would:

*be bulletproof dependable
*provide solid, uncolored, objective recordings of bluegrass instrumentation with vocals in a living room recording situation by just mounting on a tripod and going point and shoot with the internal mics
*also provide good recordings with binaural mics plugged into the 1/8" mic input with a low noise floor
*be easy to use out of the box without a lot of functions being buried in menus and submenus
*be mountable on a camera tripod or mic stand with an adapter
*use non-proprietary batteries (This IS a deal breaker for me; give me good old AA batteries!)
*use non-proprietary memory, (this is not a deal breaker for me, but I am curious if folks have had bad experiences with proprietary memory being discontinued)

I don't care about multitrack recording or reverb or a guitar tuner. I really want the equivalent of a polaroid point and shoot stereo recorder that provides the best possible quality within the limitations of using either the internal mics or plug in power binaurals.

If the only recorder that fit this description were the Sony PCM D1, then I would be willing to go that high as far as the $.  But there is something about the samples I have heard that sounds edgy about those internal mics.  I guess I would prefer to keep this under $500 if possible, but if there were a perfect answer to my needs, I could sell some of my gear and go as high as $1,500 or $2,000 for a long term purchase goal.

I think I have narrowed it down to the Sony PCM D50, although I am not wild about the memory stick issue. 

There are so many loyal R09 users here that I am tempted to wait and here what the final verdict is on the R09HR.  I have looked at the threads, but I am not finding samples that corrolate to what I will be recording.  If this is the one to buy, please let me know why you think so and point me to some recording samples if possible.

Does anyone have any further advice/experience to offer when you look at the criteria I have listed above?

Thanks,
bilco

[Gutbucket]

You can get Chris Church's 'micscateer mod' or whatever it's called that replaces the 'ehh' internal mics with something better, but the R-09 (& HR) doesn't mount to a tripod without the Edirol case.  People seem to like the little Zoom's internal mics and because it has multiple mics in there you can choose between two different configuration angles.  It also has a camera tripod mount built-in.  I don't know how it's internal mics compare to the Sony, but people seem to like that one too for it's other aspects with the exception of the memory-stick mem.

[sunjan]

In a perfect world, the recorder I get would:

*be bulletproof dependable
*provide solid, uncolored, objective recordings of bluegrass instrumentation with vocals in a living room recording situation by just mounting on a tripod and going point and shoot with the internal mics
*also provide good recordings with binaural mics plugged into the 1/8" mic input with a low noise floor
*be easy to use out of the box without a lot of functions being buried in menus and submenus
*be mountable on a camera tripod or mic stand with an adapter
*use non-proprietary batteries (This IS a deal breaker for me; give me good old AA batteries!)
*use non-proprietary memory, (this is not a deal breaker for me, but I am curious if folks have had bad experiences with proprietary memory being discontinued)


I think I have narrowed it down to the Sony PCM D50, although I am not wild about the memory stick issue. 

For bulletproof, you should give the Marantz gear a second look, if MemoryStick puts you off. The 620 has a tripod adapter, I don't know abt the 671 etc:
http://www.wingfieldaudio.com/compare-portable-recorders.html

Regarding AA batteries: MR-1, DR-1 and MT II are out, but you probably figured that yourself...

[Kevin T]

IMHO the Zoom H2 has a big advantage if the Bluegrass bands perform in the oldschool single mic circle format. the 4mics internal mixed to 2 tracks has an quality that works well for me. Also the relatively Dark mics work well on the brite bluegrass instruments

   

[cybergaloot]

They sell an optional cover and tripod for the R09HR. I don't believe they did this for the r09.

They did offer one as an option from day one.

Zoom offers a silicon case for the H2 now. I haven't gotten one yet but it would be a wise idea if headed in that direction.

[cybergaloot]

Gutbucket, your criteria is what I am looking for, except I am adding good sounding, uncolored internal mics and a quiet mic input for using binaural mics to my list of needs.  I am looking for a recorder to be used in a house concert scenario to record singer/songwriter with small acoustic ensembles, no PA and stealth is not needed.  I am not going to mess with external preamps going into the line input.  I want to keep it simple.

You can scratch the Zoom H2 then. By almost all reports it's external mic jack sucks. It does work quite well with an external preamp like the Church-Audio CA-9000 into the line in though.

[bilco]

Thanks everyone.  I have pretty well made up my mind to get the PCM D50.  The only beef I have with it is the memory stick being proprietary.  Other than that, it seems like exactly what I am looking for.  I am going to buy from Wingfield.  She has some pretty nice packages and she wrote me a lengthy e-mail reply when I asked for her advice.  Great customer service. 

I had a Sony portable cassette deck back in 1979 that was really high quality.  It came with a strap to hang over your shoulder, but there was nothing stealthy about that rascal.  About the size of my 12" ibook, if you stacked it 3 deep.

If I ever have an extra $200 sitting around, I want to get the Zoom H2 anyway.  It seems like a fiesty little contender and there is some cool software out there for mixing its 4 channel recording down to 5.1.

Now I am just waiting on the songwriting royalties from Norway....... impatiently.......

bilco